Nero - tells of his experience in the hells and how his soulmate helped him progress

January 16th, 1917

Received by James Padgett

Washington D.C.

I am here, the spirit of one who lived on earth the life of a wicked man, and a persecutor of the Christians, and a blasphemer of God and everything that was pure and holy; and when I had lived the life to its end and shuffled off the mortal coil and became a spirit, I also became a dweller in the lowest hells where all is darkness and torment, and the abode of devils and everything that tends to make the spirit unhappy and at variance with the loving God. 

I introduce myself in this way in order to demonstrate to you the wonderful power of the Divine Love, for now I am an inhabitant of the Celestial Spheres, and know that this Love is not only real, but is capable of making the vilest sinner a partaker and owner of the Divine Essence of the Father. 

My sufferings were beyond all description and I was the most desecrated of mortals, and was almost worshipped by the devils of hell because of the great injury that I had done to the followers of Jesus, who, in my time, were possessed of this Love and faith, which even the terrors of the wild beasts of the arena, or the torches of my own evil designs could not cause them to renounce - in this great religion that the Master had taught them, and the disciples were still teaching when I put so many of them to death. 

The devils loved me for the very evil that I had done, but strange to say the spirits of those who I had sent unto the spirit world before their time were not revengeful to me, or came to me with their imprecations or cursings. Then when I had been in the spirit world a sufficient time to realize my surroundings and the nature of these evils, these spirits of the martyrs, which I had made, came to me in sympathy and pity, and in fact, tried many times to help me out of my great sufferings and darkness.

I did not understand all this unexpected kindness and evidence of love, and I would not for a long time believe that these spirits were sincere; and so I suffered for year after year, and century after century, and became convinced that my condition was fixed, and that for me there was no hope, and that the God that I had heard of was not my God, and that devils were the only companions that I was destined to have through all eternity. 

And so I endured, wishing to die, but I could not.

Oh, I tell you it was horrible and beyond all conception of mortals! The law was working and I was paying the penalty, and there seemed no end to the penalty.

I could find no consolation among those who surrounded me, and the pleasures that I first enjoyed, became to me mere things of mockery and derision, and my darkness and torment became the greater.

How often I called upon God, if there be a God, to strike me dead, but the only answer to my call was the laughter of the grinning devils, who told me to shout louder as God might be asleep, and may be deaf. 

What to do, I knew not, and so I became isolated as best I could from these terrible associates, and many years of my living were spent in the darkness of lonesomeness with never a ray of hope, or the whisper of one word to tell me, that for me there might be a fairer destiny. 

And so time went by and I waited in my misery for some kind power to come and annihilate me, but I waited in vain. During all this time the recollections of my earthly deeds were like hot irons scorching my soul, and burning my body, as I thought, and the end came not. 

Well, I suffered the tortures of the damned, and it seemed to me that I was paying the penalties for all the sins and evil deeds that had ever been committed by all the wicked kings and rulers and persecutors of earth.

Many times the shrieks of the Christian children and the groans of the men and women as they were being torn asunder from limb to limb, or burned as living torches which I had made of them, came to me and increased my torment. 

I lived the life of centuries of torment in a few moments, as it seemed to me, and not one cooling drop of water was mine.

It may seem impossible that I should have continued to live in this ever increasing suffering, but I did, because I was compelled to. 

The law did its work and there was no one to say "enough". I might write a volume on this suffering of mine, and yet you would not comprehend its meaning, and so I will pass it by. 

In my loneliness and suffering there came to me on an occasion, a beautiful spirit, full of light and love, and all the beauty of early womanhood, as I thought, and with eyes of pity and longing, and said,

 "You are not alone, only open your eyes and you will see the star of hope, which is the sign of the Father's Love and desire to help you. I am a child of that Father and the possessor of His great enveloping Love, and I love you, even though you took from me my young life when you threw me to the wild beasts to satisfy your desire to gratify your thirst for innocent blood, and see the suffering and hear the groans of your victims, yet, I love you, not because I am a human with a kindly nature and a forgiving disposition, but because I have in me this Divine Love of the Father which tells me that I am your sister, and that you are a child of the Father, just as I am, and the object of His Love just as I was the object of His Love.


You have suffered, and while you suffered, His great Love went out to you in sympathy and desire to help you, but you, yourself, prevented it from coming to you and leading you to light and surcease from sufferings. And now I come to you, your young and innocent victim, who had never done you any greater harm on earth than to pray for you, and ask the heavenly Father to take away from your heart, the great wickedness that caused so many of my people to suffer persecution and death. 

We all prayed for you and never asked our Father to curse you, or do anything to you to make you suffer. And we have prayed for you often since we came to the spirit world, and we are now praying for you, and this because we love you and want you to be happy.

Look into my eyes and you will see that love is there, and what I tell you is true. And now, can you not love us a little and open up your soul to our sympathy, and let your feelings of gloom and despondency leave you for a moment, and realize that in this world of spirits there are some who love you?" 

Well, to say that I was surprised, does not express my feelings, and as I looked into the lovelit eyes of that beautiful spirit, I felt the great sins of my earth life overwhelm me, and in my anguish, I cried, "God be merciful to me, the greatest of sinners," and for the first time in all my life in the hells, tears came to my eyes, and my heart seemed to have a sense of living; and there came to me feelings of remorse and regret for all the evils that I had done. 

It would take too long to tell what followed this breaking up of my soul, all shriveled and dead, and suffice it to say that from that time, I commenced to have hope come to me, and to get out of my awful condition of darkness.

It took a long time, but at last, I got into the light, and this Love which the beautiful spirit first told me of gradually came into my soul, until, at last, I reached the condition of bliss in which I now am. 

And during all the time of my progress, this radiant loving spirit came to me very often with her words of love and encouragement, and prayed for me, and never left me when I became, as I did at times, doubtful and discouraged.

And as my awakening continued, the Love came into my soul, and as she told me of the heavenly things that would be mine as I progressed and reached the soul spheres, where beautiful homes and pure bright spirits are, I became more and more bound by my love to her. 

After a while I got into the third sphere, and realized that what she had told me was true, only I had not been able to comprehend the greatness of the truth. 

She then commenced to tell me of the happiness of the beautiful spirits of the two sexes, that I so often saw together, and explained that they were soulmates, and that their love was the greatest of all the loves except the Divine Love, and that every spirit in all the spheres had its soulmate, and at the proper time would find it. 

My love for this loving spirit had then become so intense that in the very depths of my soul, I wished and prayed that my soulmate might be such a one as she; and, at last, I became so filled with my love for her, that I told her that the only thing in all the heavens that I needed to make full my happiness was she as my soulmate, but that I realized that that desire was hopeless as I had destroyed her life, and of course she could not be my soulmate. And oh, how I suffered when I realized that she could not be mine, but was another's. 

As I told her of these longings and hopeless feelings of my soul, she came close to me and looked into my eyes with such burning love, and threw her arms around me, and said, 

"I am your soulmate, and knew the fact a short time after you came to the spirit world and entered your hells of darkness, and during all the long years I prayed and prayed for the time to come when I could go to you with my love and awaken in your dead soul the response to my great love. And when the time came that I could go, I was so thankful to the Father, that I almost flew to you, with some dread of disappointment I confess, to tell you that you were not neglected or unthought of, but that there was some love in the spirit world that was going to you. Of course, I could not tell you of my soulmate love, for you would not then have understood, but as your soul awakened and the Love of the Father came to you, I became happier and happier, and have waited so anxiously for this moment, when I could tell you that this love that had been consciously mine for so long, is all yours." 

Well, I will draw the veil here, but you can imagine what my happiness was, and as I progressed from sphere to sphere, my happiness and love for her increased and increased. 

Thus I have told you the story of the life in the spirit world of the wickedest man that God ever permitted to live and gratify his feelings of hatred and revenge. 

And I, who have passed through this experience, and realized all that it means, say, that the Divine Love of the Father is able to and does save the vilest sinner, and transforms the chiefest of devils into a Celestial Angel of His highest spheres. 

I have written long and you are tired. I thank you, and will say good night, and subscribe myself. 

Your brother in Christ, 

 Nero

Creation of the First Parents

I am here, Josephus.

I come tonight to write a few lines upon a subject in which you may be interested as I have observed that recently you have been reading my History of the Jews, and there are some things in that book which require correction. 

I don't mean that I desire to correct the whole book, but I do want to say something on some of the subjects that you have been reading about.

Well, you will notice that I attempted to tell of the creation of the world and of man, and that what I said was taken from the Old Testament, and that I elaborated a little upon what is contained in Genesis.

My work was not taken entirely from the Old Testament for in my time on earth there were other books dealing with this subject that were entitled to just as much credence as was the Old Testament, and from these books I obtained much information that is contained in my writings.

But the truth of the things which I wrote, I find now to be not the truth in many particulars, and should not be accepted as such. 

The description of the creation of man is not in accordance with the facts, and the story as related in the Old Testament, and by me, is not the true story of the facts of such creation.

I have not the time now to enter in detail, into a correction of the errors contained in these descriptions, except that I wish to say a few words as to the creation of man and also his fall.

He was not made of the dust of the ground, but was made of the elements that existed in the universe of a different order from the mere dust of the ground, and was so created by God for the purpose of forming the mere physical body of man. 

The two persons called our first parents, were created at the same time, and not one out of the rib of the other. Therefore, the man and the woman are equal in their dignity, and in the relationship which they bear to God, and the one is of just as much importance in the sight of God as is the other. 

One was created stronger, physically, than the other, and also was given a stronger mentality, for the exercise of the reasoning powers, and the workings of the physical organs of the body. And the other, while weaker in these particulars, yet was given more of the spiritual and emotional nature and also, an intuition by which she could understand the existence of things just as accurately and more quickly than could the man by the exercise of his reasoning power. 

One was just as the other as respects the gifts bestowed, and together, they were the perfect pair,--male and female were they created with divers functions and duties to perform in the perfect workings of the laws of God.

Power and love were theirs, and neither was made the superior of the other, nor was the one to be subject to the other, and had it not been for their fall there never would have been the subjection of the female to the male.

When the disobedience took place and the consequent fall, the qualities of the spiritual were taken from them to a large extent, and the animal qualities, as they may be called, asserted themselves and then the male felt his superiority by reason of the fact that he possessed a greater amount of these animal qualities; and the female became subordinated and continued to be ever afterwards, for the male.

Not having these spiritual qualities to the extent that his mate possessed them, and not being able to realize the greater existence of these qualities in the female, believed that the physical was the superior, and as he possessed the physical to a larger degree than his companion, he determined that he was the superior, and therefore asserted this superiority, and the female observing that this physical superiority did exist, submitted herself unto the male and so continued until now.

As man degenerated, this domination of the male intensified, and in some parts of the earth the female became nothing better in the sight of the dominate man than one of the lower animals.

This degradation continued until man found the lowest place of his degeneracy, and when the turning point came the qualities of the woman came to be more recognized, but very slowly, and for many thousand years this inequality continued, and man remained the master.

As man evolved from this low condition and the moral qualities began to come more into his consciousness, and the animal nature became less dominant, the condition of the female commenced to improve, and as education came into the life and practices of men, woman's opportunities became more extended, and she was more and more recognized as approaching the equal of her companion. In some countries of the earth her equality was recognized, but not in many.

The Jews recognized the equality of the woman in all matters pertaining to the home or the domestic life, and continued the distinction which had previously existed, only in respect to public affairs and the qualities of the mind--women were not permitted even by them to develop their mental faculties, and were taught that they were things that belonged to the male, in all matters pertaining to the state or religion of the race.

The consequence of this course of life, was that the woman developed the spiritual qualities which were hers to a larger extent, and her refinement and emotional nature and love principle exceeded those of the man to a great degree, and she became in her soul nearer the image of the Divine.

I have noticed that this progress has continued with the passing of the years, and now in some of the nations of earth the equality of the woman has become recognized, notwithstanding the fact that the laws of these countries did not permit her to exercise the rights of man, as she is his equal only in the home or in social life.

But a time will come when she will be recognized not only by the individual man but by the man-made laws as his equal in every particular, and the further fact will appear that she will be his superior in matters pertaining to the spiritual.

As the time approaches when man shall return to his former state of purity and harmony with the laws of God, the spiritual qualities will assert themselves and the animal will become subordinated, and woman will stand before God and man as the latter's equal, and in these soul qualities, his superior; for in the beginning, in this particular, she was his superior; but that superiority existed only in order that what in this regard was lacking in man, was supplied by the woman, and the perfect pair was one.

You may think that this is a digression from what I first intended to write, and so it is, but I thought the occasion a proper one to tell mankind the future of the two integral parts of the perfect creation of God.

I will not write more tonight, but sometimes will come again and write.
So with my love I will say good-night.

Your brother in Christ,

Josephus

Aman and Amon. The First Parents

Aman, the first parent.

You don't believe me, I can see, but I am whom I say, and want to tell you that I am now a follower of Jesus and a lover of God, and live in the Celestial Heavens far up near where the Master lives.
I know it is hard for men to believe that I am the father of all physical manhood, and that I can come and communicate with mortals; but Jesus has rendered this possible in his opening the way for the higher spirits to communicate through you. 

You should feel specially blessed at having this great privilege, and feel that the Master has conferred on you a great favor, as he has.

Well, I have never before come to earth to communicate with mortals, and, the experience being new, I find some difficulty in doing so. But I will try to write a few more lines.

I and my soulmate lived in a paradise which God had given us, and were very happy until the great fall. 

We were so filled with the thought that we were all powerful and all wise, that we concluded that the obedience which God had required of us, was not necessary for us to observe, and that if we only exerted our powers, we would be as great as He is great, and would be able to obtain that immortality which he possessed.

But, alas the day. We were mere creatures, although wonderful and beautiful, and we soon realized that fact.

The disobedience was in not waiting for God to bestow upon us the great Divine Love that would make us like Him in substance as well as in image. 

We were like Him in our possession of souls and also in the possibility of obtaining the Divine Love.

We disobeyed Him in that we tried to make ourselves believe that we were as He was, and that we need not submit further to His decrees.

We tried to make this belief a thing of reality, and in our vanity tried to appear as gods; but as soon as we did this the scales dropped from our eyes, and we saw how naked and impotent we were.

God did not drive us from His paradise, but the inexorable laws of our creation and of the workings of His will, showed us that no longer could we expect this Divine Love, which He said would make us Divine.

And so we became mere mortals, deprived of the potentiality of obtaining this Divine Love, and we had thereafter to become subject to all the appetites of the natural man and to work to satisfy these natural appetites.

We continued to live in the same place as formerly, but no more could we be satisfied with the spiritual food that had supplied our wants and enabled us to subdue the appetites which formed a part of our physical being.

The physical then asserted itself and the spiritual became subjected to it, and we became as mortals now are, and had to find our substance in mother earth. We were compelled to till the soil and earn our living by work. I mean we had to work in order to make the earth supply us with food for our physical wants.

It was a bitter time of sorrow but the law had imposed its penalty, and we were without power to relieve ourselves of that penalty, and had to live thereafter without the possibility of obtaining this Divine Love and of having our spiritual natures reassert themselves over the physical, and subdue it.

When Amon and I were created, there were no other human beings living on earth, and none came there to live, until we had sons and daughters who intermarried and produced other sons and daughters.

I cannot tell you how long ago our creation was, but many thousand years before the coming of Jesus. I will not write more to night, but will come again sometime and write.

Your brother in Christ, AMAN.

Amon.

I am the first mother of all the human race, and I want you to know that before Aman and myself, no human beings ever existed.

We were created by God at the same time, and were ready, just after the moment of our creation, to live the lives of natural beings.

So that there was no gradual growth on our part from any other creature or thing.

I know it has been said that the first man was not created, but developed from some animal of the lower order, and as the process of evolution proceeded, this being became in the end a man, with all the wonderful organism and structure of his body, but I want to tell you that this is not true.

When I was created I was as perfect in my physical organism as I ever was afterwards or as any man or woman ever became from that time into the present.

In fact, I believe, that at the time of our creation we were more perfect than mankind are now, because we had no physical ailments, no sickness, no deformity of any kind.

We certainly were more beautiful in face and form than mankind now are or have been for many long centuries; and besides, our bodies and organism lasted for longer years than do the bodies of mankind at this time.

Before our fall we were very happy in our conjugal love, and knew not troubles or worries of any kind, and never had anything to make us afraid or draw us apart from each other or from God; nor until the great temptation came, and then because of our ideas of our greatness and power and want of dependence on God we fell, and never again were restored to our position of beauty and happiness that were ours in the beginning of our lives on earth.

So you must see that we were specially created and not evolved from any other thing.

Some men now may marvel and wonder at the Bible description of the creation of man, and reject the description as the imaginings of a mind of romance or imagery and not true, but I tell you now that the essentials of this creation and the fall, are true.

Of course the parts played by the apple and the snake and the devil are not true literally, but are symbolical of the principles that entered into the temptation and fall.

Well, I was as much to blame as was Aman, but I did not entice him after I had the ambition to become immortal without waiting till that time came when God would give us that quality of His own nature; but our ambitions grew together and we discussed the matter of making the great effort between us, and acted as one in trying to obtain this great immortality.

So the story in the Bible is not exactly true just as far as I am concerned, for I did not entice or seduce Aman to do the great wrong; neither did he seduce me to enter into the effort.

But all this is past, and many thousand years have gone by since our fall, and we have suffered much because of our first sin. As you have been told, many thousands of years passed since the time that we forfeited the gift of immortality, until it was restored and made known to humanity by Jesus the son of God, for he was the son of God, and as being a part of his Father's divine nature he was divine, and partook of those qualities of the Father which gave to him immortality, and those who follow his teachings and receive the New Birth will become divine and immortal also.
I must not write more tonight.

Yes, I will, and now I will say good night
.

Your sister, AMON.