The Other Side:
A Useless Guide Book

by Amanda Beck

Introduction to the Trade Paperback Edition

For those of you out there who don't know who I am -- and there has to be at least one according to some mathematician somewhere -- I'm Amanda Beck, like it says on the ugly cover with the tunnel and all that. I'm a medium, which means I am rare but I don't like to think of myself as well done. If you got that, then the rest of this book should make sense. If you didn't, drugs might help it make sense. If it still doesn't, my condolences.

Most people tend to be curious about what happens after we die. Since I converse with the dead, or at least with the spirits of those who were dead, my agent thought this book would make a lot of money. It has, mostly by capitalising on the biggest marketing secret New Age can use: People Are Stupid. For proof of this, look at your next door neighbour. Or at yourself for buying this book.

I'm serious here, which is rare enough to warrant a paragraph by itself.

And since I don't plan to stick to literary conventions, it just did. But I am. People always want to know what will be, to see past the mundane and into the Other World or whatever you call it. I'm not writing this book for the money or the fame, but to tell you some simple facts: Anyone can see the world, if they open themselves to it. Being psychic is a matter of attitude, as well as gifts. Mind over belief. But we forget that. We make lies about what we see or hear or feel so we don't have to see it all. We make barriers between ourselves and what is.

That is what I am going to prove in this book, whether you like it or not. The world most won't see or refuse to see is a terrifying and dangerous place, but its worth it. Reality is worth it! Just open your eyes to the real monsters, to the real people around you and you'll learn things no one can teach you. But do it soon.

You see, death is just a state of being, of mind maybe. What you leave behind, a portion of your spirit that can become a ghost or contacted by mediums or torment the annoying dog next door. But its you. You never lose the perceptions and barriers you had in life after you die. You remain yourself, or even more so.

That scares me. Even death can't pull down our barriers to seeing. But we can! And we must, I think. The only people a medium is never able to call up are other psychics. They see the world as it is, and leave nothing of themselves behind. They move on. The rest never do.

I'm asking you to help yourselves move on. If you can't do that, at least get a good read out of the book and laugh once in a while. It might not make the world go round, but laughter can damn well make it a better place.

Until the next time I write a book because I need money,

(signed)
Amanda Beck, Feb 1, 2001.

Chapter 7: The Spirit World

Since the editors think this chapter is needed and would look good here, I present Chapter 7: The Spirit World. (Maybe they are superstitious and figure 7 is a lucky number? Nah, of course not.) Now, most people tend to think of spirit worlds as either purgatory, some Indian myth, heaven or hell or nirvana or a drug trip. I don’t claim to be an expert, or to be right about my opinions here since all I do is talk with the echoes of spirits of those who’ve passed on. Most of them are liars, or will lie in order to get attention or just to annoy you. But there are similarities over years, and from what other psychics have told me and what I’ve read on occasion and what I'm writing just now.

You see, I don't believe in the spirits. They believe in me. Sometimes too often for my comfort. Perhaps we mediums have some natural gift, but what use is being able to paint without a canvas? Or brushes? Its the brush that touches the paint, not the painter. The spirits are the brushes. At least, that’s what I believe, maybe because I have to. Now, for monetary reasons, I promise not to get too deep into metaphors. Or meta-anything else. Ok, I can't promise that, but I'll try.

Now, the spirit world isn't really a world, anymore than the Earth is a world. The world we see and the world dogs see is very different. Its the same thing for spirits. Not all of them see the same world. As to what spirits are, I can't say. I don't think anyone knows, maybe not even them. Are they really spirits? Or echoes of people who've passed on trapped in some mystical ozone layer around the world? Our racial consciousness? Delusions brought on by eating too many anchovies with pizza?

Well, maybe not the last. I honestly can't say, and yes, that’s being honest. I'm probably violating some Union rule, but I'm going to toss aside my speculations and give you my personal beliefs. But there’s a minor problem in all this. I can't talk about the spirit world without talking about the afterlife and I'm not dead yet. Why not ask the spirits? Why, thank you for asking Amanda. The problem is simply that a fair number of spirits don't even believe they are dead, or believe me to be a sorceress, or witch or even a foul demon trying to tempt them into hell. Really. I kid you not.

This brings me to my first belief: We get the kind of afterlife we honestly believe we deserve. Scary, isn't it? It scares me. The Jesuits (or somebody like that ) say that if you give them a child for seven years the child is theirs forever. I think any religion can do that -- which means in my heart of hearts, I sincerely believe that what I am doing is necromancy and will damn me. Maybe the reason we have all those stories about vampires and people wanting to live forever is just because they really, really don't want to meet the fate they believe they will get.

What does this all mean? Shoot the missionaries on sight! Ok. That was a joke. I'm betting it will be edited out, but that's life. Well, not really but it sounded good.

To stop kidding around, my second belief is that the spirits are real, and they want to contact us. We're social beings, we humans. Why would death change that? But when we get the fate we believe we deserve, that invariably means we're alone. Picture the spirit world as millions of people going around blind, or all speaking different languages and unable to understand each other. Or picture New York. You get the idea. They also need to communicate with us, to be remembered. They can't forget us, so they won't let us forget them.

How do those interact? If you got the kind of afterlife you really believed you deserved, would you want to remain in it? Most don’t. As a result, the spirits wish to return to this world, some for good reasons and some for bad. Some become ghosts or visions seen out of the corner of they eye. Others, I think, become angels or demons.

Yes, I know this is completely unprovable. However, I think that what we call angels, demons, djinn and the like are nothing more than powerful dead who find a way to return, likely by possessing the bodies of those who die, or somehow creating new bodies for themselves. At least, that’s what I thought for a long time. Now, I’m not so sure. No one knows what the spirit world is, or even why it exists. What is the barrier between its world and ours? Who made it? For what purposes? Every answer I find brings up more questions. It’s like inventing 20 answers for a million questions.

Some spirits claim that the barrier between both world was made when the dead and living began to blend into the same world. Others that the living made it out of fear, or the dead out of some perverse desire. I’ve even heard it was made by those that inhabit the spirit world. Only recently, mind you, but the idea that there are beings that are native to this world makes a certain perverse sense. The more I think about it, the more perverse it seems. It also tosses my personal and biased idea of angels and demons out the proverbial window. If we give them such names and they are native to this other world, what do they want with us? I have no idea. I hope they do.

Now, to get more specific: the nature of spirits themselves is in question. No ones sure if they are the dead, or echoes of the dead, racial memories, our delusions or some such. I honestly hold to the former, likely because most of the spirits I have met did. But there are other things in the spirit world that defy even their explanations. The echoes of the spirits of men and women still alive who somehow have a piece of themselves in death and when they die are avoided by the dead out of fear. People who somehow can return to life after dying and never remain dead. Others who enter the spirit world in a blaze of fire and vanish into another realm ... even the dead have there own myths.

So I’m left wondering what the difference is between life and death really is. The dead fear, they don’t have answers, they seldom change. Why is everything ordered this way? Who did it? Like I said earlier, I have more questions than answers but the only certainty I have is that the answers are to be found in this world and this life. Question authority, question assumptions, seek some sort of truth.

Wow, I even got really serious there. That should tell you something. It surprises me that I was that serious but I guess I know more than I suspect. Oops. That was a bit meta-ish -- or at least gibberish. I think my subconscious mind suspects more of what is than I do. I want answers, perhaps that’s what we’re here to find. I just don’t know the right questions to ask.

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