Limbo. Purgatory. The Other Side.

What was this place, with the white house, its surroundings challenging me to reach beyond my senses? One night, I mustered the courage to ask my teacher, Edward, directly.

“Those of you living in the Earth school refer to this place by many different names. Limbo. Purgatory. The Other Side. We are not particularly fond of these. The Learning Place seems the most accurate depiction to me. Names aside, this place is the next level—the first stop, once the body is left behind, as the cyclical spirit journey continues. Know this, Sandra. There is only one reason you and some others are granted access. Travel here cannot be used for one’s amusement alone. Be diligent. Take what you learn and use the wisdom in your earthly experience for a higher purpose. Share your knowledge abundantly. And keep in your awareness, Sandra, that the portal between worlds can slam shut at any moment. So be sure, my dear Sandra, that you are where you truly desire to be, in the event that the choice to move back or forth is no longer open to you. Know that if you want to ensure your continued life in the physical world, you would be wise to stay there and not come back here. ”

I didn’t really understand everything I heard from Edward that night, but his words added urgency to my life, as I walked the Earth day-to-day and as I walked through the portal to The Learning Place at night. From that moment on, I felt afraid, at some level—all the time. And yet, I was compelled to continue my nightly travels.

But slowly, I would learn surrender. With each journey made between my earthly life and the other side, I would let go just a bit more. I would come to trust that I would end up right where I needed to be, either here or there.

And isn’t that one of the spiritual skills we most covet in this life? To develop the ability to surrender to what is with peaceful certainty, that all is as it should be?

"You will meet him on your next visit, " Edward promised me. "Come at your best. You will begin by accessing The Book of Our Lives. It is time for you both to see for yourselves how all is recorded. No thought, no action, no love, ever dies."

The Shadow in the Corner: It Was Him.

An Excerpt from The Sweet Creamy Stuff in the Middle: Love Above and Beyond

by Sandra Alexander

The door was open. The wooden porch slats gave a little under my bare feet and I entered the big white house. I could immediately sense that an entire world was contained inside that place. He approached and greeted me. Hand outstretched. Long elegant fingers. I could barely discern his physical features but the warmth of his energy was palpable.

He was my teacher, he told me.  I could call him Edward. That would work for now, was his message. Vague.  I felt comfortable with him and within those walls. I wondered if my mind was just conjuring up a setting that felt familiar for me or whether this place was designed to be welcoming for all who entered. At the same time that my mind questioned, my soul concluded that it didn’t matter.

Inside, Edward guided me off to the right toward a large castle-like door, wooden with heavy iron hinges and handle. Even before Edward opened the door, I felt the air turn thick, and the heady scent of rain forest green seeping toward me.

_____________

The shadow in the corner came in clear focus. A man. Standing at a distance. Hesitant. I sat with Edward at the healing pool and pretended not to notice the conspicuous figure, dark shoulder length hair. Beard, full but trimmed. Black pants and a gold brocade Nehru jacket. I pretended not to notice that he was beautiful.

“He wants to meet you.” Edward posed this, but not in the form of a question

.

It was one of those moments. You know. A split second that remains in the heart. The split second that we look back on again and again. A one point of no return.

It would take some time, but I would say yes. I would meet him. Edward would introduce us. Our two worlds would meet. My earthly home, his home, above and beyond. And for a time, at least for me, those two worlds would collide, sending the extremes of mystery, love, beauty and passion, spinning out of control.

My Path to the Other Side and to Him

My path to the other side, and to him, I paved first with knowledge. From when I was a child, I had the ability and an affinity to travel to a place I called across the bridge. Now it was 2010. In my adult life, I was seeking a spiritual teacher. There was so much  I sought to understand about life and about myself. About loss and about love. I knew instinctively that I would not find that understanding in my immediate earthly surroundings. So I began to research the art of astral travel, or astral projection, as it is sometime called.

By that time, I had already trained in self-hypnosis and had explored past life regression. So astral projection come quite naturally to me. I learned it is best to eat clean, natural food, soak in a bath of sea salts, and to be at peace with my thoughts before each take-off.

Equally important, I learned to ground myself when I returned from my travels, ensuring that my energy came completely back into my body and through the bottoms of my feet, like roots planted into the earth. On occasion, I would forget this step, and would feel spacey during my-day to-day life, finding it difficult to function.

Each time I traveled, my body was left behind in the comfort of my Zen-style pedestal bed. Even with eyes closed, I could observe the wispy, smoky, mirror image of myself drift away from everything I knew, and onto a cement stairway that would lead me to the other place.

The first time I set foot on the other side of that stairway, I knew I was home. Instinctively, I knew he was there waiting. It was all so ordinary.

I crossed an expansive lawn, wearing only a sheer white bed sheet, the only reminder of my earthly launching pad. 

My bare feet drifted through the grass, soft, like kitten fur. A large white house, simple and ordinary, presented in front of me. Surprising. All those images of gold and glitz and royalty must have still encapsulated my thoughts about how heaven might look. Is that what this place was? In that moment, I let those images go. That release would be the first of many preconceived notions about that other place, about myself, about what's real, and about love that I would be forced to let go of over the next many months. 

The Sweet Creamy Stuff in the Middle: Love Above and Beyond

Introduction: The Sweet Creamy Stuff in the Middle: Love Above and Beyond

I first considered writing this book in the form of a novel, creative fiction. But in order to remain authentic, I am writing instead, from the heart. This is a true story. My story. This is a love story, out of the ordinary and out of this world. 

I am inviting you to share in my personal journey of love, ecstasy, and truth. Travel with me, experience and discover what those in a higher place, living in higher wisdom, with no physical body to hamper, restrict or distract them, can teach us about love.

The publication of the book is nearing completion. Until then, I will share bits and bites of the inspirations I found by being in Love Above and Beyond. 

The Sweet Creamy Stuff in the Middle. The book title chose me. And it makes sense really. Life's earth school is like that. Like those sugar covered cream filled donuts. You take a bite, in anticipation of finding the really good stuff. Life promises us the really good stuff, expressed or implied, right? But there's other stuff to go through first. Boring stuff, messy stuff, kinda stale stuff. And often it all falls apart. Bite after bite, we anticipate, because in general, we are always hoping. And sometimes we forget to savor and appreciate when the path to the sweet creamy stuff in the middle is soft and sugary.


That's what he was to me and what I was to him. Together, we found a way to the sweet and with great effort and sacrifice, we learned to enjoy the path that led us there. As you walk this journey with me, perhaps you will discover answers to some of your own questions, long left unanswered. What is real? How sheer is the curtain between us and the other worlds? How is love really meant to be?

My personal and most pressing question became this: When a woman finds the truth and depth of love on another plane, with a gentle male soul, no longer in his body, does the experience forever surpass any lover she may find here on earth? Or will the astral love experience provide the ultimate preparation for love on earth, the way it was always meant to be-an example to others on how it can be?

Perhaps you and I can find the answers together. And maybe, just maybe, we can change the face of love on earth forever.

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The Sweet Creamy Stuff in the Middle: Love Above and Beyond. Copyright 2016(c) Sandra Alexander, All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any format without expressed permission except in the case of brief quotations, or blog shares and excerpts embodied in critical articles and reviews.