“It’s a shame humans get so sad over death. When loved ones die, they mourn for so long and miss out on so much life.
If they only knew.
I wish I could tell them.
But I’m sworn. We all are. If they knew, they would alter their behavior.
It is their actions and reactions that determine if they pass or fail, moving on to the next phase. To know would severely modify that. Not necessarily in a bad way, but it would not show the True Self. We need the True Self to be fully educated in order to pass through.
What am I talking about?
Well…I’ll tell YOU. But only you.
What if I told you that we understand mourning? However, it is purely selfish. Humans are sad that their loved ones are no longer with them because they wish to have them in their lives. But this is because they do not understand.
Earth is only a stepping stone. It is basically a school. Humans are there briefly to learn empathy, compassion, how to care for others, to love, give, respect and protect. When you die, you move on to the next universe…it means you have graduated.
You humans have a saying. “Only the good die young.” There is far more truth to that than is realized. We take the better ones early; it’s similar to skipping a grade. They’ve learned all they need to on Earth and are ready for the next step.
There is a catch, however. Not everyone graduates. Many never make it off Earth.
Because all mammal souls are created equal.
All of them.
Does not a mother rat protect her babies? Feed them? Fight for them? Yet, humans look down upon the rat because the rat eats the mess and trash…trash and mess the humans created.
If a dog that was abused or left out in the freezing cold the the human responsible will not be coming up. We call that a Lost Fail. What happens then is that he – well, his soul – is left on earth, but recreated as something that other humans abhor as punishment, usually a cockroach or a mosquito. He will be treated the exact way he treated the soul before him for his eternity; shunned, swatted at and stepped on. Some humans just don’t learn until it happens to them. You can tell them the stove is hot many times. They must touch and burn before they realize the stove is indeed hot. Others never learn that the stove is hot. They repeat, repeat, repeat.
Unfortunately, a human wrote a book of ‘rules’ in order to control others. Solely because of its dated age, people mistake this book as verbatim, despite that fact that it makes little sense in many aspects and is not truthful. It holds story tales instead of fact and cannot be proven. Who could believe, in good faith and with an ounce of common sense, that human females are inferior and animals do not have souls? But those in charge of religions have twisted words to make people do what they want…and many are lost souls because of it.
To be a good and righteous human is to treat others the way you want to be treated. That is all. If you do that always, you will never make a mistake in life. Humans are much smarter and stronger than they recognize. They do not need a book of conflicting stories that can be translated to justify any thing one can imagine – even bigotry! They need only that one simple guideline.
These are not my rules. This is just how it is.”
He paused and stubbed out his cigar, which had none of the pungent stinking odor I’d always associated with cigars. It smelled fresh and clean, like towels from the dryer.
“Thankfully, most do make it off Earth and on to the next phase. As a whole, the human soul is a good True Self. It has a very long life on many universes constantly evolving and learning. I cannot tell you more than this. But I will tell you that being kind is never wasted. You learn something new every day – or you do not. That is up to you. Karma does exist. The Earth world is an echo in a way…you will get out of it what you put in. Please trust in me when I tell you this; perhaps when someone good dies, celebrating their life would be far more appropriate than mourning it.”
He touched my shoulder and looked down at me with that slight grin.
“This too, I will divulge, since you are a willing student; in the next phase there is no Wal-Mart. We have no vegans and there is no traffic. If you think that sounds heavenly, it only gets better and better as you keep passing on.”
-by April Hunter
COPYRIGHT APRIL HUNTER. NO PART OF THIS STORY MAY BE USED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION.
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Putting The Clothes On, Taking The Gloves Off. 
Hmmm…
This reads as more of an editorial on religion rather than a fiction piece as it stands alone. It works as a monologue in a larger framework, which I’m guessing is your intent.
You may as well name the Bible. Not doing so sort of cheats the reader and sitfles your voice. It’s clear the “book full of ‘story tales'” (Did you mean to write “fairy tales?”‘) is the Judeo-Christian Bible, so why not just say it?
Oddly enough, the narrator mentions how the Golden Rule (“Do unto others…”) is correct, but doesn’t mention how the “book of ‘rules'” at least got that right nor how it’s a theme in most religions. The narrator basically says, “Religion is bad. It’s screwed up all you humans.” but then later says, “Karma does exist.” and that reincarnation is real. Both are Buddhist concepts. The narrator also more or less tells the listener that Earth is Purgatory – which is a Christian concept.
The narrator also talks about how animals certainly have souls and are often reincarnated people (another Buddhist concept), yet tells the listener in the end that there are no vegans in the afterlife. So, the alien says a mother rat and a mother human are equal, but it’s okay to eat one of them? He’s a Buddhist alien who eats meat?
I think “Buddhist aliens” would make for an interesting story. Could Buddha have been an alien? There are theories that Jesus was one (heck, watch “Prometheus”).
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LOL. Buddha as Scientologist… You belong to my SECOND writing class, the nitpicky one. Thank you for the critique–some valid points.
I was thinking in the frame that maybe these concepts are not religious at all. Maybe they’re simply universal. After all, religion came from somewhere. Before it, there were pagans who practiced some of this without books or being told to.
Perhaps there’s no animals as food on the next phase…or maybe it’s how vegans ARE (who tend to be quite diff than vegetarians) that’s so annoying to people. 😉
Religions are acknowledged, but so is the fact that man twisted them to serve his needs.
My intent was more of a “work your way up through school” type of story. Not really “this is hell and then it gets better”.
But seriously…you don’t think Wal-Mart or traffic is purgatory??
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I think the main issue in it, for me, is that the alien is trying to eat his cake and have it, too. He’s saying that the Golden Rule is the supreme law of the universe and that everyone, even rats, is sacred, but people who believe a book that “cannot be proven” are idiots and that vegans are dickweeds.
The Wal-Mart / vegans joke at the end doesn’t quite work. I think the narrator is trying to cheer up the listener, who is probably freaked out at having an alien explain the afterlife to him / her, or shock the listener into further enlightenment through humor (which is a Zen method), but the joke is missing something. Perhaps if we had further background on the listener (a person stuck in a Wal-Mart job who can’t stand his pompous vegan boss, perhaps), it would click a little better.
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