As we burrow into the topic of preparing for Ascension, let’s take a  moment out to review some historical descriptions of known Ascensions.

SaLuSa told us in 2009 that “you can … ascend at any time.” (1) However he added:

“Whilst  individual Ascension is possible at any time, it is an unusual event  only achieved by greater Beings who have dedicated themselves to rising  up into the Light.” (2)

There have been a few recorded Ascensions but they are uncommon.

Ascension simply means leaving one dimension and entering another,  but the term is usually reserved not for our transition on death t0 the  Fourth or Astral Plane, but usually for our upliftment to a much higher  dimension. In our case, apart from Matthew Ward, most of our sources  hold that, with the coming Ascension, we’ll travel to the Fifth  Dimension. This destination means in turn that we’ll leave dualistic  consciousness behind and attain unitive consciousness.

In past Ascensions, the ascender has usually died first, but not this time, as SaLuSa points out.

“As many of you are now aware this [Ascension] is  unique, as you take your  physical body with you. Not as your existing  carbon based body, but one that has become crystalline and can function  in the 5th. Dimension.  One that has become lighter, and has moved into a  near perfect  expression of itself.” (3)

The Arcturians through Suzanne Carroll also discuss this difference between the current Ascension and past instances of it.

“Many of the members of the Planetary Ascension Team [i.e, Starseeds] have had  the  experience of ascension in one or more of their parallel realities.

“However, in these other realities, you died and abandoned your physical  body in order to soar into your true Home in the higher dimensions.” (4)

An example of Ascension after death is the case of Balaram Bose, whose  spirit was escorted to heaven by Sri Ramakrishna who descended in a  chariot to the roof of the building where Balaram lay. Here is that  description.

“At the  last moment, we were seated around [Balaram Bose], while his wife,  stricken with unspeakable grief, was in the inner apartment with  Golap-ma, Yogin-ma, and others. Just then she noticed something like a  piece of black cloud in the sky, which became denser by stages and began to descend. Soon it assumed the shape of a chariot and alighted on the  roof of Balaram Babu’s house. The Master [Sri Ramakrishna] came out of  that chariot and proceeded towards the room where Balaram Babu lay.

“Soon  after, he issued forth, taking Balaram Babu by the hand, and entered the chariot again, which then ascended and vanished in the sky. This vision raised [Balaram's wife's] mind to a very high plane where there could  be no touch of grief or sorrow. When she returned to normal she related  this to Golap-ma, who came to apprise us of the fact. Balaram Babu had  passed away just a little while before.” (5)

Elijah was also alleged to have been taken up to heaven in a chariot, which some speculate may have been a spaceship.  Elijah’s is the only  case I’m aware of in which death did not precede Ascension. Here is that description.

“And it  came to pass, as they [Elijah and Elisha] still went on, and talked,  that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and  parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into  heaven.” (6)

It’s my personal opinion that the spirit who was Elijah was also John the Baptist and the spirit who was Elisha was also Jesus.  If you read  some of the miracles of Elisha they were also performed by Jesus  [raising the "dead" for instance]. And the scene where Elisha reveals to his servant the legions of angels ranged on the nearby mountain is  reminiscent of Jesus’ observation that he could summon legions of angels if he wished.

Jesus ascended to heaven twice, once after “death” and a second time  after appearing to the disciples. We know that an ascended being has the ability to materialize a third-dimensional body so Jesus’s second  disappearance is perhaps not an Ascension proper.

“And [Jesus] led them out as far as Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them.

“And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them and carried up into heaven.” (7)

I’m persuaded that the Buddha’s mahasamadhi was also an Ascension. Here is that description.

“Thereupon The Blessed One rising from the cessation of his perception  and  sensation, entered the realm of neither perception nor yet   non-perception; and rising from the realm of neither perception not yet  non-perception, he entered the realm of nothingness; and rising from  the  realm of nothingness, he entered the realm of the infinity of   consciousness; and rising from the realm of the infinity of   consciousness, he entered the realm of the infinity of space; and rising  from the realm of the infinity of space, he entered the fourth trance;  and rising from the fourth trance, he entered the third trance; and   rising from the third trance, he entered the second trance; and rising   from the second trance, he entered the first trance; and rising from the  first trance, he entered the second trance; and rising from the second  trance, he entered the third trance; and rising from the third trance,  he entered the fourth trance; and rising from the fourth trance,   immediately The Blessed One passed into Nirvana.” (8)

The nun Disciola was seen by a witness to have been carried up to heaven by Archangel Michael upon her death in 583 A.D.

“In the  nunnery ruled over by the blessed Radegund there died a girl called  Disciola, who was the niece of Salvius, the saintly Bishop of Albi. The  circumstances of her death were as follows. When she began to feel ill,  the other nuns nursed her with great care. The day came when she was on  the point of death. At about nine o’clock, she said to the nuns: ‘I seem to be lighter in body than I was. My pain has gone. Please do not worry about me any more, or nurse me with such great care. Perhaps you will  leave me now, so that I can manage to sleep for a while.’

“When  the other nuns heard this, they left her cell. Later on they returned  and stood there at her bedside, wondering if she would have the strength to speak to them. She spread her hands wide and seemed to be asking a  benediction of someone. ‘Give me your blessing, holy messenger from God  on high,’ she whispered. ‘This is the third time today that you have  taken the trouble to visit me. Why, holy one, do you take such pains for a poor, feeble woman?’

“The  nuns asked her whom she was speaking to, but she did not answer. Some  time passed and then she laughed aloud. Just as she did so, she died. [A man possessed of a devil said:] ‘The Archangel Michael has just  received that sister’s soul,’ said he, ‘and he is even now carrying it  off to heaven. My own master, he whom you call the Devil, has no share  in her at all!’ Those who washed Disciola’s body said that it shone with a snow-white purity, and that the Abbess could not find in her cupboard a winding-sheet which was whiter than she was. They wrapped her in  clean linen and committed her to the grave.” (9)

Julia Ames described being taken by an angel to Jesus’s side after  her death in 1891.  Here is a brief portion of her description of that  event:

Then I  felt as though a great warm flood of light had come into the room and I  saw an angel.  She, for at first she seemed to be a female, came to me  and said –

“’I am sent to teach you the laws of the new life.’

“And, as I looked, she gently touched me and said: ‘We must go.’” (10)

“I found myself in a great expanse of landscape where I had never been before. I was alone; that is, I saw no one. But you are never really alone. We  are always living in the presence of God. But I saw no one. Then I heard a voice. I only heard the words. ”Julia, He who saved thee would fain speak with thee.” I listened, but no words other than these were spoken.

“Then I  said – “Who is it that speaks?” And, behold, a flaming fire – really  like fire though in human shape. I was afraid. Then he spoke and said, “Be not afraid. It is who am appointed to teach the secret things of  God.” Then I saw that the brightness as of fire was only the brightness  that comes from the radiant love of the Immortals.

“Then  the flame-bright One said to me, “Julia, behold your Saviour!” And when I looked I saw Him. He was sitting on a seat close to me, and He said,  ‘Beloved, in My Father’s House are many mansions; here am I whom you  have loved so long. I have prepared a place for you.’

“And I  said, ‘Where, oh, my Lord?’ He smiled and, in the brightness of that  smile, I saw the whole landscape change as the Alps change in the  sunset, which I saw so often from the windows of my hotel at Lucerne.  Then I saw that I was not alone, but all around and above were fair and  loving forms, some of those whom I had known, others of whom I had  heard, while some were strange.  But all were friends and the air was  full of love. And in the midst of all was He, my Lord and Saviour. He  was as a Man among men. He was full of the wonderful sweet mildness  which you are acquainted with in some of the pictures that have been  painted by the Italian Fra Angelico. He had an admirable look of warm  affection, which was as the very breath of life to my soul. He is with  us always.” (11)

I think that all of these can be considered Ascensions.

What unites all these cases is that the subject departed from the  usual path of going to the Fourth Dimension or the Astral Planes and was escorted probably to a much higher plane, usually intermediated by an  angel or in one case by an avatar (Sri Ramakrishna). In most they died  first, but, in Elijah’s case, he did not.

Probably many more instances could be found.   But it still cannot be called a common event. The more common route is for people to die and  to go to the Astral Plane, there to rest and return to the body after an interval.  The transition from Physical to Astral Plane upon death has  not usually been considered or called an Ascension.

Footnotes

(1) SaLuSa, Dec. 16, 2009, at
http://www.treeofthegoldenlight.com/First_Contact/Channeled_Messages_by_Mike_Quinsey.htm

(2) SaLuSa, Sept. 7, 2009.

(3) SaLuSa,  April 3, 2009.

(4) The  Arcturians, Awaken Now Newsletter, from suzancaroll@multidimensions.com,  Feb. 16, 2010.

(5) Swami Shivananda in Swami Chetananda, They Lived with God. Life Stories of Some Devotees of Sri Ramakrishna. St. Louis: Vedanta Society of St. Louis, 1989, 133.

(6) II Kings 2:11.

(7) Luke 24:50-1.

(8) The Death of the Buddha, Translated from the Maha-Parinibbana-Sutta (v. and vi.) of the Dgha-Nikya, at
http://www.bartleby.com/45/3/106.html

(9) Gregory of Tours, The History of the Franks. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974., 356.

(10) Julia [Julia T. Ames] through W.T. Stead, medium, After Death. A Personal Narrative. New York: George H. Doran, n.d.; c. 1914., 41.

(11) Ibid., 43-5.