Antonio B

Antonio B. was a respected writer and public official in Lombardy. After an attack that looked like death, he was buried. Fifteen days later, when the coffin was opened to recover a locket, it was clear he had been buried alive and had died in terrible struggle. He was later called at the request of a relative.

The medium’s hand begins writing...

AllanWhat do you want with me?

AllanOne of your relatives asked us to call you. We did so gladly and would be grateful if you would answer our questions.

Antonio BI will answer very willingly.

AllanDo you remember the circumstances of your death?

Antonio BAh... very clearly. Why awaken the memory of that punishment?

AllanIs it true that you were buried alive by mistake?

Antonio BThe mistake was very natural. My apparent death had all the signs of real death. I had almost no blood left in me. No one was to blame for an event decided before I was born.

AllanIf our questions cause you pain, should we stop?

Antonio BNo. Go on.

AllanWe would be glad to know that you are happy, because you were considered a good man.

Antonio BThank you. I know you will pray for me. I will try to answer you. If I cannot, one of your guides will answer for me.

AllanCan you describe what you felt in that terrible moment?

Antonio BOh... what an agonizing trial! To feel yourself shut in between four boards, unable to turn or move. To be unable to cry out, because no sound can come where there is no air. What a horrible torture for the miserable person who tries in vain to draw breath in an atmosphere too small and stripped of what life needs.

Antonio BI felt as if I were in an oven, only without heat. Oh, I would not wish such torment on anyone. No... I wish no one an end like mine. What a cruel punishment for a cruel and savage life. Do not ask what I was thinking. I looked back over my past, and I caught a faint glimpse of the future.

AllanYou call it a cruel punishment for a cruel and savage life. But your last life had an excellent reputation. Can you explain?

Antonio BWhat is one life in our eternal journey? In my last incarnation, yes, I tried to act rightly. But this death had been accepted by me before I returned in a human body.

Antonio BWhy question me about that painful past, known only to myself and to the spirits who serve God? Still, since I must tell you... in an earlier life I had my wife sealed up alive in a cellar. This was the law of retaliation. A tooth for a tooth. An eye for an eye.

AllanWe thank you for answering, and we pray God to forgive your past for the sake of your last life.

Antonio BI will come again another time. For now, the spirit Erastes will complete what I have said.

Mediums’ GuideYou learn from this confession that your lives are linked together, and none of them stands alone. The worries, troubles, and great sorrows of human life come from earlier lives that were criminal or badly lived.

Mediums’ GuideDeaths like Antonio's are rare. If a man whose last life was blameless ended in such a way, it was because he himself asked to undergo that death, so that his wandering spirit state might be shortened and he might rise more quickly to higher worlds. After a period of confusion and moral suffering for his terrible crime, he will be forgiven and will enter a higher world, where he will meet the victim who has long since forgiven him.

Mediums’ GuideLet this fearful example teach you to bear patiently both physical and moral suffering, along with all the small troubles of life.

AllanWhat use are such terrible punishments to humanity?

Mediums’ GuideThese punishments are not meant to develop the human race as a whole, but to correct the individual wrongdoer. Every punishment is exactly suited to the wrongdoing that caused it. Why are some mad, some mentally disabled, some paralyzed? Why do some die by fire, while others drag on for years in a living death, unable either to live or die? Respect the will of God in all cases. There is a reason in every decree, and God is just and good in all He does.

Mediums’ GuideThere is a grave lesson here. God's justice always reaches the guilty, and even if it seems slow, it still advances. Great criminals may seem to die peacefully and with earthly success, but the hour of atonement comes for them as for everyone else.

Mediums’ GuideThe honorable life of one incarnation does not free anyone from trials, because those trials have been chosen, accepted, or submitted to as part of repayment. Every trial is one payment on a debt that must be fully paid before the reward of progress can be received.

Mediums’ GuideWhen you remember how common cruelty once was, even among the powerful and educated, you understand why so many people today must wash away an evil past. Many misfortunes seem undeserved only because you see the present life and not its close link with the past.