Hi George,

One of the most wonderful things about our understanding of the afterlife, the Higher Power, and humankind’s place in the universe is that today we know so much that those of us who study the evidence are down to talking about fine points. We all agree that the evidence from a range of sources is telling us the same truths, meaning we do understand the afterlife, the Higher Power, and humankind’s place in the universe.

Your question involves one of those fine points.

You asked,
My question is to do with the cause and effect after forgiveness is accorded. Does one have to experience the wrongdoing, if so how?

My response comes predominantly from my study of the recordings of those in the afterlife speaking through direct-voice medium Leslie Flint. That is the most complete, reliable, and easy-to-understand set of records we have. They are at adcguides.com and leslieflint.com.

What they say on the other side is that, without reservation, there is no judgment and there is no condemnation. No person or being outside of the individual passes judgment on a person on this side of life or the next. No person or being feels or voices condemnation or the words of judgment such as “sin,” “good,” “bad,” “righteous,” “saved,” “damned,” or any of the other judgment words.

Instead, they say often that each person judges himself. I think we all have incidents in our life we can think back on and feel sad that we acted in the way we did. We wish we could go back and change that time or those words we spoke or the event we made happen. We are judging ourselves and the feelings are the natural result. The feelings tell us how we’ve judged our actions. We’re sad, guilty, or filled with regret when we judge that what we did harmed someone else. We’re joyful, elated, and happy when we relive something that brought someone else happiness, hope, and comfort.

Because of those thoughts and the resulting feelings, we grow spiritually. When we feel bad about what we did, we are learning not to act like that with people in the future. We grow in love, sensitivity to others, humility, and compassion. Our judgment of our own actions results in spiritual growth.

Those feelings tell us where we are in our spiritual growth. We feel them because the eternal being we are looks back on the person we were, who no longer exists and no longer has an effect on who we are, and wishes that person had done things differently. That’s a signal that we’ve grown spiritually beyond who we were. We’re able to look back at that person we were and wish that person had had the wisdom we have now. And so we grow. Who we are today is all that is relevant for our spirituality today. That is all that exists. There is no book of wrongs that comes into our lives today from the past and affects us. The past is gone. It now is a training video for us as we grow spiritually today. We go back to it to grow now, but now is all that matters.

And so, right now, who we are inside—our feelings, attitudes, compassion, love, humility, sense of servanthood—is who we are spiritually. It is the totality of what matters. No one judges that person we are now. However, we do judge ourselves. As we learn about higher levels of spirituality and see others’ compassion, we judge that we need to be more compassionate and loving, and as a result of the judgment, we grow. But we do the judging. No one outside of us judges us.

And so, when we feel guilty about something we did while we’re still on this plane of life, the inner feeling comes from the spiritual person we are. When we want to be forgiven, it means we’re at a growth point. We’ve judged that something we did, that at the time obviously was acceptable, even if it was acceptable because we were angry or short-sighted or insensitive, is no longer acceptable to the spiritual person we are now The spiritual person we are now has judged that action as not being on the level of spirituality we know we are on now. We’ve judged that it was harmful to someone, and as a result, harmful to us. When the spiritual person we are today judges that, we feel remorse or guilt. That shows we’ve grown beyond the action. And as a result of the remorse or guilt, we go to the person we’ve harmed and ask for forgiveness.

Bu the most important thing about that is not the act in the physical realm. Nothing in the physical realm is spiritual. What is important is who we are spiritually at this moment. And that spiritual person we are at this moment feels more love and compassion than that person we were, who no longer exists, who did something in the past. That is all that matters. The asking for forgiveness is the natural fruit that is borne by the tree we are in the spiritual realm. Just as fruit grows from a healthy tree without being bidden, as a natural occurrence that happens because of the tree's nature, so the action in the physical realm results naturally, without strain, from who we are spiritually. But who we are spiritually is all that matters in eternity, not whether we do something in the physical realm.

So as to the question of whether we must do something in the physical realm to atone for an event that was done by the person who bore our name and looked like us in the past, who no longer exists, we can know based on what those on the next plane of life tell us that we are required to do nothing to please the Higher Power or increase our standing in some record book in eternity. Nothing we do in the physical realm has any bearing on our spiritual selves. The person we were five minutes ago or yesterday or a decade ago no longer exists. Only the memory exists. And that memory can help us grow spiritually when we evaluate what that person did.

So, no we don’t have to go to that person we harmed and asked forgiveness. No, we don’t have to feel some level of remorse to be “judged” worthy or to pass the test. We feel remorse and ask for forgiveness because of who we are spiritually. They are natural outgrowths of our spiritual nature. And only our spiritual nature matters. But no one judges our spiritual nature or where we are in our growth. And no one certainly holds the person we are today accountable for the actions of that other person, who now doesn’t exist, who had our name and our body in the physical realm in the past.

Love and peace, Craig