Spiritual Spheres — Robert Bayer — Editor — [2017] by Robert Bayer

Spiritual Spheres Robert Bayer [Editor] (2017)

TABLE OF CONTENTS What The World of Spirits Is — Emanuel Swedenborg [p. 5] The Celestial Garden — Andrew Jackson Davis [p. 9] The Seven Circles of Spirit Land — HG Wood / Thomas Paine [p. 14] The Emanations of The Spirit World — Andrew Jackson Davis [p. 33] The Summer Land — Andrew Jackson Davis[p. 35] Traveling in The Angelic Spheres — Andrew Jackson Davis [p. 39] The Unfolding Progression — Andrew Jackson Davis

[p. 42]

Places or Spheres in the Spirit-World — Hafed, Prince of Persia [p. 47] The Second Sphere —

Mary Washington [p. 50]

Principles of Our Spheres — Mary Washington [p. 53] Spiritual Currents — Martha Washington [p. 55] The Second Sphere — Mary Washington [p. 57] The Harmonial Sphere

— Martha Washington [p. 60]

The Summer Land —

Mary Washington [p. 62]

The Power Electric — Mary Washington [p. 76] True Spiritual Conditions

— Mary Washington [p. 79]

The Glorious Truth of Divine Life — Mary Washington [p. 81] The Second Sphere — Mrs. Maria M. King

[p. 86]

An Angel of Loving Service — Cora Richmond [p. 90] Rescue, Redemption and Resurrection

— Cora Richmond [p. 93]

Exegetical Spiritualism — Inspiration. — JM Peebles — [p. 99] Exegetical Spiritualism — Resurrection — JM Peebles [p. 102] 2

Why No More Report of Higher Spheres? — William Aber [p. 105] The Hells Mitigated. — JM Peebles [p. 109] Spheres in the Next World — JM Peebles [p. 112] The Spirit Stewart’s Exploration of the Hells

— JM Peebles [p. 121]

Spheres and Stars of Light and Darkness — Anita Silvani [p. 124] The Redemption of The Fallen Angels

— . Anita Silvani

[p. 131]

— William W. Abner [p. 135]

Spiritual Spheres and Conditions

Spheres — Gambier Bolton [p. 143] Heavenly Regions of Religions

— The Astral World [p. 145]

Marriage in The Spheres — James Hewat Mckenzie [p. 148] The Astral World — James Hewat Mckenzie [p. 150] The Drunkards' Pit — James Hewat Mckenzie [p. 155] Through Suffering to Resurrection — Mary Bruce Wallace [p. 161] Man’s Connection With God

— L. Kelway Bamber [p. 164] — G. Vale Owen [p. 169]

The Spiritual Emanations of Light Thoughts Creative Power Collective Prayer

—

— G. Vale Owen [p. 174]

Spirit André Luiz - Francisco Cândido Xavier

[p. 179] Learning to Send Always Joyful Vibrations — G. Vale. Owen [p. 184] The Goodness of God is Everywhere

— G. Vale. Owen [p. 189]

The Bridge — G. Vale. Owen [p. 194] Water of Life

— G. Vale Owen [p. 200]

The Inter-Relation of The Spheres. — G. Vale Owen [p. 204] At The Bridge—In The Land of Darkness — G. Vale Owen [p. 207] 3

The Celestial Company — Cora Richmond [p. 213] Spiritual Thoughts of Light — Edward C. Randall [p. 216] Clearer Light But No Coercion

— Coming Light [p. 223]

Contemplation and Communion — Walter DeVoe [p. 228] The Exalting Truth of Immortality Spheres of Various Vibrations

— Walter DeVoe [p. 234]

— William Dudley Pelley [p. 243]

The Spiritual Planes of Earth — Arthur Findlay [p. 246] The Spheres Nearest The Earth — Arthur Findlay [p. 254] The Higher Spheres — Arthur Findlay [p. 255] Communication between the Different Spheres

— Arthur Findlay

[p. 258] The Realms of Earth and Early Life in Spirit — Radiance [p. 262] The Realms of Earth and Early Life in Spirit

— The Eloists [p.

269] An Infinite Universe Beyond

— The Eloists [p. 272]

What The World of Spirits Is Heaven and Hell Emanuel Swedenborg (1758)

421. The world of spirits is neither heaven nor hell; rather it is a place, or state, midway between the two. It is where a person first arrives after death, being, after some time has passed, either raised into heaven or cast into hell from it, depending on his life in the world.

422. The world of spirits is both a place midway between heaven and hell and a person’s “midway” state after death. I have been able to see that it is a midway place from the fact that the hells are beneath it and the heavens above; and to see that it is a midway state from the fact that as long as a person is there, he is not yet in either heaven or hell.

Heaven’s state in a person is the bonding of what is good and what is true within him; and hell’s state, the bonding of what is evil and what is false within him. When what is good is bonded to what is true in a person who is a spirit, he enters heaven, because, as we have said, that bonding is heaven within him. But when what is evil is bonded to what is false within him he enters hell, because that bonding is hell within him. 5

This bonding occurs in the world of spirits, because then a person is in a midway state. It does not matter whether you say the bonding of discernment and intention, or the bonding of what is true and what is good.

423. We need first to talk about the bonding of discernment and intention and its resemblance to the bonding of what is good and what is true, since this bonding takes place in the world of spirits.

Man has both discernment and intention. His discernment receives things true, and is formed out of them. His intention receives things good, and is formed out of them. As a result, a person calls “true” whatever he discerns and consequently thinks; and he calls “good” whatever he intends and consequently thinks.

Man has an ability to think from his discernment, and thereby to grasping what is true and also what is good; yet he does not think this from intention unless he intends and does it. When he intends it, and does it intentionally, then it exists in his discernment and his intention alike—it therefore exists in the person. For discernment alone does not constitute a person, nor does intention alone; rather it is discernment and intention together. So whatever exists in both these abilities exists in the person and has become part of him, but 6

anything that exists only in the discernment is with the person but not within him. It is only an element of his memory, a matter of information within his memory which he can think about when he is not “in himself” but “outside himself,” with other people. So too, he can talk about it and reason about it, and put on affections and manners in keeping with it.

424. Man’s ability to think from his discernment without thinking from his intention at the same time is furnished him so that he can be formed anew. For a person is formed anew by means of things true, which belong to his discernment as we have said. Actually, man is born into involvement in all kinds of evil, as far as his intention is concerned. This means that on his own he does not intend what is good to anyone but himself. And anyone who intends what is good only to himself is pleased by the evils that befall others, especially when they are to his own advantage.

In fact, he wants to funnel everyone else’s good things to himself, whether these be matters of prestige or of profit; and he is inwardly happy to the extent that he can accomplish this.

For the correction and re-forming of this kind of intention, man has been given the capacity to discern things that are true, and thereby to tame the affections for what is evil that gush from his intention. This 7

is the source of manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ability to think true things from his discernment, and to speak and do them. All the same, he cannot think them from his intention until his quality is such that he intends and does them on his ownâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;that is, from his heart. When this is a personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s quality, then the things he thinks from his discernment are part of his faith, and the things he thinks from his intention are part of his love. Consequently, faith and love are then bonded together for him, like discernment and intention.

The Celestial Garden Andrew Jackson Davis The Great Harmonia - IV -The Reformer (1855)

Human beings, like trees, grow from and upon the soil. The earth, like a wise parent, supplies the germ. I speak now of the original method: for now, men and trees propagate themselves, and, although the earth still superintends the process, the method is improved. Like trees, also, do souls attract to, and assimilate with, themselves qualities of congenial substance from the organisms and from the atmosphere of universal Nature. You will observe that trees absorb vitality and substances from the earth and the atmosphere, which is generated by and thrown out from all the planets in space. And thus you see great giant-trees building themselves up â&#x20AC;&#x201D; adding ton after ton of substance, limb, and leaf-without in the least diminishing the size or weight of the ground, which they so beautifully refine, refresh, and decorate!

So it is with human souls. Minds absorb vitality and substances in general from the atmosphere, which is generated by and thrown from all the spiritual spheres. Therefore, you will perceive that there is a spiritual atmosphere within the material atmosphere. The soul feeds 9

on the one; the body upon the other; until, by a refining process, they blend into ONE, whereby the spirit is made to increase in substance. And as you see trees growing without diminishing the earth, so you also see souls multiplying and building themselves up-bringing into the world new thoughts and new principles - without exhausting the spiritual FOUNT which they correspond to and represent. You will remember the exact analogy â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that trees grow by attracting and assimilating to themselves the terrestrial atmosphere which is thrown from all the planets; and that souls grow, in a corresponding manner, by attracting and assimilating to themselves the celestial atmosphere which is thrown from all the spheres.

Therefore, human minds, like trees, grow large and beautiful, or, like trees, remain sometimes small and deformed; strictly in accordance with their origin and subsequent situation. Minds possessing an equal amount of spiritual life, though of dissimilar temperaments, will be drawn to associate with each other. As there are hundreds of different types in this respect, so there are hundreds of different associations. Hence you perceive the entire naturalness of sects and institutions; the inevitableness of parties, clanships, and isolated nations.

The Harmonial Philosophy should teach the world, therefore, to shake

hands

over

its

multiform 10

distinctions;

forget

all

uncharitableness, and draw a wet sponge over the records of all animosities. We come now to the practical conclusion â&#x20AC;&#x201D; viz.: that human souls will accumulate spiritual substance, obtain the real elements of mental nutrition, in strict harmony with their individual aspirations. Those who aspire to Love will grow spiritually wealthy in Love; those who aspire after Knowledge will grow rich in the memory of Facts and Things; those who aspire unto Wisdom will increase in the perception and enjoyment of Principles and Generalizations!

Therefore, is nature ever true to her children - giving Silver, and Iron, and Gold to those who seek. Silver is love; Iron is knowledge; Gold is wisdom. Just in proportion as these departments of mind are opened (by organization, culture, and situation) to the celestial atmosphere, within the common air, so will Love, and Knowledge, and Wisdom, increase the substance of the soul. This celestial air, in which the spirits delight to live and love, contains all the essential principles of human life and of mundane development. And as soon as these different departments of the soul begin to absorb and appropriate their congenial elements, then will you see an enlargement of the corresponding external portions. The external head will change and alter, and improve in its form and symmetry, in exact ratio with the interior alterations and improvements.

If you seek a Knowledge of Facts and Phenomena, then your 11

forehead will round out and widen. It will give you a bright look, like expert lawyers or craftsmen, full of talent and cunning. If you seek Wisdom, then, in truth, “she shall give to thine head an ornament of grace, and a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee;” and you will be truly the children of nature — pure, childlike, loving, noble, good, great, and free! If you seek Love, then will your physical form begin to resemble the beautiful and the blest! Your features will lose their sharp, hard, penetrative expression; and there will be a “look of love” in every lineament, even your walk will be an expression of inward peace and purity.

But you will be earnest in this, my Friends, and fail not to attract nourishment to each part of your soul. Do I hear a voice — “How shall we commence?” My reply is, that you should cultivate your Wisdom by trying to grasp great general Principles; and by meditating and feeding upon them, as you would look over a landscape and enjoy the living whole. Strength comes only with appropriate exercise.

And you should cultivate your Love by trying, with all your might, to think only affectionately toward mankind. Commence by acting so good that you cannot help loving yourself

— then, you will expand

outwardly; and “friend, kindred, neighbor” next it will embrace — till, at last, you will be delivered from discord and debt, owing “no man 12

anything but love.â&#x20AC;? Accustom your memory to think only of kind words. Forget to use hard terms â&#x20AC;&#x201D; leaving all terrible invectives to the uncivil preacher-and think only of words which express friendship and affection. For it is wonderful how men feel through, their thoughts, and have thoughts only as they remember words to utter them!

The Seven Circles of Spirit Land The Philosophy of Creation HG Wood / Thomas Paine (1860)

Each of the inhabited planets has its Spirit Land, or place of repose for the soul, when it passes from the physical fetters with which it is bound whilst in the body. This Land, as we have called it, is situated above the atmosphere, and is a perfect type, generally, of the planet to which it belongs â&#x20AC;&#x201D; though beautified.

The Spirit Land, like Spirit itself, is purely ethereal, and a shadow of the memory and imagination of each Spirit. The Spirits of each planet, when advanced to the Sixth circle, can commune and visit with each other.

I have before said that the Spirit Land appears differently to its different societies, and is only seen in all its beauty when the faculties of the soul have become developed. The desire of each Spirit is gratified seemingly, though not really. Hence the miser, whose sole delight on Earth was to hoard up and count his dollars, in the first circle is gratified with imaginary dollars, which he hoards up, clutches, chuckles over, counts, with as much delight and 14

avariciousness as when on Earth. In idea he is gratified, and this idea seems reality, yet is not. Misers congregate in separate societies from affinity.

The predominating desire governs in the selection of societies, though not so in relation to circles. It would be a pleasing spectacle to you to behold millions of avaricious souls congregated together, eagerly bent on counting over and stowing away their imaginary treasures; to see the suspicious glances cast upon each other, the fear depicted in their countenances, the tiptoe tread, as they go to and from the haunt of, or hiding-place for their treasures; — in a word, to see the prominent traits of their character and disposition mirrored forth from their souls, and acted by them. But to us who have progressed, it is not a pleasing sight, and we use our utmost efforts to root out and destroy these desires — which we are able in time to do

— and instigate the possessors to moral and intellectual

progression.

The miser has his Heaven, and were you to ask him in relation to the Spirit Land, he would tell you that he was enjoying himself finely ─ making money, ect. His appreciation of Heaven does not transcend the dollar. But this is only the case in their inceptive condition here, for their attention is soon turned otherwise, and they come to lose their pleasures, and seek for higher and better occupations. 15

A person of a poetical temperament and ideal mind has his Heaven, which is a perfect daguerreotype of his imagination. Interrogate him in relation thereto, and he will tell you that he is surrounded by gentle hills, extensive plains, majestic mountains, swelling seas, running rivers, gurgling brooks, sparkling fountains, leaping rills, foaming cataracts, wide-spread, forests

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; all echoing and re-echoing with

the songs of birds, and peopled to a limitless extent with creatures of fancy. To him this is a reality, and yet it is not a reality.

The sailor, whose chief delight on Earth was to stem the fury of the sea, embarks in his imaginary ship, with comrades of the same desire, upon an imaginary sea â&#x20AC;&#x201D; unfurls the sails, feels the imaginary winds, hears their whistle in the rigging, and sees and feels all the attending circumstances of a voyage upon the "deep." The face of the sky is eagerly watched, each portending circumstance prepared for. Clouds arise in the horizon storms burst in fury upon the sea, the waves roll and dash, the lightnings flash and play along the sky, the deep thunder rolls upon his ear, and he feels all those emotions attendant upon the reality.

The Indian, whose delights were in the forest chase, and war, enjoys here his delights, and in his imaginary world feels and acts as under a reality. Thus you will perceive that the Spirit Land bears different 16

phases, proportioned to each one's desires, and is a general type of the Earth, or its peculiar planet. These desires, in time, are satiated, and progression ensues.

To give you a correct idea of the Spirit Land, it will be necessary for me to say that it is divided into circles, or tribes, as we will term them, each of which is possessed of peculiar characteristics, and from the first,; up wards, is a step in the ladder of spiritual progression. Of this Land there are seven grand divisions, each of which, except the seventh, is yet divided into other societies to a great number. The first circle is the circle or tribe with which are connected all Spirits of the most gross propensities, and who have been guilty of the lowest species of crime which is possible to be perpetrated on Earth.

I have before said that the Spirit of man is the grand parchment whereon are written his virtues and his vices, and I may here say, that here, in this spiritual home, this record stands forth in bold relief, and each good and bad deed that one has committed' is not screenedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;, but read by all. The hypocrite, who on Earth has masked his vices and seemed a saint, is here unable to conceal them: â&#x20AC;&#x201D; they stand forth in legible and intelligible characters, and it is the consciousness of this that attracts Spirits to those of their kind, as I have before said.

The First Circle is the lowest and most inharmonious circle of spiritual existence. It is the theatre of inharmony, such as you might imagine to exist on Earth, should there be congregated in a mass all the vicious elements of society; for it is the retreat of those who have neglected the development of those faculties of the soul whose development alone elevates man above the brutes. The murderer, the pirate, highwayman, thief, hypocrite, liar, libertine, drunkard, incendiary, slanderer, miser, ect., ect., is there

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; of all nations and

tongues, congregated in ungainly societies, and pursuing their various occupations with a double vigor, pushed on by the panes of conscience, that lead them to hide their vices by still deeper indulgence in them.

I have before said that this circle is divided into societies, and that, in the formation and selection of these societies, the predominating desire governs; hence those, who on Earth have delighted in the shedding of human blood, assemble en masse, and pursue their murderous career with vigor. They use imaginary weapons, and commit imaginary murders. They are continually in turmoil and strife. Like the Ishmaelite, each one's hand is turned against the other's'. Imagine to yourself, on Earth, two persons of gross propensities engaged in a quarrel; imagine the quarrel to have attained that point when a dagger is drawn by one of the parties. Behold the person upon whom it is drawn fleeing from his murderous foe, who, with 18

drawn dagger, tightly clenched, is on the chase, uttering unearthly curses and cries for vengeance. Imagine the pursuer to near the pursued, raise his dagger, and with a single stroke draw his heart's blood. See the guilty man, when the awful deed is done, stricken with fear and remorse, eagerly seeking to screen the body from the public eye, and blot out all traces of the deed

—

and you have in

miniature the condition of this society of the first circle. Millions of souls, upon whom are deep stains of blood, in one congregated brotherhood of crime, are there engaged in a series of turmoil and inhuman deeds.

In the same circle, and in an equally low society, may be seen the pirate─ who embarks on the voyage of murderous theft, and commits depredations upon his “fellow-voyagers on the deep," akin to those it was his delight to commit when on Earth. The same phases of life that attended him on Earth attend him here. His imaginary cannon bellow forth their thunder, and send forth their murderous balls, carrying destruction and desolation to the imaginary craft that his vengeance is being wreaked upon. The vessels are thrown alongside, and, hand to hand, with desperate fury, he fights for his prize; — many a victim seems to fall beneath his strokes, and with a yell of satisfaction, and maniac brutality, he surveys the bloody deck, and clutches his dearly-bought treasures. To him all seems a reality; but he has fought but empty air, and gained an unreal prize. 19

The highwayman, who on earth delighted in deeds of daring and robbery, here follows his favorite pursuits, and re-enjoys all the pleasures attendant upon such a life on earth. In this society are all thieves. The debauchee is there, and, in a bacchanalian society, imaginarily satisfies his appetites, and feels all those exhilarating thrills

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

and relapses

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

that were his lot on earth. This

society is the most beastly in this circle, for in it are committed all species of crime, and are exhibited all conditions of debasement.

The bacchanalian song echoes and re-echoes through their ranks, until the vault of this part of Heaven rings with one unceasing, discordant shout. Libertines and harlots are there, and, burning with remorse, would fain enjoy the delights of passion. Oh! it is an awful spectacle, to behold human souls writhing in the agonies that do this society of the first circle! â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

But we are cheered by the glorious

thought that reformatory influences will operate upon its members, and in time relieve their degradation and misery. The discordant elements of which this circle is composed at times mingle, and Oh! it is sad to see the debasement of which the human soul is susceptible, as it is portrayed in these minglings; and, were you to see the misery that is there, you would think that it was Hell enough for any one.

This circle is only occupied by those of the lowest development, and 20

there, through long ages of mental torment, are congregated miserable and unhappy souls, who, in time, will change their lives, in accordance with the unceasing and effectual law of progression, and pass to higher circles. Good Spirits, actuated by philanthropic and elevated motives, are continually laboring with, to reform and elevate them; and it is a joyful victory for us when we induce one soul after another to yield to moral influences, cast aside its miserable fetters, that have bound it to crime, and progress. It should be the aim of every man on Earth to so Eve as to avoid this circle; for its miseries are such as cannot be described, but only known when felt and seen.

This idea of the First Circle of the Spirit Land may to some seem strange â&#x201D;&#x20AC;but nevertheless, it is its true condition; and of this you will be satisfied when you remember that man is a progressive being, and can only attain a high state of existence as he develops' and unfolds his spiritual principle.

The Second Circle is composed of Spirits who are more advanced than those of the First Circle, though, in this circle even, there is not to be found that moral and intellectual state of development that one would expect. This is the abiding place of those whose lives were not particularly vicious, but who are in an undeveloped condition, â&#x201D;&#x20AC; those who have neglected their spiritual development for physical pleasure and profit. In a word, it is the home of ignorant Spirits. There 21

are also to be found in this circle the Spirits of many who have progressed thither from the First Circle.

In this circle are by far the greatest number of Spirits: for it is a fact that the number of ignorant Spirits, launched into eternity annually, exceeds the number of developed Spirits in a ratio of about 1000 to 1. In this circle are the people of all nations and tongues. The Aborigines and various other people who have remained in an unprogressed intellectual and moral state.

This circle is divided into societies. In one group may be seen mechanics engaged in their favorite occupations; in another, the farmer, who is tilling his imaginary farm, and engaged in agricultural pursuits generally. And thus, all through this circle, may be found societies made up by affinity of desires, â&#x20AC;&#x201D; each one pursuing his or her favorite occupation. This circle is surrounded with a more moral atmosphere than the first, and exhibits a more progressed condition. Progression is more rapidly secured by its inmates, as good spirits find less difficulty in approaching it.

The Second Circle is much more harmonious than the First, though, from the ignorance of its inmates, perfect harmony could by no possibility exist. Over this circle, missionary Spirits, from the Fifth and Sixth Circles, have strong care, and labor assiduously to unfold the 22

powers of the inmates. The attention of each, by these missionaries, is gradually turned toward intellectual and moral pursuits, and in course of time they become progressed so far as to exchange their residence for the Third Circle, which is the abiding place of Spirits who are more highly developed than those of the Second.

The Third Circle is occupied by Spirits well-meaning and disposed, but who have neglected to unfold the intellectual powers of the soul, who have no, or, at most, but a partial acquaintance with Nature and her laws, so that they are unfitted to live in harmony therewith. In this circle there is a moral beauty displayed, that is seen in none of the lower circles, and which places it far, very far in advance of them. Therein are many Spirits of considerable literary talents, and scientific research, who abide in groups, according to their affinities of taste.

The occupation of the members of this circle is purely progressive; they are engaged in developing and unfolding their powers by discipline and research. To this circle are the Spirits of infants and undeveloped children consigned, who are watched over, attended and educated with the utmost care and attention. The principle of love is more fully developed in this circle than any other, and its inmates exhibit remarkable benevolence and kindness in their demeanor, one towards another. After a sufficient study of Nature, 23

and an attainment of the requisite wisdom, the inmates of this circle progress to the Fourth Circle, where the beauties of the Spirit Land begin to appear with force and perspicuity; for this circle, besides being surrounded with an exceedingly moral atmosphere, is occupied by wise Spirits, as Love and Wisdom are the prevailing principles in development. Spirits of this circle are highly progressed, â&#x201D;&#x20AC;it being the abiding place of many scientific, literary and educated persons. This circle is also divided into societies, made up as the preceding are.

The grand effort and aim of the Spirits of this circle is to attain Truth, which, owing to their superior wisdom and moral condition, they are able to do with much greater facility than are the members of the Third. The less progressed are assisted by those more developed, and thus, each mutually assisting the other, they are all hastening to the point when they can be admitted into the Fifth Circle, which is the highest circle possible to be reached by the new-born Spirit from the body.

This circle is composed of Spirits who have strenuously labored while on Earth to develop and unfold the full powers of the soul, and by those who have come up thither from the lower circles. Herein are exhibited the powers of the Spirit when unfolded by the discipline of thought and research. Love, Wisdom and Truth beam forth from the 24

countenances of each, and a degree of power and harmony exists, that the human mind is not able to appreciate. The number of societies is less than in any lower circle, and there is a more general exchange of thought and sympathy than is possible to exist in any of the lower circles, or on Earth.

This circle is composed of moral and wise Spirits, whose chief study is Nature, and whose chief aim is to secure harmony and fraternal union. Intellectual and moral pursuits are prosecuted with vigor and success. Various sciences are studied and perfected, with a view to unfold the spiritual powers, and prepare for that grand Harmonial State., between which and their own circle there is but an intermediate step.

The members of this circle make many visits to Earth, and glean all the truths possible from the minds of the most eminent scholars thereon. But in this way but little knowledge, comparatively, is gained; â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

from their powers of perception, they find more

advantage in a study of Nature. It requires but a short space of time, comparatively, with assiduous attention and application, to prepare for and be ushered into the Sixth Circle, which is the scat of a moral beauty, intellectual grandeur and harmony, that the human faculties cannot conceive or comprehend. Almost. perfect harmony exists throughout this circle, and Love, Wisdom anl1 Truth seem to be 25

stamped upon all. There is a mingling of thought and sympathy, between the societies of this circle, that is not to be found in the lower circles; there is a sort of mutual affinity and desire to assist each other in progressive advancement, that is ultimately to be consummated in the Seventh Circle.

Between the members of this circle and the inhabitants of the Spirit Land of Jupiter, and all the planets that have attained the same point of progression, there are mutual exchanges of thoughts, and visits, that are enjoyed by none of the occupants of the lower circles. These visits and exchanges are frequent, profitable and necessary, as they serve to prepare each other for that point when the Spirits of all planets are to be united in one grand circle of harmonious union.

The number of Spirits in the Sixth Circle is much less than in any other circle. This is a kind of probationary state for the Spirit. Its chief designs and efforts are to attain a perfect knowledge of all truth, within the scope of its conditional powers,â&#x201D;&#x20AC; for, without this desire, there would, nor can be harmony of opinion and action. The faculties possessed by the members of this circle to attain knowledge and truth are extensive, and comparatively unlimited; and these faculties are employed to great advantage. All the noblest attributes of the soul are developed, and when finally developed, the possessor can pass from this circle to the Third Sphere, or Seventh Circle. 26

The Seventh Circle is not connected solely with the Spirit Land of our particular planet, but is, as it were, a new world, wherein are congregated the harmonized souls of all planets and nations. The beauty of this circle I cannot tell you from experience, as it has not yet been my privilege to visit it. The inhabitants of that sphere never pay you visits, nor ourselves, but commune with us by influx; and thus have I gained a partial knowledge of the blissful retreat, whither the fully progressed soul ultimately goes.

Thousands of years are spent by us in fitting ourselves for that sphere, â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

and the process, by which we pass thither, is almost

equivalent to another dissolution. There are in the Sixth Circle Spirits who have been here engaged in the grand work of development for many centuries, and who have not yet sufficiently unfolded the harmonial powers of the soul, to be fitted for that sphere where all is harmony and peace, â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

where the beauty of the Divine mind is

seen in all its splendor, and the soul of man transformed into an almost perfect existence.

This circle, as it is commonly denominated, is more properly a Sphere. It has no connection with the individual Heavens, but is a grand Sphere, where are united all developed Spirits of all worlds.

The occupations of the Spirits in this sphere are such as are compatible with their natural desires, in the pursuit of which each mutually assists the other. Therein is to be found a combination of Love, Wisdom and Truth, such as is beyond the powers of your minds to conceive.

In speaking of the Seventh Circle. I have said that it is the home of those Spirits who have attained perfect development, â&#x20AC;&#x201D; which if, in the common signification of the w6rd, was the case, the progression of the soul is consummated, and would cease; â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but I have used the words perfect and fully, comparatively: I would have them signify such a state of progression as to your minds would appear perfect, but which, nevertheless, is not perfect; but such a state of moral and mental progression, that the human mind could conceive no further progression possible. Spirits are progressive, and their progression is infinite, unceasing, eternal; their object is to attain perfect development, yet perfection cannot be attained by them. They aim at an attainment of the knowledge of all truth, but nevertheless can never attain this knowledge; for should they do so, or were they able to do so, they would cease to be finite, and would become infinite beings, â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

and hence Deities in knowledge and power.

The Seventh Circle, or Third Sphere, is a grand Harmonial Sphere, and, unlike the lower state of Spirits, is not divided into societies, but 28

is one grand society, the efforts of whose members are to develop their own, and mutually assist each other in the development of spiritual powers. There is about this sphere a moral and intellectual beauty that is dazzling to behold, and impossible to describe or conceive, until seen and known.

I have said, in a preceding page, that the tendency of Spirit is progressive, and that it cannot by any possibility retrograde. By this I mean that eternal retrogression is impossible; but that, although in its inceptive stages of existence it may (in the First Circle) retrograde, this retrocession will, and must end in progression. I will here take occasion to say that, save in the First Circle, there is no retrogression, â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but progression stamps the efforts, and is the motto of all Spirits.

The account which I have given of the Spirit Land differs, in very many of its points, very materially from the accounts given you by various spiritual clairvoyants, â&#x20AC;&#x201D; as Swedenborg, Davis, the clairvoyants employed by Cahagnet, ect., â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

which conflicts will

appear to you as necessary consequences of propositions before laid down by me; that the Spirit Land is a perfect type of each spirit's desires and powers, and is only seen in its true state when the spirit has attained sufficient progression to enter the Sixth Circle of existence. That the various circles are made up by affinity of desires, and that, by no possibility, can the Spirit in the body go beyond the 29

Fifth Circle of development.

Now you will at once perceive that a clairvoyant, being in a spiritual ecstasy, would naturally gravitate to that circle for which he had an affinity, and would perceive such a spiritual state as was compatible with his own prejudiced powers, ect. Hence Swedenborg, being educated to, and prejudiced in favor of, a belief in the "Holy Writ" (so called), would perceive in the Spirit Land such a state or condition of life as was compatible with those prejudices, because his prejudices would exist in representation before him. Hence he, believing in the existence of "hell torments for the wicked, in a lake that burneth with fire and brimstone," tells you that he saw in the Spirit Land not solely a Hell, but Hells, burning as aforesaid, compatible with his views.

No two Spiritual Clairvoyants have ever yet given you like accounts. of the spiritual condition; and yet this difference of accounts does not militate against the genuineness of their powers, but simply illustrates the truth of what I have said in relation to the Spirit Land being a perfect type of each spirit's desires, powers, ect., â&#x20AC;&#x201D; these desires and prejudices being before them in â&#x20AC;&#x153;REPRESENTATION." Davis was less prejudiced than Swedenborg, as his mind had not been subjected to the discipline of the strait-jacket of sectarianism, or a great degree of any species of education, â&#x20AC;&#x201D; hence his powers were in a more natural or favorable condition to perceive, more 30

nearly than Swedenborg, the spiritual state. Yet, if you compare the account of the Spirit Land, given by him, with his phrenological developments, and state of education at the time, you will find that it is such an account as would naturally be expected from him, in accordance with the statement before made, that " each Spirit perceives such a condition as is compatible with his desires, powers, education," ect. Mr. Davis, as nearly as was possible for him, gave what he saw in the spiritual plane,' but yet did not give you a correct account. Not, however, were these errors the result of any willful or intentional purpose to inculcate error, but for the reasons before stated; â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and here allow me to say, that, as a man, Mr. Davis has not his equal on your globe. He is actuated by the most pure intentions, and is a highly advanced Spirit. His motives are purely philanthropic, and there does not exist within him, in development, a vicious principle. Yet Mr. D.'s account of the Spirit Land you will perceive to be widely different from Swedenborg's.

Mr. Cahagnet, of France, through clairvoyants employed by him, has issued to the world opinions in reference to this sphere, which widely differ from either of the preceding, and from the same cause. The clairvoyants employed by him were but slightly susceptible of spiritual ecstasies, and withal were in an imperfect state of development in every respect, and not very well calculated to give the world much light upon either spiritual or human matters. By these 31

clairvoyants many exceedingly imperfect accounts were given, and such as are, in fact, in conflict with themselves.

The idea is there advanced that the apparel of each Spirit, in the body, is impregnated with spiritual emanations that enable it to exist here; hence that each Spirit is able to appear in any of its "bodily" apparel that it pleases, or in such apparel as it wore on Earth. Now this, in one respect, is incorrect. The clothes of an individual are not able to obtain an existence here, from any spiritual emanations with which they become impregnated; but Spirits may appear to be dressed in their peculiar earthly-apparel, if they desire so to do, or if other Spirits desire them so to do, â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but not because their clothes spiritually exist, though they do exist in representation, or are mirrored from the memory, at the desire of the Spirit.

The Emanations of The Spirit World Andrew Jackson Davis The Thinker (1861)

The spiritual world is in one sense a material world, I repeat; but it is higher, both in its constituents and in the order of its formation. Elementally, it does not essentially differ from those primates which compose the rock, the tree, the animal, or a human body. The difference is similar to that between a rose and its liquidated fragrance. The best imponderable emanations of this world gravitate to what we call the spiritual sphere, and help to form its substance. Let us examine this progressive series of emanations. First, we have undeveloped earth, in the form of solid stone; second, the embedded gases are liberated, and condensed in the form of water; third, out of water thus derived comes the ocean of atmosphere; fourth, out of atmosphere is eliminated what is termed electricity; fifth, from the abundant opulence of electricity there issues a finer element, imaginetism; and, lastly, out of all these ponderable bodies and imponderable elements, there flows forth a mighty sea of imperceptible emanations into universal space. The question might possibly be by science put: "Whither goeth those emanations?" Nature is everywhere harmonious. When you have seen one 33

department, you have a key to unlock the great truths which stand temple-like, throughout the countless systems of infinitude. As the finest particles of all organizations below man ascend, or are attracted, into his constitution, so these finest particles or emanations from the natural worlds in space ascend, or are attracted, into the constitution of the spiritual world.

The Summer Land Andrew Jackson Davis Morning Lectures (1863)

When liberated at death, we do not move on toward the sun, nor drop downwards into some dreary depth of darkness; we embark on a sidewise voyage, directly above the southern extremity of our planet, and thence onward until we reach the Summer-Land! What shore do we gain? We gain the shore of a land just like this earth, if this earth were a stratified belt composed of the finest possible particles that you can imagine thrown from all the orbs composing the Milky Way. Pulverize and attenuate the finest particles of matter on this earth; then bring them together in chemical relations; make them coalesce and form into an immeasurable golden belt with all the visible suns and stars, and you have the Second Sphere in its substance, position, and formation.

Do you not comprehend that that Land is as substantial to those who live there as this earth is to its inhabitants? The proportions and the adaptations are the same. The Summer-Land, so far as the surrounding immensity is concerned, is bounded on all sides by aerial seas. Suppose you should go down to any of those high points 35

of land along the coast, and look off on the watery expanse of the Atlantic Ocean. What would you see? No islands are visible; only an atmosphere overhead; clouds are floating in the blue sky, and all the rest is water. Now suppose you had never seen, or read, or heard of such a spectacle. What would be your first impression? Your first sensuous impression would be that all the immensity beyond was water, as all above is sky, and that, if you should sail off on that dreary waste, you would be lost utterly to land and to human society. Such, I say, would be your impression or apprehension on the supposition that you had no previous knowledge of any such spectacle in Nature.

Now imagine yourself standing on one of those shining shores on the margin of the Summer-Land. Looking toward the Earth, and Sun, and Mercury, and Venus, what would you see? If you were not a farseeing clairvoyant, but was contemplating with the first opening of your spiritual eyes, you would see an illimitable ocean of twinkling stars overhead and zones of golden suns shining, and you would realize a holy, celestial atmosphere, bounding your existence on all sides, and from your feet the departure of an ocean without shore or island, without form, and void of all relations. If, however, your clairvoyant sight was opened â&#x20AC;&#x201D; if your spiritual eyes had the light of far penetrating clairvoyance in them â&#x20AC;&#x201D; you would instantly perceive that the aerial ocean, which flows out into infinity from your feet, 36

ripples off and divides into beautiful ethereal rivers, and that those rapidly flowing rivers lead away to the planets, even to this Earth, whence you departed, while another river flows onward to Mars, another to Jupiter, another to Saturn, and other celestial streams to other more distant planets belonging to other systems of suns; and so on, and on, throughout the star-paved regions of the firmament, you would behold, in every imaginable direction, streams running musically down these gentle atmospheric declivities, just as tangibly as the rivers that run down the mountains and flow through the spaces in the rough landscapes of this more material world. I wish! oh how I wish! that I could picture to you the reality of these musical rivers of the heavenly spaces. They are musical to the ear that can hear them flowing between the constellations. Pythagoras and his school believed in the deathless “music of the spheres.”

Did not the students of Pythagoras listen to catch that compound symphony? And was it not this very star melody which caused them to be such enthusiasts in Music? Did not some of them in the far-off olden time have clairaudience enough to hear through the physical, and also clairvoyance sufficient to see that “in the Father’s house there are many mansions” many. happy and beautiful places — many apartments or spheres of human life — and that these different apartments in the celestial temple were so many local scenes and landscapes, belonging to the Summer-Land, which breathe eternal 37

harmony throughout infinitude â&#x20AC;&#x153;the music of the spheresâ&#x20AC;?? Now suppose you were this moment standing on the shining shore of the Summer-Land and looking this way, the out-flowing sea would appear about the same to your sight, without the light of clairvoyance, as would the Atlantic Ocean to the natural eye from the promontories of Nahant. It would, perhaps, at first, be no more of a startling spectacle of incomprehensible sublimity.

Traveling in The Angelic Spheres Andrew Jackson Davis Death and The After-Life (1865)

Traveling in the post-mortem sphere is at first just like pilgrimizing on earth. But the higher inhabitants have acquired what we shall never be able perfectly to imitate in this world. They have the power, without wings, to rise up and put themselves in harmony with the currents that sweep through the atmospheric spaces. With the spread of light they ride on those currents millions and trillions of miles. It is accomplished by the marvelous power of inherent Will.

The ability of the Will to check the pulse is a promise of ultimate achievements. It is possible to develop and educate this inherent power of Will. By it, in this world, we lift our heavy bodies from beds or chairs, and cause them to move on the ground through low space. It is a mental power holding insensate muscles to its rule.

This executive energy of the arisen human spirit, instead of wings, is the secret of its lightning flight. I do not say that spirits travel by a continuous exertion of the Will. They seek the upper currents by Will, somewhat like the balloon excursion which occurred some few years 39

since between St. Louis and the northern part of this state. Professor Wise speaks positively of the existence, of an invariable current, and thinks that if the venturesome aeronaut could strike it, he would be rapidly and safely carried from west to east. His first experiment was a failure, as all first experiments usually are; but it sufficiently illustrates what is the universal method of traveling in the Summer-Land, when they depart on their far-away excursions.

They gain that particular current which sweeps away through the spaces between the orbits of the planets, and which takes them "with the celerity of thought" to the destination which they desire to reach, however remote it may be from their point of departure. We shall not obtain that method in this life, save by uncertain balloons. We see the lesson and the example in birds. But that is done by a direct exertion of the will, and by sympathetic contact of their swift-moving wings with the electricity of the air â&#x20AC;&#x201D; part float developed by friction, and part momentum developed by Will. Just as a message of intelligence can be sent through space by vibrating the telegraphic current over thousands of miles, so the spirit-body and Will can, by the vibration of the celestial rivers which flow between the Summer-Land and the different planets, mount and float and ride upon them with inconceivable speed, and gain any desired destination. Traveling there is social. But the truth is, that a combination of minds, just like ourselves, coming in contact with 40

earthly congregations, pour out the spirit of real love, uplifting, elevating, giving inward gladness and unity of feeling "in the bonds of peace."

The Unfolding Progression Andrew Jackson Davis A Stellar Key to the Summer-Land (1868)

When spirits conversing appeal to each other's memory, the memory mirrors forth a perfect representation of the thing remembered, which is perceived and understood by the conversing spirit. I behold beautiful representations in the memory of those in the higher societies. These representations are of the most exquisite character, because they proceed from the memory of highly enlightened intellects; and they are therefore delightful, inviting, and instructive.

I perceive that everything in this Sphere is created and manifested only by and through the exercise and direction of wisdom. Hence the perfect order and uniformity that subsist, and the inexpressible happiness that flows as a consequence from such exquisite harmony and unity of action. Everything is appreciated as a blessing conferred upon them by the light and life of Divine Love, and the order and form of Divine Wisdom. It is pleasing to behold these heavenly societies; for I see them at this moment existing in the most perfect degree of brotherly love, and joined inseparably together by constant ascending and descending affections. How very clear and bright are 42

their countenances and expressions! They are unblemished by artificiality, and unspotted by rudimental and gross intrusions â&#x20AC;&#x201D; for they are above and superior to these, and highly developed. The first society is indeed low, in comparison to the highest; but the variety and the degree is nevertheless a form of the whole â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a complete brotherhood. The diversity consists in the different degrees of development; and the lowest cannot approach the highest, because of the dissimilarity of quality and spheres. But the lowest contains and involves the highest, while the latter, in return, comprehends and pervades the whole Sphere, manifesting a grace and beauty beyond the power of language to describe. And there exists almost an infinite variety of dispositions, of loves, of affections, and of wisdom, among them; yet each modification of previous conditions of mind is only an ascending degree of refinement toward perfection.

The whole is beautiful â&#x20AC;&#x201D; surpassingly beautiful and sublime! For there exists that continual emanation of love and wisdom from societies and individual forms, displaying a brilliancy of illumination beyond any light or color on earth. It is even so very bright and beautiful, that those in the lower societies who approach are almost thrown into ecstasies of delight. They become prostrated, and apparently fall on their faces, because of the beauty and brilliancy of the aroma that encompasses the superior societies of the spirit-home. 43

Thus it is that all preserve an order in their lives and situations; and thus it is that their approach to each other is graduated according to the unfolding of the spiritual senses and faculties to the external. They represent the circular and spiral forms; for there exists among them a uniform and also an ascending movement. And one is continually unfolding the possessions of another, even as from the germ are unfolded the body and the flower. And even as the flower perpetuates the species of the plant, so does the superior society pervade the lower ones, and is constantly introducing them into its own vast possessions; and thus all go onward to a still higher Sphere of spiritual and intellectual elevation.

Thus fixed, unvarying, and universal laws of the Father govern and regulate all his universe. Throughout all the ramifications of the spiritual, physical, and celestial, eternal unity, order, and harmony reigns â&#x20AC;&#x201D; conception, development, progression, and perfection mark all things, and all point with irresistible force of reason and demonstration to the immortality of the Spirit.

ln taking this philosophical view of the plan and progress of Nature and the works of God, how grand, how sublime, how comprehensive, how rational and satisfactory â&#x20AC;&#x201D; to the independent-thinking and inquiring mind, who wishes to ''have a reason for the faith that is 44

within him" — how perfectly are the love and wisdom and justice of the Father and Mother conjugated and displayed! And how real, conclusive, and overwhelming the evidence — appealing directly to the senses, the intellect, and the affections — of the self-conscious, immortal existence and progressive happiness of the "spirit" that is within us! The human race being the last and highest development of earth, and mind the only organism possessing reason and intelligence that examines and investigates all that is beneath and around itself, and that has a consciousness of the future — endeavoring to raise or draw aside the thin, semi- transparent vail that hangs suspended between the physical and spiritual existence — analogy, "reasoning from what we know," points directly not only to the probability, but to the absolute certainty and necessity of a future existences called the Summer Land.

All organic forms below man not only produce their like, but the substance of their material forms mingle with previously formed compounds, to produce a new and distinct type superior to itself. But the human type has no superior development and there is no retrogression in the works of nature. Each new unfolding is superior to the preceding. Man, then, is destined for other and higher Spheres. In those Spheres, or new states of existence, man's spirit must present not only an "image and likeness" of Nature and God, but a consciousness of identity and individual selfhood. Feeling and 45

knowing this, he should so live while in this rudimentary and preparatory state of existence, that all his physical, intellectual, moral, and spiritual structure, formation, growth, and maturity, be fully developed, cultivated, and perfected; so that when the

"mortal puts

on immortality," and seeks "a home in the heavens," it can expand into a celestial life, without spot or blemish to mar its beauty or impede its progress in bliss and glory eternal.

Places or Spheres in the Spirit-World Hafed, Prince of Persia David Duguid (1876)

The Spirit World comprises many different lands or places, in which Spirits, in accordance with their condition, find a suitable habitation. There are many who term these spheres. I call them places â&#x20AC;&#x201D; countries, similar to those of Earth. And inasmuch as the various tribes of men on Earth (as I said before) are drawn together into nations or countries, so is it with man in Spirit-life â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the various classes or conditions find their respective localities.

One man of your Earth may have a love for the gay and delicate flowers that decorate the fields. Another takes a wider range, and takes delight in grand and beautiful scenery, and his soul revels amid the mountains whose snow-capped tops pierce into the heavens. Another, amid the thundering roar of dashing waters pouring from the cliff above to the dark depths below, loves to contemplate the rainbow hues of the cascade. Others, again, prefer quiet and solitude in the dark gloomy paths of the forest, that their hearts may rise in aspiration to God; while another class find their greatest pleasure on the waters in the bright and beautiful sunshine. 47

Even so is it in the World of Spirits. There is one who loved the beautiful flowers of Earth, and he finds his loved and lovely treasures in their celestial beauty much more lovely than ever he dreamt of. Here, too, there is enough to satisfy the admirer of Nature in her grander aspects, of mountain and valley â&#x20AC;&#x201D; of flood and field. Here the joyous waters fall from the rocky heights in a tide of music, at once gratifying the eye and ravishing the ear of him whose soul loves to find pleasure amid such scenes. And then, again, we have our grand old woods and their quiet solitudes, through which the contemplative man may walk and meditate on the Great Spirit, and on all His wonderful ways and works â&#x20AC;&#x201D; how all is so beautifully fitted to the necessities of the creature by the All-wise and Almighty Creator, and how all become, by His arrangement, sweet ministers to man.

There, too, on the banks of a beautiful lake, whose silver waters ripple under the beams of heavenly light, we have great gatherings of the lovers of music, whose songs of praise, reverberating on the distant rocks, come back in harmonious echoes across the waters, filling their hearts with gladness, love, and peace. Such scenes as I have been describing, are only adapted to man in a truly moral condition; for where I am all are God-like. It is different in the dark places of the Spirit World; there men are still under the dominion of 48

the animal part of their nature; their God-like part is still buried up, over-grown with weeds, with no eye, no ear for Heavenly things. Not until these choking weeds are torn away can the Spirit be made to feel that there are treasures around him which he may possess. When, however, the hindrances are removed, he finds a place suitable to his moral condition. Painters, artisans, philosophers â&#x20AC;&#x201D; all find in Spirit-life their varied wants and aspirations fully met by the wise providence of the Great Ruler.

The Second Sphere Mary Washington The Heavenly Spheres (1877)

"We will now speak of the second sphere, to which those have passed who have become conscious of the spiritual, and are quickening with a sensitive desire to comprehend the true relation of their spiritual surroundings. In this sphere, everything is similar to the first, save, of a more spiritual and refined nature. All things pertaining to life exists here, and are a necessity to the condition of the atmosphere, and life of spiritual man. It, like all spheres continues to throw off an aura, which goes to sustain the one above, which gradually doing away with the lower or animal creation, as a necessity, supplying the higher with a magnetic aura, which, passing through a process of refinement, sustains the spiritual life beyond, until the spirit has outgrown the necessity of nourishment of all animal life, and has become a perfect spiritual being, where it is supplied by quickening life, with light reflected from the higher atmosphere of infinite worlds.

You must know that there must be order in the great unfoldment of man, from his earthly condition to the higher life, in which abound all 50

the material chemical productions of earth, until we reach the fourth sphere. From there, you will perceive a change, which will again change the chemical, but not the being.

Here a new light is given, a new voice which proclaims a new birth â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a new spiritual birth â&#x20AC;&#x201D; where all the dross of material conditions is removed at the threshold, to again step forth to an unseen world, to be met by the glorified, who have borne the palm of the purified in spirit, and where the golden light of God's glory begins to illuminate the horizon. On being ushered to this sphere, the most wonderful and glorious effulgence of light breaks upon the new-born spirit, and reveals to them what the senses could never have conceived. Here you behold a host, who are gathered to chant forth angelic music. From this sphere you will commence your angelic ascensions to the fifth, sixth and seventh, until you reach the great ocean of eternal beauty, where sphere after sphere unfolds among the planetary nebula of the spiritual kingdom; where are concentrated hosts of glorious spirits at work, carrying out the fulfillment of life in every sphere and planet. In the third and fourth are the workers, who are chemically analyzing earths and other sphere atmosphere, and who are making rapid strides toward a grand discovery, soon to be made known upon your earth, as a new power, by, and through which we, as well as mortals, can comprehend each other, without the doubt and uncertainty that now exists, as to whether we are life, existence 51

or phantom.

Principles of Our Spheres Mary Washington The Heavenly Spheres (1877)

Life here is very similar to that of earth, and differs only as we comprehend it from our present standpoint? For instance, life is varied as on earth; also are the inhabitants in their traits of character, which are diffused in different ways to blend in harmony and not jar inharmoniously from want of sympathy. Thus every sphere in heaven or earth has its variety and condition adapted to the wants of its inhabitants; each fundamental principle being of itself a sustaining power which must come from the outer to strengthen the inner soul.

We must give you the leading steps to our loved abode; so that as you advance, you can comprehend what we wish to convey to your mind, and also be enabled to impress upon you the true revelation of this God given home, and its true locality and adaption. Many have returned so elated with its glories, that they could not define to mortal understanding the true condition of this grand universe; but as this Temple is not made with hands, but wrought out of divine principles in all its wonderful and glorious unfoldment, so has it developed man in all his glorious conceptions and proportions to carry out the 53

wonderful beatitude of his Divine Creator; and as all things must be seen until known in the all-coming times, by every mortal whose perceptions lead him to the infinite, so, also, will he yet unveil the true secret of his origin and future. We, who are, as it were, dead to the world, are yet of the world a part, and shall ever hold the magnetic chord of earthly conditions. We cannot possibly break them; they may become finer, and the tissue may be lost to earthly gaze, yet we shall ever be connected, and shall be helpers in the great work of the world's reform; for it is our world, and as such, belongs to us. Though we may visit, inhabit, and admire other worlds, yet this world is our home. The earth is our mother, and we shall ever bless her, for we cannot do otherwise. Our Father is the universe, and by him and through him, we are being educated and unfolded to learn the wonderful and glorious revealments he is making.

Spiritual Currents Martha Washington The Heavenly Spheres (1877)

My dear earth-friend:

I have taken this medium beyond the known spheres belonging to this earth, and through vast space beyond any planet yet seen by mortal eye. Yes to a home that is eternal, a planet whose eternal beauty cannot be conceived, and which language fails to portray; but it is there, and God, the universal Father, but not embodied, save through the souls of the purified who centralize the highest and purest of all created power. Here the Infinite mind is centralized, and from this centre radiates all intelligence to other planets or worlds; where guides are ever controlling and blending the forces of truth and knowledge, and spreading it through the different planets. When we think of what the world calls death, we feel at once thrilled with a desire to awaken them to their true condition; and to arouse them to a true knowledge of their glorious future.

I find that by the assistance of my loved Washington and mother, who have been my guides to this soul realm of angelic beauty, that I 55

have brought this medium in harmony with its sublime grandeur, by whom I can give realities of the same world once given in visions to those who inspiredly wrote so beautifully, and who are now inhabitants of this soul realm of eternal life. They were the worshipers of the true God as a universal Father, and being honest and pure in their thoughts, this vision was given them of heaven, as they called it, where everything sparkled in beauty with its golden light, radiating with life from God or infinite power which permeates the whole. This soul realm is out of the magnetic circle of all planets revolving in an atmosphere which fills and surrounds it. It is also sustained by the magnetic and electric belts of all planets as they throw off their refined aura. While spirits are passing from planets to this soul realm, they are sustained by currents of magnetic life like a gulf stream flowing direct to this central realm of eternal life.

Once within this current, the spirit is carried so softly, and lulled by sweet strains of music taking away all anxiety regarding the strangeness and distance from other climes. Attendants are also sent to guide the spirit until finally brought to the holiest of holies, where dazzling beauty and grandeur starts the soul with awe and wonder at the enchanted scenery, and you feel like prostrating in adoration before the shining angels of perfected life, who invite you to rest amid the anthems and love of angelic beings, who love and care for you so tenderly. And here I will rest. 56

The Second Sphere Mary Washington The Heavenly Spheres (1877)

You must know that there must be order in the great unfoldment of man, from his earthly condition to the higher life, in which abound all 57

the material chemical productions of earth, until we reach the fourth sphere. From there, you will perceive a change, which will again change the chemical, but not the being.

Here you behold a host, who are gathered to chant forth angelic music. From this sphere you will commence your angelic ascensions to the fifth, sixth and seventh, until you reach the great ocean of eternal beauty, where sphere after sphere unfolds among the planetary nebula of the spiritual kingdom; where are concentrated hosts of glorious spirits at work, carrying out the fulfillment of life in every sphere and planet. In the third and fourth are the workers, who are chemically analyzing earths and other sphere atmosphere, and who are making rapid strides toward a grand discovery, soon to be made known upon your earth, as a new power, by, and through which we, as well as mortals, can comprehend each other, without 58

the doubt and uncertainty that now exists, as to whether we are life, existence or phantom.

The Harmonial Sphere Martha Washington The Heavenly Spheres (1877)

We will now pass to the fifth, where a more scintillated and spiritual atmosphere is found, where the olden bards and sages of the past have made their homes, and where science has crowned with laurels, those who have nobly won, by their earnest and inspired works, peaceful homes of rest, amid the enchanting scenery of beatific life. In this sphere there are transparent waters whose surface glistens with sparkling light and supplying beauty; upon whose surface glide myriads of beings with all the light and grace of angelic beauty, in every conceivable form of conveyance, many diving beneath its surface to catch the sunlight as it dawns upon and through the loveliest of flowers so beautifully blossoming in and around its crystal beauty.

Many are borne upon the surface like your lilies and so beautifully arranged in architectural beauty, as to form a conveyance for spirits to float upon these perfumed, musical, miniature boats or gondolas â&#x20AC;&#x201D; we call them our flower nests of the sea. On these we often float at will, as nothing will harm or mar the happiness of one who is 60

welcomed here, for this is the harmonial sphere, where homes are prepared with elegance and taste, acquired by long spiritual unfoldment. Each has his attractive abode and associations that give sweet peace to the soul. A central pleasure ground is attached to certain localities, for amusement, where choristers make melodious music. Within this flower-perfumed abode, beautiful songsters warble their notes of praise and joy to relieve the weary and pleasure bound. Infantile spirit bands are also brought here to blend in this great family circle of sphere life. In this sphere you find the alabaster and crystal homes which are substance ethereal to the touch of spirits who do not belong to this sphere, yet well defined to those who inhabit it.

The Summer Land Mary Washington The Social Life of Heavenly Spheres (1879)

I will now take you to our home in the Summer Land â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the home where we spend our quiet and happy intervals of rest and repose, and gather sweet inspiration to renew our life-work with ecstasies of delight.

Here are golden colored mystic rivers, which give forth enchanting sounds like cymbals or fine strung bells of smallest size, which so blend in tone and sweetness that they lull to repose and rest. Such a beautiful river flows near our retreat, with ambrosial flowers on its banks, with grottoes and statuary of the noble and grand of earth's history, here and there surrounded by sparkling fountains whose crystal waters give a musical cadence soft and sweet, where we love to retire to meditate and ask inspiration of higher power.

Often the inhabitants of other planets visit our loved home and wander amidst its beautiful scenery, gathering mementoes to carry to their loved sphere where they are kept as tokens of remembrance.

We often revisit and hold heavenly converse on the wonderful soul realm of eternal life.

The physical cares or fatigues of your life are not ours. We drop those with our garments at the gateway of earth, before entering the portals of our heavenly home, and take upon us our vestal garments of shining and purified texture which we change as easily as the rainbow its hues, adapting ourselves to the conditions of change through different spheres.

Imagine, if you can, some lovely spot of earth where the undulating scenery of mountains and valleys whose picturesque beauty carries the soul out into some fairy land, whose towering mountains covered with rich verdure and lofty trees, whose leafy branches breathe fragrance and coolness to the soul, while the valleys gently sloping down to the crystal waters of a beautiful river, whose branches are spreading like veins through the surrounding country, with lakes dotted here and there, while a broad expanse of waters like the ocean sparkles and ripples in the distance. The hazy sunshine gives a halo to the scene, the soft notes of sweet singing birds and the little fairy insect world are lending a harmonical chord to lull with the singing waters a weary-worn spirit to rest. Such then may you imagine, but still a much brighter picture than this of our dear summer-land. 63

We have a variety of scenery so beautiful that it has never entered into the mind of mortal to conceive of the glories that await the pilgrim stranger to this fairy land.

My home, or rather our homeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;for my dear family are encircled within its charms, and many who are in unison with our love of life â&#x20AC;&#x201D;meet with us in a loving harmony. Our lovely home nestles in the bosom of a valley whose lands slope gently down to a beautiful lake, where the sunset falls like gold upon its mirrored surface, reflecting the gorgeous scenery. We chose this spot as a memento of our earth-home and for a resting place after long excursions to other planes or spheres. We also have homes in every sphere when we have become an inhabitant in our progress to this.

We find so many things like earth in the floral kingdom and among the feathered songsters, that we never lose the individuality of earth; but there are many beautiful flowers that bloom with us that do not bloom on earth, such as the music flower, which makes the sweetest music chiming with the cymbal waters, thrilling the soul with joy. (Cymbal is the name given to certain bodies of water which give a sweet sound like tinkling bells, yet not distinct and apart, but sweetly blending in symphony.)

As you near our beautiful home from the silvery flowing river, you see grottoes and cascades and fountains. Our grottoes are very beautiful when covered with those singing flowers, whose fragrance greets the stranger with a wonderful rapture, similar to the fragrance that fills the atmosphere when roses are in bloom in your earth.

We do not live in houses like those of earth, but have glorious sheeny apartments, which screen from the outward observer and yield a sweet protection in which our souls revel and rest.

Outward on a beautiful mountain we behold the retreat of those who are mingling soul with the scenery, and gradually does it blend with those inspirational beings where everything tends to elevate from this beautiful scene. Here live poets in their beautiful visions of higher life, artists, sculptors, inventors, who have laboratories or schools of design whereby to perfect their glorious ideas or conceptions. Here they can study thoughts from the earth-plane thousands of years before man has any knowledge or communication. This knowledge will yet be handed down to earth, before your scientist will gather it from the laboratory of earth, through the investigations of geological research, yet they will compare perfectly when brought together.

We will not digress, but return to our description of our beautiful home. You ask how do we live. We answer, by being embalmed with 65

all and everything that is beautiful and in harmony to our taste or desire. Comprehending the beautiful we attract the beautiful to us. Nothing is allowed by the ruling innate law, to mar an inspiration in the heavenly spheres. We yield to the impulses that surround us, as an infant to its mother for sustenance. Thus we retire to our grottoes, where all things minister to those beautiful visions of souls inspiration. There we are lulled and charmed by the music of the flowers and birds, and the hum of insect life, while the perfume of flowers impregnates our being with sweetness. Thus our soul is rested and uplifted, and like the flowers, gather in the nectar of God's glories, which make us grander and more noble in doing the great good for those who need our strength, and who do not have such beautiful homes.

The desires of the heart furnish the homes of spirit-life. Those who do not love the beautiful are not given beautiful homes, until they have grown into a condition to appreciate them.

Now we have told you of flowers and birds, and you naturally ask, have we any other scenes or conditions like earth. Yes friends, all the animal creation are here in their form and sphere, and many more beautiful than ever seen upon your earth, being adapted to our sphere alone. Why should we not? Have we not the forest, the mountain and meadow, lawns, lakes, rivers, all and everything like 66

earth, and much that you will understand that earth has not, because of her density.

Yet, she will bring forth and develop many new beings as she continues to rise out of her density to higher spiritual altitudeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;for she is rising higher and is becoming more spiritual in all her conditions. Everything upon her plane is being more spiritualized, and therefore she will develop more spiritual elements.

My friend, you ask about our sun. We will tell you that the sun does not shine the same to us as with you, but emits a glorious halo that envelopes all our scenery with an auroral light of warmth, which is more genial, because the rays are not so strong and forcible, and our scenery is not so marked; but we have changes which are beautiful, giving us a variety of seasons, which are marked by departure and return of numerous spirits, who are exploring the different regions of the summer-land.

Our art galleries are truly wonderful, and as you pass from sphere to sphere, you behold a great change in the artistic taste and style of the different ages. Our libraries also are wonderful with the literary talent displayed, which had no recognition on earth. Arts and sciences are developed here by those whose talent was not developed or dreamed of upon earth. Here is the classical scholar, 67

the artisan, the poet, the explorer, every one perfectly represented with a home, a place where he can rest and enjoy the grandest visions of his soul theme.

Our choristers are forming a sphere of musical instruments, which will give forth sounds that will reverberate throughout the arches of heaven, and through the corridors of earth, giving a system of sounds not known on earth, but which will be recognized as from the spheres. From the scintillated light and warmth of atmospheric change which will come over your concentrated circles, formed by intelligent mediums who have been developed through the different phases, until connected with the spiritual element of our sphere, we will form a band to shout forth those strains of heavenly sound which will envelope the element of your sphere, and give a tribute to the galaxy of hosts which will attend both mortal and spiritual. These great gatherings which are being formed on earth, are only a counterpart of our heavenly associations, and are calculated to form a nucleus, whereby we can attach force to communicate it with earth. They do not understand that they conceived the idea from above, where angels long ago organized the same conditions, in order to promote the universal blending of all the power of earth. Thus we work by magnetic influences until all is symbolized on earth as it is in heaven.

In our blessed abode, are homes for children where they are nourished, protected and educated in all the departments of life, having natural guardians or chosen ones, who are attracted by their love of children to rear them to an individuality of self-sustaining power, oftentimes being brought to earth to be sustained by the magnetism of the mother, or some member of the family. An infant is always held within its mother's magnetic arms, until it can be sustained without it.

Here are buildings of oblong shape, with central towers that rise to immense height, surrounded by smaller towers, these again by balustrades; buildings grand as the soul can conceive of, in which there is gathered everything that is necessary for information and instruction, and for the happiness of children.

The beautiful play-ground surrounding, is a wonder of marvelous beauty, with its grottoes, its lawns and flowers, its miniature lakes and islands, all fresh and beautiful, with pebbly shores, and shelly banks,

and

sandy

bottom

glistening

snow,

where

rainbow-colored fishes glide in the crystal waters, giving full play to the imaginative soul of children. Here you will find groups of children nestled in some sylvan retreat on moss-clad mounds, surrounded by towering trees, whose wavering branches invite the pure atmosphere from flower-clad vales within its shady nook, where are interlaced 69

beautiful foliage and flowers, whose perfume charms the soul with joy. Bands of children are gathered by their teachers and guides, who hold joyous associations, often visiting other regions to luxuriate in the beauty of some sylvan shade, where tiny barks, like beautiful sea-shells, are darting over the sparkling waters, filled with life and joy, decked with beautiful flowers in varied hue, sparkling and dancing like fairy spirits upon some emerald lawn, where the gold and silvery sheen envelopes them in its glorious halo. On our silvery waters float beautiful homes or palaces of pleasure, where the artist, the scholar and poet can gather sweet themes from their soul-thoughts, blending them with the beautiful of this heavenly land, without the trials or sorrows of pain or hunger from physical needs.

One spot in our sphere is held as a great retreat by explorers and visitors. It is called the cave of song, from the flute-like notes that reverberate through its subterranean archways. Sometimes solemn and pathetic, at others, joyous and enchanting in its symphony. At times, you feel that it is enchanted ground, by the musical voices that come from its, at other times, silent chambers, whose gorgeous beauty is unrivalled by outward life.

Here are wonderful domes hung with jewels of stalactites, which flash and quiver in the reflected light through interstices, reflecting on the water beneath in cascades and water falls, giving it a grand and 70

romantic picture. Here you can wander through wondrous apartments, giving an opportunity for study. Here are archways with fluted pillars of alabaster, which tower to an immense height, leading to domes and galleries, where statuary of the most wonderful conception of every living thing, is embodied and at rest in its appropriate place, true to the material of outward life. Gems of great brilliancy flash in their gorgeousness, giving a life and warmth to this enchanting cave of summer-land.

When you wander through grand old castles that are here, whose consecrated domes have towered above for so many ages of your life, then will you wonder at the gorgeous grandeur of those tessellated and crystal floors, whose domes and arches are surrounded with the wonderful in art and science; where are living pictures of past greatness, in form and expression of the notable of all time and spheres; living, sheeny faces, whose life-like appearance thrills the soul with wonder and admiration.

When we pass from sphere to sphere, we float at will to every conceivable place, and yet we have corridors of beauteous surroundings which wind through the star-lit canopy, where we may rest and view the glorious scenery below.

As we pass to Vesta, wonders on wonders meet our view. Here we 71

find beautiful grottoes—lovely little nooks—with every luxury that the soul can conceive of, to allay its desire. Beautiful bright spirits who attend, and as we approach, sing and chant their melodious songs, which thrill us with delight. They are a beautiful race — so small, so perfect in their organizations—that they are wonderful in their magnetic life—so perfect, happy and joyous in their natures. None have ever been seen upon earth. Vesta is a beautiful planet which shines in its orbit or soul-lit canopy with great beauty, and its inhabitants partake of its genial life. There are a few of the inhabitants who come to attend us to their home, where we may enjoy for a while the beauties of their glorious life.

But we will not attempt now to describe its glories, as we are only to give you a knowledge of our earth's spiritual habitation.

We have now given you a feeble picture of our heavenly home. My dear son has also spoken of the same, but in a different style. We have endeavored to make it as clear as possible to the mind of mortals.

All who have been a long time in spirit-life, become so enlightened with its associations, that they cannot fully find language to express the condition of heaven in the language of mortals. We wish to write so that you may comprehend, and yet to clothe it in our spiritual 72

language. The language of earth is gradually changing as the soul is cultivated to express itself in all its fullness and beauty, without restraint. Whenever the soul-thought has been restrained in language, it becomes harsh and grating to the ears, as something unstrung or out of place; but when the spirit is rapt in the heavenly afflatus, and is held by the angels, it then gives forth the harmonious rhythm of the summer-land. We find that the language of the higher sphere is blending with that of earth, and the recognition of its sweetness and adaption links us as one in soul-thought.

We are now to leave the descriptive part of our home in spirit-land, but will endeavor to awaken a thought of future work for mortals. We have given a description of these scenes to give you a comprehension of our sphere and its conditions, that you may be prepared to enter upon your new field of work with an earnest desire and a truthful research into all life, both physical and spiritual. We are organizing for the fulfillment of the promise, made when my beloved son wrote or dictated his experience. And now dear friend of earth, we will add that we shall be with you in all of your undertakings until the end, and as you have been faithful to us we shall be true to you.

We have given in one combined effort, a true statement of our heavenly home as we find it, and rejoice to know that it meets with a kind recognition. 73

In giving this testimony to the world, many may be led to disbelieve my statements, as coming from the spirit-land, but many witnesses will bring their tribute to the truth of what we say.

As you are climbing up the golden stairway, the knowledge of life into the spiritual realm of light fail not to leave your land marks, by noting the change of ascension. This being your first great step, we hail you as a brother in the grand cause of future knowledge. Much will be given to you that you do not now conceive. Your first acceptance of the grand truths were so truthfully recorded, that you will reap a rich reward. We have now faithfully portrayed our heavenly home, but tongue can never express, or mind conceive of the glories which surround the different spheres or belts of atmospherical light, and the millions of happy spirits who inhabit them; therefor I will not further attempt, as I have already endeavored to make plain to your mind the true condition, and to clear the doubt of an uncertain world or home for the inhabitants of spirit-life.

We are workers on different planes of intelligence and are bringing this fact of spirit communion and individual spirit-life to the knowledge of earth's children. Therefore we ask you to work faithfully in the good cause of progression out of the thralldom of superstitious fear of an arbitrary God and a demoniacal Devil. Hell and heaven are 74

mythical terms given by designing minds on your earth, by which to frighten into subjection the human soul and make it subject to their control, and in so doing have resorted to superstitious deities in order to intimidate with superhuman power. But that is fast fading away, for the veil is rent, the light is streaming through, and soon the opening day will appear, removing all darkness and doubt from the minds of the people. As heaven and earth are shaking hands through the portals by friends from both spheres, the devil of the past will flee and a new revelation will dawn upon the world, a new covenant be made, the old will pass away, and the new birth of a renewed life shall be given to all the world, to last forever and forever. We now bless you and give you the light of our new gospel of glad tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people forever and ever.

MARY WASHINGTON.

The Power Electric Mary Washington The Social Life of Heavenly Spheres (1879)

A universal light will, spread throughout the world, and establish the knowledge of God in man, as the supremacy and intelligence of earth, surrounded by attending angels, who control according to the wants of the times. Arts and sciences unfold the true condition and relation of spheres and their uses.

The struggle will be great, and every effort will be made to overcome this great influence; but it will only cement the link by stronger ties, as every soul which is guided by the angelic hosts, will open a way for all to see the wondrous power of heaven.

God works by and through angel power, and they minister to the wants of all, whether rich or poor, great or small. "He has chosen the weak things of earth to confound the wise," and it will be found that He again assumes the power as of old, to commune with his own, the children of earth, and give them power to do His will. He gives the sun to shine on all alike, and has placed no barriers to their enjoyment of His beautiful creation. It is only man's device to debar 76

man from free and equal participation in all things pertaining to life. This is the birth of a new saviour, and one which will redeem the world without a sacrifice of blood. We drop the bloody feast of the past, and turn to the spiritual food, which will nourish and impart life in all its spiritual beauty. No more sacrifices of the material body, only a natural adaptation to natural laws, recognizing a spiritual blending to lead on to a higher sphere and a more perfect life.

It is this blending without fear that has brought so much to light and life, for now we are becoming an embodiment in perfect unison with the God-like principle of universal love.

We embody the electric and magnetic force, and make the selections as we wish to carry out a figure or plan of spirit design, to combine the element, to protect and cherish the arts, such as photography or spirit-form, brought to bear upon any given thing, or to impart a knowledge to earth-life of the power of spirit. We are testing all and every chemical particle of matter to blend it with our own, to establish the fact with our being.

We cannot pass a sphere surrounding us until we acquire the electric chain, which will unite and carry us by its attraction through it; yet, those laws are not arbitrary, because being understood, they are recognized as the true condition by and through, which all things 77

must move. The magnetic chain is a connecting link, binding all conditions so that we can connect with every sphere, and yet not leave our own.

Thus the spirits of higher spheres can and do communicate through every sphere and to the earth-plane; but as you on the earth-plane sometimes call it, by proxy. Often times communications are sent to earth by spirits from the higher life to their loved ones on earth, and receive in return, messages from them, without coming in contact with earth's atmosphere, its density at the time repelling them; therefore necessitating the telegraphic system to be used with us.

True Spiritual Conditions Mary Washington The Social Life of Heavenly Spheres (1879)

Since my advent to my bright spiritual home, I have not been idle, for one who sees the beautiful transfiguration of souls, from physical conditions, and the varied change through which they are ushered into the different spheres, according to their adaptation, needs to be active and earnest, to assist the unfledged spirit in its first reception to the new home. No infant needs more a mother's care than the spirit on its first entrance here. This being comprehended by the spirit band, the guarding spirit awaits, receives and embalms it in its magnetic embrace, until restored to strength and consciousness, sufficient to understand its own condition.

The question is often asked, Why do so many spirits hang around earth, and mar the happiness of mortals? I answer, that they lived solely for earth, and destroyed all aspirations for good, ignoring everything outside of physical necessities, at the expense of every sympathy, regarding nothing but sensual passions, thereby severing the tie of spirituality that would elevate them to higher conditions. On changing worlds they are drawn by their desires to such gratifications 79

as they most enjoyed in earth-life, thereby holding them around their former haunts and associates, who are on the same plane of desires with themselves; often controlling some unhappy mortal with tastes and passions like themselves, until they are gratified at the expense of the unfortunate being.

Could mortals see their true condition, they would strive to overcome the lower passions, and cultivate a spiritual elevation to do good, and cultivate the higher and holiest principles of lifeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;that when the change comes there will not be such powers to drag them like leaden weights down to earth.

The Glorious Truth of Divine Life Mary Washington The Social Life of Heavenly Spheres (1879)

Many who come, are not rejoiced at first, for they pass to a plane, which their own unhappy earth-lives have fitted for them, and it is a long time before they can be raised to higher and happier conditions. All are assisted by those of their friends on a higher plane; thus none are lost, but only retarded in their spiritual growth. My experience does not differ, I find, materially from many others who have given their testimony to the world.

The law governing the material world holds good in the spiritual. Order is Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first law, and the more harmonious the conditions, the better and higher will be the unfoldment of all truths, whether of earth or Heaven. Since my advent to my bright spiritual home, I have not been idle, for one who sees the beautiful transfiguration of souls, from physical conditions, and the varied change through which they are ushered into the different spheres, according to their adaptation, needs to be active and earnest, to assist the unfledged spirit in its first reception to the new home.

No infant needs more a mother’s care than the spirit on its first entrance here. This being comprehended by the spirit band, the guarding spirit awaits, receives and embalms it in its magnetic embrace, until restored to strength and consciousness, sufficient to understand its own condition. The question is often asked, “Why do so many spirits hang around earth, and mar the happiness of mortals?”

I answer, that they lived solely for earth, and destroyed all aspirations for good, ignoring everything outside of physical necessities, at the expense of every sympathy, regarding nothing but sensual passions, thereby severing the tie of spirituality that would elevate them to higher conditions. On changing worlds they are drawn by their desires to such gratifications as they most enjoyed in earth-life, thereby holding them around their former haunts and associates, who are on the same plane of desires with themselves; often controlling some unhappy mortal with tastes and passions like themselves, until they are gratified at the expense of the unfortunate being.

Could mortals see their true condition, they would strive to overcome the lower passions, and cultivate a spiritual elevation to do good, and cultivate the higher and holiest principles of life — that when the change comes there will not be such powers to drag them like leaden 82

weights down to earth.

The unfoldment of a new principle is beginning to assert itself upon the minds of the people producing a new and holy influence on all things earthly, making them believe that all things are sustained, and developed for higher good.

Vision is very imperfect in regard to the rights of the world; everyone has some new phase upon which they wish to base their standard of right. All see through different lenses, thereby destroying the harmony â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but it is only truth struggling through the haze of darkness, like the sun through clouds. We know there is a sun, a beautiful, bright, warm sun, which will break forth and dispel all the clouds that obscures its brightness.

So it is with truth. There is a glorious truth of divine life, which will come forth in all its freshness and glory, to warm and enliven those sad, gloomy hearts, which have so long been obscured by doubts and fears. Every step; that is taken to awaken mortals to a knowledge of their true condition of this life,, and towards harmonizing with the spheres, will tend to dispel the darkness, and bring to light the glories of the celestial spheres which are so closely allied, that the blending will add a beautiful lustre to the grave and solemn tread, of past mythology, and bring gladness and love to 83

sorrowing souls.

Beautiful lessons are taught in nature’s revelations, as the eye takes in the lofty mountains and the grand scenery of earth — but the eye of the soul, perceiving a beautiful world beyond, filled with living, teeming life and happy associations, is filled with joy indescribable. How beautiful is the soul teaching, for it brings us nearer to eternal things, which have been kept so far from us in the false teachings of dark theology. The spiritual awakening and unfoldment of our inner soul has opened a true condition of life. It is the open sesame of interior life that lifts the soul of men out of darkness into marvelous light, illuminating the darkened chambers whose hidden mysteries have been buried from the world through fear and superstitious dread of an offended Deity.

Every particle of matter gives a record of the past and comes back through its soul attraction, giving a true picture of itself — thus we read the great book of nature as a living page whose every leaf is destined to give a portion of the whole. Therefore nothing is lost, each particle having a place in the great of Nature. The hidden things, the springs of life, arc not understood by chemist or naturalist — but as the spirit of matter is being developed and understood, it will bring forth the problem of life. I find that to comprehend our spiritual home aright and to enjoy its blessings we must first understand our earthly 84

home and its laws in the spiritual as well as the material sense, therefore I have somewhat wandered in ray subject. But when I come en rapport with earth by controlling a form or brain, I become embalmed with its life and principles, thereby taking on the conditions of earth so as to realize its sensuous condition.

At such times life physical seems to return pleasantly, similar to mortals being embalmed with the spiritual, which uplifts and gives them those beautiful sensations of heavenly visions. We should say to our dear earthly friends to call around them as much as possible the good and true in spirit-life as well as in earth-life â&#x20AC;&#x201D; yet scorn not the downtrodden, but by kindness uplift and encourage them as you wish to be cared for by higher powers. We are all children of one great principle, or Father and Mother â&#x20AC;&#x201D; from spirit and matter, positive and negative forces are the creators of our existence.

The Second Sphere Mrs. Maria M. King Principles of Nature (1880)

The first Spiritual world or Second Sphere, is a real tangible world, to the Spirit-man, transcending in size the imagination. It corresponds to the first order of material Suns, our great-grandmother Sun, in size, though smaller. It serves as the first Spirit-home of all men horn upon all the Planets descended from that great- grandmother Sun.

It is located in the fourth Stratum, third formation of the Material Universe; we, and our material progenitor Suns being located in the sixth Stratum and fifth formation. Nature locates it thus, "where the reactions of the two planes, material and Spiritual, shall be natural and efficient for every purpose of Nature." "This principle is exemplified in a system of physical worlds which take position, relative to the central body, determined by the quality of their forces. The closer affinity of the outer forms of such a system to the central body creates the necessity for the broad spaces between them and the latter after the forces of a system become regulated and the attractions and repulsions are perfected. The diversity of more interior ones fixes their position nearer the central body in 86

correspondence with this law. There is no Spiritual law but has its exemplification in material nature. The distance between the two planesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the material and Spiritual worldsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;is too great for the comprehension of man in his first estate. Away off among the constellations of space which human material vision, however aided, has never, nor can ever reach, is the home of the Spirits from earth and all worlds descended from our great-grandmother Sun of the first grade, of the fifth great formation. There, beyond where the physical forces nearest allied to this Spirit can disturb it, within the space occupied by the third great formation of the Universal System, whose forces are too rare and distinct from those of the fifth formation to be disturbing agencies to it, is where nature has located it. The third formation in the Universal Sphere serves as the home of all the Spiritual Second Spheres of all the worlds of the fifth formation, and are equal in number to the first grade of material forms in that formation; each one of this grade has its corresponding Spiritual form. These worlds are formed of Spirit, refined to the degree to be repelled from the material Plane thru whose forces it has been evolved. The repulsive force of matter is balanced by that of Spirit, which asserts its superiority as a force by retreating in obedience to its refined instincts from the neighborhood of grossness, while the material is bound to its local center for lack of this power.

The surface of the Second Sphere is formed of the refined forces of 87

the first. Each material world has its proper space allotted to it upon the Second Sphere; and its refined emanations go to its proper place in that sphere and form its surface. It may properly be termed a hollow globe, as the interior of material worlds are not represented on that sphere. When man is developed on a Planet his Spirit home has been fitted from these emanations for his use and dwelling place. The higher productions of material worlds, such as the higher animals, grains, fruits, grasses and trees, when their bodies die, their finer essences go to the Second Sphere and assume the forms they had on the Material Plane. All these Spiritual elements naturally flow to the Second Sphere from material worlds in obedience to attractive and repulsive forces. The Spirit-world attracts while gross matter repels these and they form a river of Spiritual elements from the material to the Spirit-world. This matter is further refined on that world and its grosser part is eliminated and is returned to the material world from whence it came in a counter magnetic stream, for the high uses of that world. This is all the reincarnation of Spirit there is in Nature. This conforms to the law of progressive development. These currents are highways of force upon which Spirit-man travels back and

forth

between

the

material

and

Spirit-world.

All

the

higher-products of material worlds are re-producedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;reformed upon the Spirit Plane. Man there has what his heart wishes and his hands â&#x20AC;˘can produce. He has his pets, his useful animals, his gardens, his fields, his flowers, his grains and fruits, his cozy cottages, and his 88

magnificent palaces, his libraries, his musical instruments, his printing presses, his schools, his groves and his works of art. He has everything that his mind can conceive and his hands can make. He is there to work and develop his forces and higher nature, not to devote himself to indolence. He must eat and drink and be clothed and he will have to get and prepare his food and clothing. Justice and proper compensation to all is the law in that world. "No loafing around the Throne" is allowed. All must help those below them to get up higher and enjoy more of God's wonderful provisions for man.

Spirits on being born into Spirit-life are received by some near kindred and tenderly borne to their Spirit-home; usually, at first, temporarily, living with near kindred who have gone there before them and "prepared a place for them." If they are lower in their moral, intellectual and Spiritual natures than these kindred, after they have rested from their journey to that land, and have been refreshed and strengthened, they are taken to the circle to which their development fits them; and there left to live with those of similar development and condition till they grow to a higher estate.

An Angel of Loving Service Cora Richmond Spiritual Spheres (1886)

These circles of beneficence, stretching, far and far away, are composed of spheroid forms of different companies of souls, reaching from the sphere of immediate spiritual healing that is nearest to the earth unto the one that touches the very threshold of the divine countenance and the very heart of the divine beneficence.

Such minds as have tried to heal the wounds of nations; such minds as have visited prisons, and endeavored to ameliorate the condition of prisoners on earth; such minds as have visited sin sick souls, and endeavored to soothe them; and more than these, such minds as ever, in their daily walk of life, have, by utter self-abnegation, by consciousness only of the love of others and for others, given out their lives like oil inexhaustible for the lamps of others to burn â&#x20AC;&#x201D; such as these are the ministrants in the sphere of beneficence.

You perhaps know of some mother, risen from your own household, someone who was the guiding spirit of those who knew her, whose life was one long line of devotion and unselfish expression to those 90

around her.

She has gone out from the fireside, from the accustomed place â&#x20AC;&#x201D; she has not forgotten it; but added to that conscious labor and love that still links her sphere with yours as to a golden chain, there is the larger sphere of action in this wonderful beneficent place.

She now rises to her appointed tasks; she now fulfills the work of her hand in a larger degree.

She now hunts out the unfortunate souls that were not within her reach when upon earth, and that she longed to succor and save.

Florence Nightingale, leaving her lovely home in England to administer to souls in the Crimea; Elizabeth Fry, striving to ameliorate the condition of prisoners; Howard, the philanthropist, teaching such wondrous works of love; Wilberforce, uplifting the voice of a nation and a world to a consciousness of the sin of human slavery, and an endeavor to abolish it â&#x20AC;&#x201D; all these minds have risen to their appointed circles in the sphere of beneficence, and by well appointed

messengers,

those

who

sympathize,

through

ministering spirits that gather around them drawn by special attraction to their work, still send hither and thither their messengers to reach the children of care and shame and toil that are beneath and 91

around them â&#x20AC;&#x201D; beneath them upon the earth and in the lower strata of their own state, and around them, gathered as if to receive blessing and benediction.

Rescue, Redemption and Resurrection Cora Richmond Spiritual Spheres (1886)

No prayer for individual salvation, no worship of Christ or God upon bended knee for their own soul's sake, will suffice.

The prayer must be for another. The offering must be of self-forgetfulness. There must be something of love, something of kindness in the nature that shall form even the slightest link with which they are connected to the sphere above.

The bruised souls, however, are received into the sphere of beneficence in its first gradations of healing at once.

We mean those souls that, conscious of their imperfections, are unable to rise above them. We mean those morally and spiritually blind, who fight the battle of life, and still do not vanquish the foes that are within them.

We mean those even that sometimes go from

penitentiary, from the gallows, from criminal execution, whose lives have still at some time been penetrated by a profound abnegation, or neglect and forgetfulness of self. We mean those that, failing in one 93

direction, still have somewhat in another of spiritual strength; who may perhaps have told a falsehood, and yet whose conscience is always aware of it; who may have committed a thousand sins in life, yet all the time have been aware that something in them was above the deed that they have performed and the lives that they have lived.

We mean the struggling and unfortunate souls that go down in the conflict of life, and not the godly and self-righteous that never fall before the eyes of man but are selfish in the sight of heaven.

These souls that go down in shame sometimes before the vision of man have still a redeeming trait and some point of unselfishness, some wish to rise; and the souls that minister in the sphere of healing â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the first stage of the sphere of beneficence â&#x20AC;&#x201D; receive them as you would receive soldiers from the battle field, as you would receive a man upon the street who has fallen from his horse, or who, wrecked upon the sea, is deprived for the time being of raiment and shelter.

So upon life's sea, souls passing out into eternity shipwrecked morally and spiritually, but having something to cling to in the divine thought that aspires to something higher â&#x20AC;&#x201D; they are received, and here the process of spiritual healing begins.

They are not received as into judgment; they are not taken before 94

court and jury that perhaps have sent them there; they are not treated as criminals, for the very reason that the punishment of criminals in certain stages of criminal disease aggravates instead of cures.

You do not treat a patient in fever, if you are wise, by augmenting the disease. You do not stab a man that is already mortally wounded. You do not, when a person is in delirium, add intensity to that state, and expect to cure him. The criminal has his crime upon him. He goes out with it stamped upon his outward life. If the first thing he saw were judge and jury confronting him in the world of souls, he would be driven back to that darker sphere that we have referred to.

He is received first, and there is no sign or token given of his malady. The spirit having charge understands this. The soul appointed to receive the spirit is silent, and makes no sign. It receives him as though there was nothing in his nature to repel. He is placed in a position of ease and rest mentally. He is not confronted with his victim at first; he is not strong enough. He is not upbraided with his sin; he is not able to bear it without being rebellious. He is received, and when the kindness that is shown him shall have thawed away all the corroding lines of crime and care, and by its very persistence shall have shown the spirit that there is no judgment save that which comes from within, then the soul that is sick becomes its own more 95

positive accuser.

Even then that must be checked, or the violence of the repentance and the severity of self-judgment drives the spirit to despair. The wisdom of ministering to souls that are thus afflicted outweighs all care that you bestow on physical maladies in earthly life.

These spirits must be led to repentance; must not be stung to madness or despair; but by the falling of the waters of love, by the sunlight that is not too suddenly turned upon them, made to feel that there is still hope.

The criminal entering spirit life may behold, after a time, an angel mother bending above â&#x20AC;&#x201D; not at first; the shock would be too sudden. For how can a soul accused of men, and sent into spiritual existence because of a malady of the moral nature, meet face to face the most loved object on earth? Not at first. But after some stranger friend has ministered unto and soothed the spirit â&#x20AC;&#x201D; guided the way â&#x20AC;&#x201D; then the voice and mind and spirit most healing, that will bring back the childhood memories, that will uplift the spirit gradually to repentance and hope, is summoned to appear beside the soul that enters that sphere of healing.

Then gradually the spirit, that grows stronger, grows stronger also for 96

self-accusation; and when the condemnation and research assume a point that only the soul itself can bear, every other spirit withdraws, leaving that soul alone with its own meditations. Then from mother, child, sister, friend, or wise and beneficent counselor, comes the first voice of encouragement, when the spirit has purged itself of the crime, drowned its grief and crime in tears of repentance, washed away the stain of human blood or folly. Then there comes the gradual soothing of pain. It is not simply by ministering to this soul, but it comes in another form. The sin sick soul that is repentant is shown another soul greater in suffering than itself â&#x20AC;&#x201D;is introduced without being aware of it into the presence of some spirit in greater agony.

The impulse to speak to that soul, to minister in some way to the suffering, to point out that he or she also has suffered, is the first impulse upon which the spirit rises one degree into healthfulness and strength. Then the first mentioned spirit becomes a ministrant also in the sphere of beneficence. Have you ever seen a soldier on a battle field, himself wounded, bearing off a comrade that was more nearly mortally wounded than be, because dear to him, or because engaged in the same conflict, or better still, bearing off a fallen foe? Have you ever seen in the conflict of life, when the great burden of grief and sorrow was upon one man, or more frequently (you will pardon us) one woman â&#x20AC;&#x201D; have you ever seen that woman, rising up out of her own addiction and grief, to minister to someone in greater 97

sorrow, and how the anguish has faded from her face because she could minister to another in greater suffering?

Such is the sphere of healing in the sphere of beneficence. Such is the soul work that goes on vanquishing its own trouble by assisting others to rise.

Exegetical Spiritualism â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Inspiration. JM Peebles Seers of The Ages: Embracing Spiritualism Past And Present (1903)

Inspiration comes obedient to the law of attraction ; it is as natural to the mental affections as air to the lungs. It is ever ratioed to the plane of our moral status of character. Only the active, thinking, loving, aspiring mind is truly inspired. We get here what we seek. There are spiritual strata of inspiration as there are natural strata in our material atmospheres for each grade of sentient being.

We may, therefore, be inspired in the department of passion, of reflection, of invention, of music, of poetry, of patriotism, of philanthropy, of the loves of childhood, of moral justice, of divine recognition, just as we adjust and habituate these functional organs and faculties. The lower the plane the grosser is the qualitative inspiration; the higher the plane the purer is the inspiration. Our status of love-life determines the degree of our heaven or spiritual sphere of use. If we would be ushered into holy light, the holiest purpose must animate the will to corresponding activities. Thus, and thus only, do we drink of the immortal fountains of undimmed and 99

celestial goodness. Under such an inspiration, we are able to discover defects in our forces of character, creating a keen, sharp pain in a tender conscience that rouses up to focalize those dormant faculties to higher points of mind and heart, that then loom up in visions as an attainable glory. The holiest spirits have the deepest pain when any taint is found upon their inner life. When admitted to inspirations and consociations of such spirits, our unstrung or untouched chords of love are attuned to heavenly order, when our whole being is at length spiritually musicalized, heard and felt in raptured gratitude to the "white-vestured" come to lead us into their Edens of Innocence and Beauty.

Believing in inspiration, then, we would go up day by day on to the Mount of Transfiguration ; would open the windows of our souls to the constant reception of higher truths ; would be charitable to all fresh thoughts, from whatever source, to all newly conceived ideas, for they may have traveled as blessings down from sunnier zones. Behind even the faintest corruscation of some wierd, half-expressed truth, there may gleam a star silver-shrouded, or a celestial sun awaiting earthly recognition.

God is in the present. The books of inspiration are not closed and sealed. Ideas, principles, the laws of pure intelligence, require no crutches. Americans can stand erect without spinal stiffenings from 100

Asian monuments. Prayer need not float to heaven on the breath of ancient memories; nor assume oriental attitudes to secure a hearing.

"Where'er there's a life to be kindled by love,

"Wherever a soul to inspire, Strike this key-note of God that trembles above, Night's silver-tongued voices of fire."

Our granite-hills and highlands, are sacred as Israel's mountains; our rivers holy as the Jordans of Asia, and our forests beautiful as the olives and cedars that shaded Lebanon. God did not speak his first word to Moses in the Old Testament ; nor pronounce his last to John on Patmos. The aspirations of true men cannot be held in slavish subjection to the letter of past revelations. Souls must have living bread. They must bathe in living streams, branching from the " River of Life." They must be free as God's winds â&#x20AC;&#x201D; free as the loves of the angels.

Inspirations can never know a finality, being manifest in all forms of life ; in the progressive movements of the ages ; in religion, art and science; in the moral heroism of reformers ; in the tender affections of woman ; in the ministry of spirits ; in the sincere devotions of the prayerful, and in the sweet trust of a pure and holy life. 101

Exegetical Spiritualism â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Resurrection JM Peebles Seers of The Ages: Embracing Spiritualism Past And Present (1903)

During the process of death, consciousness, in the seeming, is sometimes suspended, as with those who are suddenly ushered into the spirit world by capital punishment, suicide or accident, and with those especially whose habits of life, given to pernicious gratification, have materialized their senses, as if locked in "chains of darkness." Those who have lived pure and exalted lives, aglow with truth and charity, do not lose their consciousness for a moment, but cognize the transition from a darker to a more illumined room in the mansions of the Father.

There are no idiots to the spiritual vision. Imbecility is caused by malformation of the physical organization. Entering the spirit world, released from ante-natal and social perversions, they immediately commence their upward march of knowledge and wisdom.

Infants are immortal from the sacred moment of embryonic existence. Uniting the alkali and acid, instantly you have the third and higher 102

compound â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the salt. So when the positive and negative relational forces blend, then and there is the divine incarnation. Nature never takes a retrogressive step. If purposely blasted, during the gestative life, the spiritual principle remaining undisturbed, and the individuality intact, the tender riven bud is borne by matronly angels to the nursery gardens of innocence to be trained in the virtues of the spheres. Designed abortion is murder ! Multitudes will meet those offended little ones that ought to have had a natural, physical birth and the experiences of an earthly life, preparatory to a ripened entrance into the world of spirits. Prematurely ushered there, the spiritual objective being based upon the material, they are necessitated by a law of their being, to return under heavenly guidance to the mediumistic spheres of sympathizing friends to gather glimpses of, and participate in, earthly struggles and victories.

Identity is cognate with existence itself. It is the natural attribute of spirit â&#x20AC;&#x201D; its very impressibility. It depends not on form for recognition, but the form on it. Every part of the grain we sow is represented in the harvest. Essential spirit being inseparable substance, and ever reporting itself magnetically, we recognize it by sympathy, the same as a child in the darkness knows its mother without the aid of sight or hearing. Our spheres are ourselves extended â&#x20AC;&#x201D; our very loves and thoughts in telegraphic communication. When, therefore, spirits from the mortal lands meet the gone before, instantly, by sympathy, they 103

recognize each other, and the past, with all its checkered pilgrimages, indelibly engraved on the tablet of memory, rolls in upon the consciousness with light and shadow, all in order of relations and events, in sweet, unspeakable joy and fall of glory.

104

Why No More Report of Higher Spheres? William Aber Via “Theos” A Guiding Star (1905)

651. How often we hear mortals ask, why don’t the spirits tell us more about the higher spheres; describe the beautiful homes they talk so much about? What is the use of pictures to a person who cannot see, or of descriptions to those who cannot understand? No spirit can reveal anything to those who have not the spiritual power to at least apprehend, and in a measure to comprehend a dwelling-place of unselfish love. The description of the higher spiritual spheres, though it were given by one of the highest spirits, would be unintelligible to the carnal mind.

652. The things we can tell you are these: Whatever of the spirit spheres you are prepared for when you leave the earth plane, that spiritual sphere you shall have. Your homes will be such as you have made yourself. If your highest joy is counting hoards of money or bedecking yourself with precious jewels, none but yourself can make you more spiritual. You shall each find yourself in your own home, stamped with your own individuality and living your own life. Kindred 105

souls mingle together here as they did upon earth, sympathizing with and enjoying the society of others. The homes here are as varied as upon earth, but each one is his or her own architect.

653. There are many spheres of duty, and all fulfill their duty as they see it. To some the highest spiritual life is full of activity. No such heaven will appeal to the tired earth soul. He will long for some friendly haven of rest, and he shall find it. To those in bondage, heaven is freedom. To the sick, it is health. To the cripple, it is strength and unlimited space in which to wander. To the tired laborer, it is eternity; â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a place without time, where bells do not ring, or whistles blow, and where there is no late, no early â&#x20AC;&#x201D; no thought or care of time. He will find that there is no more wear and tear or fatigue for him. No matter how many journeys he may make, he will not feel tired and worn as upon earth.

654. Duties there must be where more than one are gathered together, but they will be such duties that it will be your greatest happiness to perform.

655. The more noble the soul the more encumbered it is with the earthly body; it is an uneven partnership â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that of an immortal spirit and an earthly body. How often the willing spirit is unable to keep the tired body at its many tasks, and what a release when dissolution 106

takes place and the spirit is able to ascend higher.

656. What you have gained and need will be yours in the spirit spheres. There is the closest love and quickest sympathy between the earth plane and the spirit world, but we cannot make you understand what our lives really are, unless you should be exact counterparts of each other, which is not the case. You will each find a different home, suited to you and your work. Your work now lies upon the earth plane, and it is for you to perform the duties allotted to you. You may not be able to give the ignorant, learning, or the hungry, food, but you can inspire their spirits to nobler, better deeds, while some one else, who is able, provides food and learning. Let them feel that they have your love and sympathy, and let them see that, even if the clouds of adversity hang low over your head, that your soul is able to ascend to higher, better spheres. It is sweet to know that you do not travel the stony path of life alone; to feel that, no matter how rough or dark the way may grow, you can, if you will, stretch forth your hand and feel an answering clasp — a clasp that makes your heart grow braver. The Creator seems so far away to most that, unless they can have the love and help of each other, they feel deserted. It will ever be impossible for the finite to grasp the infinite. There are thousands who walk secure in the consciousness of “leaning on the strong arm of the Lord,” when, in reality, they are cheered and guided by some unseen friend. It is this spirit that gives 107

to them the feeling of sympathy and strength that so ably assists them through life.

657. The inhabitants of the spirit world are not bound by dogmas or creeds; — that is, those who have been here long enough to get rid of their earth ideas; and they go forth to do good wherever they may find an opportunity, whether it be in the name of Christ or humanity. The main thing is to do good to yourself and others. Your ideas of good today may not be the same tomorrow. Therefore, do not attempt to lay down a rule for your friends to follow. Let each be a law unto himself: for each must suffer for his own actions and not for the actions of others.

(Signed)

“Theos”

108

The Hells Mitigated. Immortality and Our Employments Hereafter JM Peebles (1907)

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Deeply interested in the study, and pursuing ray explorations, all bring in reports similar to mine. Three of us now resolve to continue, for a time, in one of these hells, and watch the methods of reaching and redeeming those peopling the lower spheres. We select the case of a man who has been in darkness some time, yet seems possessed of some good tendencies. His abode is in a den beneath an overhanging cliff, dimly illumined by a ghastly light. It should be remembered that the Divine Light partially illumines, and the Divine Life, by the law of influx, flows into all the spheres.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Unseen by this person, we adjust ourselves and watch him carefully, noticing every act and listening to every ejaculation. In this way we learn that in a revengeful quarrel with his brother, while on earth, he inflicted upon himself a fatal wound, and therefore was borne to this dark place. He gravitated to his own place just as naturally as a stone falls to the earth. Here he indulges at times in expressions of anger, revenge, and terrible threats. Upon one occasion, after these wild ravings, we see him sadder than usual, and, sitting upon a cliff, and 109

thinking doubtless of his misspent and vicious life, he cries out in the fullness of his soul, ‘What! am I here for trying to slay my brother? O heaven! I’ve been mad!’ and the tears, such as only spirits can shed, stream down his face upon the crystal rocks beneath. And while thus weeping the vapor of his thoughts gather round him, in-filling his demon-home with sorrow. Soon we begin to witness his gradual transformation.

“The rocks disappear, the fierce howlings in the air are hushed, and this seemingly lost soul, angel-guided, finds himself in a dismal cellar, in one of the filthy streets of Liverpool, England. Here on a pallet of straw, without the comforts of home, lies his brother — almost dying! Remembering at once his past unkindnesses, the scene touches his soul’s vitals. He weeps; and tenderly bending over the sickly form, he prays, ‘O God, and O father and mother — angels now, forgive my past sins, and make me better in the future, for Christ’s sake. Amen!’”

“His tears, his earnest prayer, draw others to him, though he is not aware of their presence; they give him strength, and he imparts it in love-waves of magnetism to his deeply wronged and suffering brother. This continues for months, the sick man growing weaker, fainter. But all this time the good thoughts of each enlist the interest of higher spirits, while the two brothers build by their thoughts and deeds of kindness a home in the better land. The last we witness is 110

when earth yields up its claims, and the released brother, leaving the body, is borne in slumbers sweet to the abode awaiting him, by the brother now more angel-made. As time passes on, the flowers grow, the trees sigh, the streams ripple, and the birds sing sweetly in adjoining groves; for no inharmony, no sloth abides in that home; and so in blessing another, the blessing is returned. . . .

Here you may ask, even though our motive was good, how we could leave our sun-bright abodes and tarry in the murky atmosphere of the hells? Be our answer: Spirits project the atmosphere or aural emanation in which they live and move. When descending into the hells, this personal atmosphere becomes a protective envelope, being positive to the general as well as individual atmospheres of lower spheres; but if one attempts to ascend from a lower to a higher sphere, his characteristic emanations are negative to the aromal flames which then become to him a consuming fire.â&#x20AC;?

111

Spheres in the Next World JM Peebles Immortality and Our Employments Hereafter (1907)

1st Sphere. — “There are here many circles and conditions. It seems dark and gloomy. Spirits are as low as the very lowest in the body. They dispute, wrangle, and have all the passions they had on earth. Some return to their old associates, and re-enact the scenes of earth. Some remain here a very long period of time before light reaches them. It is terrible to contemplate.”

2d Sphere. — Entering this, the doctor’s spirit took on new conditions. The atmosphere was more rarefied, the elements more ethereal. Appearances corresponded largely to the better conditions of earth. He saw “spirits preparing spiritual food from spiritual elements and auras.” Those in the higher circles of this sphere were instructing the lower. Most of the objects seemed natural yet new.

3d Sphere. — Passing into this condition, or zone of spirit existence, he beheld spirits entering from the mortal state to receive the welcome and the care of those who had passed from the earthly life before them. They seemed to class themselves according to the laws 112

of affinity. He saw them engaged in mental telegraphing, studying the principles of chemistry, and in various ways adorning their habitations. Here were animals of the higher order, and birds, as well as Indian hunting-grounds and attractive lodges.

4th Sphere. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; In this sphere the garments of the spirits seemed brighter and of a much finer texture. Instead of being in isolated homes, they lived in groups and associations. Spirits from the fifth and sixth spheres teach them.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;I see birds, flowers, and a lemon-shaped fruit, rich and juicy. I do not know its name. I see these spirit-people constructing musical instruments, and trying to control the elements for various purposes. All are industrious. They have extensive grounds well laid out, tastefully arranged buildings, in a room of one of which were nicely arranged paintings on the walls, and flowers neatly placed around the windows; the furniture is soft and pliable, and constructed by a combination of the elements; lakes on which the swan gracefully moves to and fro. They propose to change spheres by going through three degrees of education, receiving their instruction from spirits of the sixth sphere. The Indians have also their lodges here.

Their food is like that in the other circles, growing on vines which trail along the ground. For musical instruments the harp is used, to which 113

they dance and sing, and are very happy — far more so than in the circles.”

5th Sphere. — Here the light is still brighter, and the spirits seem more calm, serene, and self-balanced. They have walks tastefully arranged around their dwellings, with flowerbeds, groves and lawns with shade-trees; lakes much larger than those in the fourth sphere, with boats of corresponding size playing backwards and forwards.

They have places where they congregate to study the fine arts, and colleges for astronomy and mathematics; also schools for instruction in mechanical arts and spirit-agriculture. The fruit grows on delicate bushes, something like the pear. These inhabitants are clear in their expression of spirit understanding. They vocalize and play upon musical instruments, and are joyous and very happy.

“Their clothing is very light and spiritual. In the fourth circle of this sphere the light is like the setting sun to your earth, very genial and bright. Here are mountains and rivers made attractive by beautiful scenery. The spirits have laboratories and factories for purifying and clearing the elements; lakes with vessels, and ponds with boats on them, as well as wild geese and ducks, but they are more refined than those upon the earth. On the margin of a lake is an Indian encampment. Here I meet the spirits of three Indians, who greet me 114

and invite me to visit their lodges, where they have a talk about the pale-face Pierce, whom they knew on the earth.

“The houses of these spiritual inhabitants are symmetrical and tastefully arranged inside, with paintings, drawings, and fine furniture, which are tangible to the spirit; the pianoforte is also here, upon which they play, accompanied by singing and dancing, which constitutes a part of their spiritual enjoyment, and is done to the honor and glory of God. They have walks adorned with shade trees, on which are richly-plumaged birds singing their lays, making the elements vocal with sweet music; their fruit grows in arbors and bowers, and is shaped like the apple, but more delicious to the taste and strengthening to the unfolding spirit as it is passing on to the higher circles of progression in knowledge. I meet with one of my friends whom I knew on earth, John S. Oilman. They converse of earth-life and spirit-life, showing that memory, like pure love, is immortal.”

6th Sphere. — Do not understand that these spheres are absolutely separated the one from the other. They interblend, and shade off into each other, something as do rainbow hues. In the “first circle of this sphere, light dawns with great brilliancy. Here I saw a magnificent observatory. Newton was teaching. They have rivers, extensive plains, and lakes clear as crystal. They are building boats of a 115

singular structure. They have scientific institutions for designs and new inventions, all of which, when perfected, are to be impressed upon the minds of the sensitive’s of earth, and then outwrought into practical use. The avenues are laid out with shade-trees for walking.

“The climate and influences are more congenial to the spirit. They have gardens arranged with choicest fruit-trees. The apple, pear, apricot, and fruit such as I had never seen, are beautiful and spiritual. They arrange their houses in groups, and have a kind of railroad to go from one group to the other. They are very refined in their manners, very loving and affectionate.

“In the third circle of this sphere the spirits have vast educational places for assembling together, in one of which is the Poet’s Hall, where the risen poets of earth are preparing poetical versions of the heavens. They have plain yet elegant churches for spiritual culture. Whitfield is preaching to them upon the necessity of spiritual purity and perfection. They have here observatories. Herschel is teaching, and other noted astronomers have classes. Here also they are traversing the ether spaces in aerial cars, which will ultimately descend to earth. I see many fountains around their houses, and flowers too beautiful for description. The food, exceedingly ethereal, is nutritious to the spiritual body. They have spiritual mansions, where spirits meet in sacred fellowship. I entered one, where I was 116

received in fellowship. These spirits are very congenial to each other, and happy.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;In the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;higher circles of this sphere light dawns in brighter effulgence.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; The spirits have large colleges to receive youthful minds as they come from earth, where sportive children are instructed in the higher truths of the heavenly life. Here also is a magnificent music hall; Mrs. Hemans, Hannah More, and others are here, rehearsing the lyrics of the heavens.

Here too are colleges for preparing teachers to come to earth to instruct and inspire mortals. William Penn, Roger Williams, and others, are here teaching. Youthful minds are their students. Also a university of music, where it is taught in its various methods. Places of worship for the adoration of God. Milton and others are here teaching, and they are also teachers of earth.

Here, in amazement, I beheld the higher birth of several young spirits out of their earthly bodies. They were received with singing and words of welcome to their new home. The scenery is beautiful, with sloping hills and undulating plains. Flowers in rich abundance perfume the air, and warbling birds commingle their music with the spirits. Their houses are laid out in large circles, twelve houses in a circle, with walks and grounds around them, with trees and 117

shrubbery; various kinds of fruit are grown for their own nourishment; joy and harmony pervade everywhere. As they live in higher scenes or conditions, they are consequently the more highly spiritualized. Here the Indians have homes on one side of the river-bank, unique, yet beautiful. Luna, an Indian girl, Pocahontas, and others, are here happy and joyous, all commingling together in purity of spirit and in the love of God. ...

â&#x20AC;&#x153;In this circle the atmosphere is exhilarating to the spirit; the houses are in circles of six, with more extended grounds, and the flowers more variegated and richly perfumed; the spirits have arbors, with vines running round them, with fruit like the grape, but larger and purer. The spirit brightens after partaking of it. Mountains rise in the distance, with extended plains, with water-powers, and clear, transparent lakes. They have colleges of design with landscape paintings. Hannibal, Chambers, and others are here in the capacity of teachers. I meet here three sons of Samuel Haynes, of Belfast, who are receiving instruction.

The spirits have buildings for instruction in music, embroidery, and the composition of flowers, in their higher formations. Here I meet one by the name of Helen A. Pierce receiving instruction. Children are receiving instruction, and are learning to sing and play on the harp. Congeniality of spirit reigns prominent here. The young 118

assemble in classes for the cultivating of flowers and the spiritual development of their minds, and all is done for the good of others and the glory of God.”

7th Sphere. “Light now dawns with celestial brilliancy! The scenery is grand; the teachers are from the celestial spheres. Unity of feeling and love universally pervades this divine realm. They have vast universities. In one of these were surgeons from various parts of the world — America, England, France, Russia, Prussia, China, Japan, and other countries of the globe.

“The studies here were anatomical, psychological, and spiritual; also great attention was given to the laws of mesmerism, magnetism, impressional and inspirational influences, that they might by influx become better understood upon earth. . . .

“In this circle they do not seem to have fixed habitations, but when they need a covering, it is immediately improvised from the elements; they talk with each other by looks — being transparent, they see each other’s thoughts; when they wish for refreshment they compound it out of the elements, and from etherealized fluids; they telegraph by thought of the spirit. The air is melodious with warbling notes of gaily plumaged birds. These spirits visit by thought and will. They descend to the other circles and to the earth to teach. Here are 119

children descending in groups from the celestial heavens, covered with flowers, and bearing baskets of fruit on their arms, to be taught in wisdom and music, and the composition of flowers, to be prepared to visit other spheres and earth, and gather knowledge. They are very noble in stature, symmetrical in form, and pure in spirit, constantly joining together in singing, praise, and worship, and they manifest great joy and congeniality of mind.

“Each acts up to his ideal — and labor is a work of love. I see in this celestial sphere no insects or lower forms of animal life. I see multitudes of spirits coursing their way through the elements, visiting and commingling with each other in different parts of the circle, and visiting the earth and spheres and then returning. . . .

“The joy here is ecstatic. Thousands of happy children assemble to greet with music and messages of love those who arrive from other spheres as visitors or explorers in the realm of thought. Their very motions are musical, and they converse by looks and facial expressions. Oh, could you connect with this vital cord and ascend up here and behold the glory and joy that reigns, you would not wish to return. I shall soon be with you again, but do not desire to stay, but must, so they say, return and take up the body. I want you to prepare while living to ascend to the celestial spheres, and live with these joyous and happy spirits.” . . . 120

The Spirit Stewart’s Exploration of the Hells JM Peebles Immortality and Our Employments Hereafter (1907)

“The spirit-world, almost measureless in extent, has actual localities, as well as conditions, where sympathizing spirits meet. A higher spirit may visit the lower spheres, but the reverse is impossible.

“Leaving our beautiful spirit home, crossing Angel Lake, and descending a deep decline, we come to a sluggish rolling river at the foot of the hills of Eternal Sorrow. Then ascending a mountain, and standing upon one of its loftiest peaks, we look behind, observing Angel Lake nearly a hundred miles in the distance, appearing a bright and luminous star-point upon the horizon, with broad intervening valleys.

“Turning our attention to what is before us, we see in the widened distance a misty darkness, and as we descend in an opposite direction from which we came, the darkness becomes more and more intensified. There is no vegetation, no sparkling rivers nor smiling lakes. As we pass on, coming to the base of a range of hills, rising and crossing them, the harsh cries, and the hoarse agonies 121

that appall the soul, reveal the fact that we are in the neighborhood of dark and undeveloped spirits.

“We stand for a moment — for there are twelve in our party — to mature plans for the thorough investigation of these cities of strife. We each take a separate path, leading to different portions, I having the most direct route assigned to me. I walk steadily, thoughtfully along, the darkness fading into a lurid, dusky, phosphorescent light, until I come to a huge cavern, around which are fierce reptiles, crawling lizards, and slimy serpents, winding around each other as though in fond embraces. In the atmosphere are vultures, black and dismal — everything is terribly repulsive!

“Reflecting for a few moments before entering the cavern for investigation, we come to the conclusion that these fierce, loathsome, and horrid creatures are the natural out births of just such dismal localities as this.

Descending beneath the overarching ceiling, we discover a capacious, vault-like room, where reside two women and one man. Inquiring, we are informed that the two women, in a quarrel about the man, and their social relations with him, had, while on earth, murdered each other, the one dying immediately, the other living a few days to rave in anger. The vile man soon after committed 122

suicide! In malice, hate, and strife they lived on earth, and dying in strife they were borne into the spirit world; hence their home is in the City of Strife! And as if to remind them of their past deeds, pictured streams of blood seemingly roll down the sides of the deep black walls of their dismal abode!

â&#x20AC;&#x153;In relating the sad story to us they occasionally quarrel, accusing each other, and moaning in spirit; and as they do this, the reptiles and animals, so demon-like without, mock them, and ghastly, bat-like creatures screech in dismal discords that echo through the cave-chambers. Here these persons are doomed to remain till by punishment, by penance, by repentance and active deeds of reparation, they shall make amends for the past.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Leaving the cavern by its only entrance, we find ourselves once more in the more free but impure atmosphere. We have no great distance to go before we come upon a cluster of wretched huts. Their exteriors are coarse and painful to behold, and their interiors are in perfect correspondence. Insects and lizards are also here, and the denizens of the air are pouring out their jarring discords. The occupants of these squalid homes are of the same quarrelsome nature as the one we have just left.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The City of Strife is justly named 123

Spheres and Stars of Light and Darkness Anita Silvani The Strange Story of Ahrinziman (1908)

Upon the threshold of life stand two Angels â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the Angels of the Light and of the Dark Spheres-and it is their task to observe into which sphere the Star of the Soul that has just been born ascends. These two Angels are represented as weaving eternally the light and dark threads to produce the golden or the somber texture that is to prevail in the web of the Soulâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s existence, the happy or sorrowful days of its life. And as a man leads a moral or an immoral life, so will he draw down to him from the light or the dark spheres good or evil, light or dark qualities with which to endow the Soul which shall be transmitted into life through him, and thus will his children be in affinity with the light or dark spheres, and so will the stars of those spheres rule or control their destinies and be the dominating influence in shaping their lives. These two spheres of light and dark qualities exist eternally because they are the antithesis of one another, the poising scales which keep the balance of progress even and hold up each other by the equality of their power, causing between them that friction which prevents stagnation, the true death of progress, and resembling (the light and the dark, the good and the 124

evil) two great millstones which, grinding on eternally, free the Soul from the rough rocks of ignorance and the coarse dross of purely material desires.

To the student of the Spiritual firmament these two spheres appear to revolve round two mighty stars, the star of each typifying by its color the distinction between the qualities bestowed by each while another, a third star with its spheres, seems to hover ever between them, reflecting in its rays a blending of color drawn from the higher qualities evolved from the influence of both.

In the spheres of the Star of pure unsullied light are found the dwelling places of those Souls who have been uncontaminated by any earthly sin. They have but touched upon the borders of Earth life, and so have attained conscious existence only to pass onward. They have not known Earth life save for a brief period during which mortality has clothed their Souls, but in which their consciousness has been too slight to enable them to learn any of Earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lessons. They are free from sin because they have never felt temptation. Their garments are unsullied by the mire of life because they have never felt the cravings of their animal Soul for those things through which it derives its nourishment. In them the Animal Soul entirely slumbers; the strength and power with which its development endows the Soul who has conquered its temptations and made it subject to the higher 125

self is not theirs, for they have never shared in lifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s conflicts, and the fierce fires of passion have never been kindled in their hearts.

In the pure white and silver rays of the Star which dominates this sphere there are found no traces of any color, no shadow of a darker, deeper tint, no warmth, no glow of passion: all is pure and perfect in its purity as the driven snow, and as cold, for those whom no earthly passion has ever sullied live in a land of dazzling silver light where there is no sun; no fire has ever warmed them, no shadow darkened their lives, no regrets from their own lives or from the lives of others have saddened or touched them; no green moss of hallowed memories hides their sorrowful or sinful past, as moss and ivy cling to and cover up the broken stones of an earthly ruin, veiling its ragged fissures with a tender touch, and hiding its marred and broken walls and its disfigured beauties. No flowers but the snow white flowers of purity and the pale blue and silver blossoms of truth bloom in the lands of the snow white spheres: all is pale and colorless like the lives of its Angels and its Saints.

Those who live here cannot enter into manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s joys and sorrows, his sins or his triumphs over sins, his hopes and ambitions, his disappointments, his anguish and despair, for they have felt none of these things. For them the gates of Paradise are open continually and they, can behold the fair things within, but they cannot behold at 126

all the dark gates of Hell. All that is beautiful, all that is pure in Art, in Music, in Literature, in Science, yea, in all Life, lies open before their eyes, and they can read of the beautiful in everything: but of the dark books of sorrow and suffering and sin they cannot read one line, and their sight cannot behold material things save very dimly, for material life has been a sealed book to them.

Thus even in the beauty of their lives there is a want. Perfect as they would seem, their lives are yet incomplete, since one half of their Souls still slumbers, and, it is for such as these that reincarnation has been thought an aid, and for such Souls as these the process of assuming the earthly body which has been prepared for them will be different from that of a Soul which has not yet attained a conscious life.

There are others who are sent to learn Earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lessons by so closely and completely identifying themselves with some Soul of the same sex already incarnate in the flesh, and which is, in all its tastes and aspirations, in closest affinity with their own, that through all its earthly life and trials they may share the same emotions and the same experiences. To make the experience valuable to the disincarnate Soul, they must become in all essential respects as one, and share as twins the material development given to them by Mother Earth. Even then the disincarnate Soul will but imperfectly 127

learn its lesson, and the full meaning of sorrow and suffering and trial. It will feel but the reflected emotion of its twin Soul, never its fullest and deepest anguish, its warmth of passion, its depths of despair; and therefore it is that many celestial teachers would bid the Soul return to Earth, and in its own proper person, live the life of Earth.

The sphere of darkness is dominated, by a deep Red Star, which glows like the heart of a furnace, surrounded by black and blood tinged rays. In the regions dominated by this Star all appears clouded with a black sulfurous smoke, and all vegetation is withered up by the blasting fires of unrestrained passion and unchecked desires. The dry ashes of burnt-out volcanic lives have buried the blossoms of the Soul beneath their scorching dust, and the withered sticks of what were once the trees and shrubs of good intentions and good desires stand out like gaunt sentinels to mark where the purer life of the Soul once flourished. The desolation of despair, of crushed and blighted hopes, is shed around on everything. The dark rivers of bitter tears shed by tardy and unavailing regret alone water that sad land, and their scalding streams can never fertilize it, but only add to its dead seas another rolling wave where already there are too many flowing over the sad ruins of the city of the Soul.

Yet in the fierce flowing fires within the heart of the Star a healing balm is found by those who have the fortitude and courage to seek it; 128

a purifying bath, in which the pure gold of the Soul is refined and freed from the alloy of gross and material passions. And from this purifying crucible, the Soul shall come forth to rise to the spheres of that glorious third Star which, gleams golden-rayed and crystal-clear, above both the other stars; even as the Golden Star is the Crown and Diadem of the heavenly spheres. From this Star dart many rays tinged with all the colors of the rainbow, which, sparkle like the jewels in a victorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s crown. The crimson rays no longer typify the passions of the Soul, but its tenderness and its love. The blue and white no longer show alone its purity, but its truth and constancy. The soft green denotes its sympathy, the violet, its regal power, the Gold, its spiritual strength.

The dwellers in the spheres of the Golden Star have all learned the lesson of Earth-life. They have all cultivated the sympathies as well as the purity and intellect of their Souls, and none enter its gates who have not learned in their own lives to suffer and be strong that they may sympathize with and strengthen others.

In the complex nature of man and the conditions of his Earth life it is but seldom that we see the distinct characteristics of each of these Stars clearly defined, and as a rule men partake in a greater or less degree of the attributes of both the light and dark spheres. Those who show either class of qualities in an abnormal degree, so that 129

they stand forth as great moral teachers, or as cruel and degraded tyrants, are decidedly the exceptions. And yet it is the exceptional lives which stand forth for all time from the lives of their fellow men, like pictures painted upon large canvases in broad, strong touches, whose meaning can be read even by the most ignorant, while the delicate minute finish of a miniature, requiring a close inspection and a knowledge of its workmanship to reveal its beauties, is lost upon the world at large.

The minute lives of ordinary men and women are no less useful and beneficial than those of exceptional characters, but they do not serve the same purpose in the lessons afforded by them. It is the lives of those who are great, either in their virtues or in their vices, which mark the progress which the world has made, and serve either as beacons to warn others of the shoals and rocks and quicksands upon which their own lives were wrecked, or as guiding stars to light the Soul upon its Heavenward way.

130

The Redemption of The Fallen Angels. Anita Silvani The Strange Story of Ahrinziman (1908)

“The Angels of Light mine eyes have not beheld since the days of mine own youth on Earth, when I was vouchsafed dim glimpses of their glorious forms. For thou mayest know that I was dedicated unto the Priesthood. Temptation assailed me, and I fell, transgressing my vows and fleeing at last from the Temple where I served. Then did the love of occult knowledge appeal to mine ambitions, and led me yet further astray, till the serpent of Evil, as men call their own base desires in the hope that they thus transfer a share of their responsibility to the personification of the Evil principle. Extinguished the good, and only the charms of the senses now allure me. The only Angels I can see are such as these; yet do I know that in the bright spheres there are Angels, the glory of whose Kingdoms no words of man can paint.”

“Are these angels, then, a separate creation from man?” I asked. “It hath been taught that the Angels in Heaven rebelled against “ORMUZD” and were cast forth. Are these Beings before us some of those fallen Angels?” 131

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thou mayest call them fallen Angels if thou dost desire, for if a man sin, doth not the Angel that is within him fall into subjection to his lower nature? But if thou dost mean that these were ever angels dwelling in the Heaven of the Bright Spheres, then I tell thee No. For no conquest is possible there. The very harmony by which they exist, and which is the very essence of the difference between them and us, forbids aught of contest in their Spheres. These Angels of Darkness, like Kindred Angels of Light, are alike the offspring of mortality. All have once known material life upon some planet, but in ages so remote that there are no records left to man of their histories.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;It hath been told to me, but I know not whether it be true, since I know only what the experiences of the Dark Spheres can teach, that the Dark Angels do in time cast off the scales of Darkness and arise from sin, and through paths whose ways are extended beyond our power to follow, they ascend at last to the state of the Bright Angels, and reign in the glorious realms of the Golden Star. But inasmuch as the evil they have wrought hath been colossal, even so must the path of their repentance be colossal in its difficulties, and the sum of their atonement almost beyond the power of our thoughts to conceive. Even for such as I am, the path of Repentance seems so long and hard, stretching as it does through all the many centuries in which I have lived and sinned, that though there are times when I turn my 132

longing eyes towards it, in weariness of the scenes around me here, I hesitate and shrink back from its difficulties and its infinite toil and suffering. The gross pleasures of my senses still enthrall me, and even my thirst for the higher knowledge of the Spheres of light cannot draw me to the path by which alone I can hope to win it. If at times my Divine Soul is awakened by the thought of the unexplored wonders that the Light Spheres must contain, and which my intellect ever tells me would repay me for all my sufferings, my animal Soul drowns the pure whisperings with its fierce clamorings for those gross pleasures which only the Earth can afford to it, and again and yet again, I return to Earth and seek the control of an Earthly body as a means of gratifying the all potent demands of that baser self which is too strong for the higher aspirations of my better nature. Thus do I chain myself within these spheres. Thus have I sunk to where I dwell now, and if I seek to rise, it can only be by drawing up with me step by step, all those whom I have drawn down. Their number is legion, and each one is as a great load of iron that I must raise even as I raise myself. NOT ONE can I neglect or leave behind.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Wonder not, then, that I stand as one stands shivering on the banks of an icy stream, hesitating to plunge into that cleansing flood which flows over difficulties and through lands of suffering which it appalls me to contemplate. And if it must be thus with me, such as I am, who though, as ye may think, have sinned almost past redemption, what 133

must be the task of Repentance to these mighty Rulers? What the periods of time through which they will have to labor?â&#x20AC;?

â&#x20AC;&#x153;And yet it hath been taught by certain of our Prophets that there was ultimate redemption even for the fallen Angels.

134

Spiritual Spheres and Conditions William W. Abner Communicated via Spirit Emmanuel Swedenborg The Dawn of Another Life (1910)

Friends, there are many Spiritualists, yet not one in fifty among intelligent Spiritualists of the present day, who knows what these doctrines are. The majority of people have heard something about them, and naturally suppose that what they heard is correct; but they will generally find, on careful inquiry that what they have heard is very far from the truth.

Many persons ridicule this doctrine, who know little or nothing of it beyond what they have learned from persons no better informed than themselves. The doctrine of Spiritual spheres is unknown to many of the Spiritualists. But many of them recognize its truth as soon as it is clearly stated; yet not until it is thoughtfully pondered, can you expect one to see how important it is in a practical point of view. You believe that there are particles too small for the eye to discern even by the aid of the most powerful microscope, constantly emanating from all material objects, and form around each a kind of atmosphere which in their essential nature, are similar to the object itself. 135

This atmosphere is too refined and subtle to be detected by the senses: yet its existence round about thousands of objects, often manifests itself to the sense of smell: and in a dog, this sense is so acute that he can scent his master’s sphere in the print of his shoes and distinguish his tracks from all others. The perfume of the lily or the rose is but the extension of the flower’s own substance — the radiation or emanation of its own essence in the most subtle form. It is so of all other objects that diffuse an odor grateful or otherwise. From the analogies of nature, therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that souls also have their encompassing spheres; and that these must be spiritual, and of the same quality in every case as the souls from whence they emanate.

Do you know that every mind has an encompassing atmosphere similar in its essential nature to the mind itself; that thought, true or false — good or evil — would have extension, and exert an unconscious influence upon other minds, healthful or baneful, according to its own nature? Do you know that every heart is constantly carrying with it its own sphere — a sphere more penetrating and powerful, especially in its effect on the voting, and persons oftenest within its reach, than any oral or written instruction?

There are spheres of selfishness, hatred, conceit, pride, jealousy, 136

avarice, contempt and revenge; spheres of love, joy, peace, humility, reverence, confidence and trust; and that particular character or quality of spiritual sphere emanating from, and encompassing each individual, would be in all cases according to the character of the individual, not according to his or her words or outward actions, unless, these were in agreement with his or her internal feelings and purposes.

Any one of much spiritual discernment, or who is at all susceptible to the influence of mental spheres, if he or she has ever been long in the immediate presence of very saintly or vile persons, knows from personal experience that what we have here spoken of, as altogether reasonable, is actually true. Go with us into the humble cabin or poorly furnished chamber of some good soul, how you will feel a sweet and heavenly peace as perceptibly as you ever smelled the perfume of clover blossoms or new made hay, and experience is inexplicable upon any other theory than that of the existence of spiritual spheres. Do you know that a certain spiritual sphere encompasses you according to the life of your affection which sphere is more perceptible to the spirits than a sphere of odor is to the most exquisite sense in the world?

The spheres which are perceived in the spirit life, all arise from the loves and consequent affections in which the spirits had been 137

principled, consequently from the life; for loves and consequent affections made the doctrine concerning spiritual spheres cordially accepted; and, it is plain that its practical tendency and effect upon the receiver must be most salutary.

This shows the present guardian and teacher and all who have the shaping of other minds, that it is not so much what they seem or say or do, as what they are not what they are outwardly but what they are inwardly â&#x20AC;&#x201D; not so much their oral instructions, wise or otherwise, as the vital currents of thought and feeling perpetually flowing forth from their innermost and ruling love that mould the character of those under their charge. It is this spiritual atmosphere, extensive in itself and far reaching enough to encompass a multitude of minds, that the souls are inhaling continually day by day, and hour by hour. How important it is then that this atmosphere be pure and sweet as the flower of heaven.

We want to tell you, kind friends, that there is a Spiritual World inhabited by spirits far more populous than the world in which you are now living, and as much more substantial, too, as the soul is more substantial than the body. All the inhabitants of the spirit world were once dwellers on your or some other earth â&#x20AC;&#x201D; having commenced their existence on the lower plane of human life. It is easy to believe this, if you reflect upon what is happening every day in your world. 138

Nor is there any space existing in the spirit world; yet things appear to be in space here, and spirits appear to go from place to place by the exercise of their powers of locomotion, the same as on earth. There are societies in the spirit spheres, some of them consisting of many hundreds of thousands of spirits, and as all in any society are not equally wise, you must expect to find some kind of government over here and you should expect also that the wisest and best of the spirits would be appointed to take charge of the government â&#x20AC;&#x201D; those who are least in the love or thought of themselves, and most in the thought and love of serving and who best know how to serve.

We wish to state that every one for the particular governmental position he or she is called to fill and is perceived and acknowledged by all, and that all administrative powers are so kindly and wisely exercised that no friction is felt in the work; but all move on as smoothly and harmoniously as a loving family or healthy human body.

We say that there are governments and societies in the spirit spheres; and that there are various different conditions in the higher spheres from what they are in the lower spheres, and differing also according to the ministries performed by each society. But they all agree in this: That they regard the general good as their end; and in that good, every individual is a participant. This results from the facts that all in the spirit spheres are under the auspices of the all-wise 139

teacher and leader who love all, and from divine love, ordains that the common good shall be the source of good to every individual. Some live in magnificent palaces and in more elevated situation than others. There are also temples for worship in the spirit spheres, for the spirits are being continually perfected in wisdom and love, and social conditions, here as well as on your earth there, are all means of growth.

All who die in infancy and childhood go directly to the spirit spheres; that is, they pass immediately into a sphere of societies, and are instructed and governed by the higher spirits; some become higher by intelligence. It does not depend on the character of their parents, as to whether they are religious or wicked. They have the same spiritual organism, and the same infantile forms and infantile minds that they had while in the world. They do not forever remain infants. They advance here to the full stature of men and woman. They grow by the assimilation of spiritual substance, as children in your world grow by assimilation of material substance; for the bodies of both spirit and man are formed of the substances belonging to their respective worlds.

Children in spirit spheres do not grow old as they do in your world. They never advance over here beyond a period of early manhood or womanhood, but retain forever the freshness and bloom belonging to 140

that age.

But they must attain to the highest perfection of the spirit form in order that they may reach spirit life in its fullest sense, and have their faculties unfolded, strengthened and perfected in the highest degree. This doctrine is not, as some suppose, a petty conceit or mere human invention, but has its foundation in the constitution of things; and is as true and exact as the science of mathematics. The life of the spirit in the spheres is as one of gladness resulting from bliss, and consists in performing deeds of goodness which are works of charity. Those who have led a life withdrawn from worldly affairs, are possessed with the idea of their own merits, and are thence continually desirous of being admitted into the spirit spheres, and think of that joy as a reward; being totally ignorant of what that joy is. And when you are admitted among the spirits, and to a perception of their joy which is without the thought of merit, and consists in active duties and services openly performed, and in the blessedness arising from the good which they thereby promote, they are astonished like persons who witness things altogether foreign to their expectation.

These things reveal to you the law as of the soulâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s higher life, and to develop within you a pure and holy character, a pure and unselfish love; and the higher and purer the truth you accept, the higher and 141

more blessed the state of life to which you may reach.

142

Spheres Gambier Bolton Ghosts in Solid Form (1914)

Q. We often hear you use the word “Spheres.” Can you give us any information concerning them: their number, for instance, where they are situated, and if you can pass from one to the other at will?

A. Their exact number I cannot tell you, but I will endeavor to answer the other portions of your question to the best of my ability. We find it extremely difficult to explain matters of this kind to you, on account of the limitations of your languages on earth; and are therefore forced to use terms and illustrations which will make our explanation simple, although perhaps not giving to you quite so full or so accurate a description as we should wish. Now, to deal with your question. It is sufficient for you as mortals to know of “the seven spheres of active life” which succeed your earth-life. The earth as you now know is round and you can therefore picture to yourselves these seven spheres as grouped round it in ever-widening circles. Do not smile at my reminding you that your earth is round, for you cannot have forgotten that in consequence of the absurd teaching in your sacred writings every Christian and Jew, including all the men of science, 143

until about five hundred years ago, was firmly convinced that the earth was flat, and all who taught that it was round were punished with “death.” The sphere or plane of dynamic energy nearest to earth, you can call the first sphere, and this is the one to which the majority of mortals are attracted when they pass out of their earth-bodies, and commence their life of progress — or the reverse — in “the spheres of active life.” But those amongst you who have for ever cast off the shackles of all the false creeds and dogmas of earth; you who are making good progress along the free and open road of spiritual knowledge — “the enlightened ones,” as we call you — should make it your endeavor to so live your lives here and now, that when you leave your earth-body for the last time you should at once pass through this First Sphere without pause; should open your eyes in the Second Sphere, having left all undesirable earth-conditions behind you for ever as you passed from earth. Let this, then, be your aim during the few years of life on this planet which still remain to you.

144

Heavenly Regions of Religions The Astral World William Walker Atkinson (1916)

In passing rapidly through these regions, you will find that each has its own particular environment in exact accordance with the beliefs of the persons inhabiting it. Some have the appearance of a plain, old-fashioned meeting house, on an immense scale; while others resemble a gigantic cathedral, filled with gorgeous decorations and paraphernalia, and echoing with the sound of glorious litanies and other ritualistic forms of worship. Each has its officiating priests or preachers, according to its regulations. You see at a glance that the environment, scenery, buildings, decorations, etc., are built up from the astral substance by the imaginative power of the minds of those congregating at each point. All the stage-setting and properties are found fully in evidence (I say this in all seriousness, and with no attempt to be frivolous or flippant) â&#x20AC;&#x201D; you may even see the golden crowns, harps, and stiff haloes, in some cases, and hear the sound of "the eternal chant of praise."

I regret to be compelled to call your attention to the regions of some lower forms of religion, in which there is a background picture of a 145

burning hell, at which the devotees gaze with satisfaction, feeling the joy of heaven intensified by the sight of the suffering souls in hell. It is a satisfaction to tell you that the suffering souls, and their hell, are but fictitious things created by the imagination from the astral substance â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a mere stage setting as it were. Dante's Inferno has its adequate counterparts on the Astral Plane.

I ask you, particularly to gaze upon this most horrible scene before us. A large severely furnished edifice is shown, with seated congregation wearing stern, hard, cruel faces. They gaze toward the top of a smoking bottomless pit, from which rises a sort of great, endless chain, each link having a huge sharp hook upon which is impaled a doomed soul. This soul is supposed to rise to the top of the pit once in a thousand years, and as each appears it is heard to cry in mournful accents: "How long â&#x20AC;&#x201D; how long?" To this agonized question, a deep stern voice is heard replying: "Forever! Forever!" I am glad to tell you that this congregation is dwindling, many evolving to higher conceptions, and practically no new recruits arriving from the earth-plane to fill the depleting ranks. In time, this congregation will disappear entirely, and the ghastly stage scenery and properties will gradually dissolve into astral dust and fade from sight forever.

All forms of religion, high and low, oriental and occidental, ancient and modern, are represented on this plane. Each has its own 146

particular abode. It would delight the heart of a student of comparative religion to visit these scenes. There are some beautiful and inspiring scenes and regions on this plane, filled with advanced souls and beautiful characters. But, alas, there are some repulsive ones also.

It is marvellous, in viewing these scenes, to realize how many forms human religion and theology has taken in its evolution. Every form of deity has its region, with its worshippers. It is interesting to visit the scenes once filled with the worshippers of the most ancient religions. Many have only a handful of worshippers remaining on this plane; while in some cases, the worshippers have entirely disappeared, and the astral scenery of the region, its temples and shrines, are crumbling away and disappearing just as have the old temples disappeared on the material plane.

147

Marriage in The Spheres James Hewat Mckenzie Spirit Interaction (1917)

There is no such thing in spiritual spheres as marriage, such as we know it on earth, but there is a union of the sexes where a man and woman unite in a bond of affection, and where the sex impulse plays an important part and creates an ecstasy which could not be known without such an alliance. There is no offspring from such a union, unless one speaks of the birth of noble thought and action as such. Man on earth often fails to perceive the important part sex impulse plays in every department of life, for he commonly supposes this instinct to be intended purely for animal enjoyment and procreation.

A conservation and wise control of this energy will produce, even on earth, extraordinary powers in those who act as organizers, teachers, or artists, or in enabling one to rightly appreciate beauty, art, music, and spiritual virtues, far beyond the man who seeks to gratify his animal propensities to excess. An old and favorite question with men regarding these spiritual unions runs thus, "If a man die and also his three wives, which one will he have in spirit life?"

148

Probably none of them, for it is just likely they have had enough of his company, or it may be he is not deeply attached to any of them. Marriage on earth is often merely a matter of convenience, but where a man is married to one whom he deeply loves, after death they will be united in companionship in spiritual spheres. Sexual relationship of the carnal kind is not practised except by the most brutal upon the lowest spheres of the astral world, and that for only a very brief period, as no satisfaction can be got from it.

149

The Astral World James Hewat Mckenzie Spirit Interaction (1917)

A man at death, who has lived a worthy life, should rise by a law of his being into the third sphere, but only a limited number arrive there, the majority, with less perfection, remaining upon the first and second spheres.

The worst of humans, at death, gravitate to the lowest astral plane, where conditions are most disagreeable. There the atmosphere is dark and fetid, and the inhabitants dwell in rocky gorges, made intensely unpleasant by the emanations from their bodies and by their degraded practices. These gorges vary in width and depth, but they usually measure a few miles in width, and many hundreds of feet in depth. They are natural formations in the rocky strata, the cliffs rising almost perpendicularly around them, thus acting as a kind of prison, from which they cannot escape but by self-purification. Moisture drops continuously down the sides of these cliffs, and lies in large pools and lakes, but others again are quite dry. No vegetation is to be found beyond dumps of fungus and a quantity of dark mould which grows at the base of some of these rocky gorges. 150

With the object of describing the varying amount of light upon the spiritual realms it will be necessary to make earth sunlight a standard of 100 degrees. Here upon the cliff heights of what we may call the lowest astral plane, there would be about 10 degrees of light, and on the floor of the pits probably about 5 degrees, decreasing to total darkness in the crevices and tunnels which run within some of these gorges, to which some of the most degraded beings resort.

The light gradually improves as one rises from the lowest regions to the upper astral regions, where it reaches 20 degrees. These astral gulfs Dante called hell, and described in exaggerated language. He undoubtedly saw these by means of soul projection while travelling in the spiritual spheres, but they might more fitly be named nature's reformatories. Nowhere are fiery furnaces to be found, but magnetic fires which burn within the souls of every living being were doubtless seen by Dante clairvoyantly, who imagined them to be torturing fires of God.

There are also certain electrical disturbances in the atmosphere which may have led him to imagine fiery darts sent from heaven to plague the wicked inhabitants. Since Dante's day man has learnt that such infliction of suffering is purely artificial and valueless as a remedy for sin, and that the descriptions of the Inferno were but vivid 151

imaginations, partly due to Dante's religious training, which colored all he saw.

These natural pits have steps cut in certain places upon their rocky sides to enable the inhabitants to rise and escape when thoroughly sick and tired of their environment and of the practices which have kept them there. The manner of entrance into the lower spheres immediately after death is partly natural and partly artificial, for by a law of attraction and gravitation, souls of a degraded order naturally enter these realms, guided by spiritual beings unseen by them, yet none the less capable of controlling their movements, who guide them to that particular reformatory most suited to their needs. These poor souls are not all herded together, but are placed with those of like tastes and failings, for like attracts like, and they exercise upon each other a highly profitable influence, which, though painful, is corrective.

Within their limited space they are allowed considerable freedom to live their lives of debauchery and vice, until they become thoroughly sickened of such vices, and learn by bitter experience that sin or wrong action brings its own punishment. Once they begin to realize this fact, remorse seizes them, and they seek a means of escape from their horrible surroundings, which can only be found by personal effort, by climbing the rocky walls that surround the pit in which they 152

dwell. This is no easy task, for the rocks are practically perpendicular and the body in which they function is so gross that gravitation affects it, holding it down to the base of the pit. By strenuous effort and diligent search they at last find a particular spot from which it is possible to make the ascent, and after many attempts reach the cliff tops.

There they are met by capable guides, who take them in hand and help them to reach happier surroundings, where they are taught the laws of life, and how they may bring their actions into conformity with true happiness.

Spirits within these spheres of correction are truly a hell, a hell of their own creation, where they must remain until they sincerely desire a different kind of life. In the case of some, long weary years are required to accomplish this, but in others, the medicine received quickly works a cure. The average length of time spent in nature's dark "house of correction" varies considerably, but, speaking generally, from one to twenty years is probably about the average time necessary to educate the spirits, and allow, them to pass on to the second and higher spheres.

There are some, however, so steeped in ignorance and vice, and so dead to higher human instincts, that they lie upon the lowest level for 153

hundreds and even thousands of years. In these worst cases, spirits have sunk so low that consciousness seems for the time being dormant, and when they ultimately reach a higher sphere, they look back, as upon a painful sleep, on those long years of incarceration in the bowels of the astral plane.

154

The Drunkards' Pit James Hewat Mckenzie Spirit Interaction (1917)

A dwelling of drunkards was shown, where men and women were congregated in varying stages of dejection and filth, and where the craving for drink was felt more or less keenly. Some who had been there for years were beginning to lose the desire for alcohol, and occasionally interested themselves in others around them. In course of time this awakened interest would lead them also to a happier state by lightening the spirit body, and enabling it to scale the cliffs which kept it prisoner.

Attention was called to one woman who was walking to and fro, demanding from others how she might return to earth, swearing that if once there she would be able to find her thirst for drink satisfied. Some laughed, telling her they believed it was possible to get there, but by what means they did not know. Learning of the possibility, she became more and more determined, and the higher watchers helped her to the accomplishment of her object, seeing that only in this way would she learn her lesson. It is commonly supposed that evil spirits of a low order can leave their spheres whenever they feel disposed, 155

and haunt the neighborhood where they once lived, but this cannot be done without help from others who know the way. When such visit the earth, they are actually unconscious that they are being helped to accomplish their purpose, as the guides who assist them are unseen by them, owing to the fact that these guides function in a body less dense, and so are invisible to their sight.

The bodies of spirits living upon the astral planes are of such a dense nature that gravitation affects them, and so they are afraid to visit the earth by flight, even if they knew how to journey there. Tippling Nell, the drunkard to whom we have referred, found herself one night upon the earth near her favorite public house, but how she managed it she could not say. She arrived at "The Red Lion" about 9 p.m., just as a poor, hard-working charwoman entered for some refreshment, determined to have one drink and no more. Here Nell was left by the guide who had assisted her to earth, and who knew how and where to find her again when required.

Now began a drama similar to many that are enacted not only within public-houses, but in many homes and places of business, though realized but by few, How could Mrs. Brown, the charwoman, quietly sitting in the bar, know that one from spirit spheres stood beside her? She was totally ignorant of the fact, and altogether unconscious of the latter's power to influence her actions. Mrs. Brown had 156

half-a-crown in her pocket when she entered the bright and comfortable public-house where she intended to spend but a few moments, as she knew her children waited at home for something to eat. She did not leave, however, till eleven o'clock that night, when her funds were reduced to a few pence, and when she was incapable of walking straight.

Meanwhile, the unseen occupant of the saloon had endeavored to enjoy by proxy the alcoholic drinks taken by Mrs. Brown, but although Nell tried again and again to gain satisfaction in this way, each drink taken by her victim only tantalized her the more, and though she haunted the public-house for days and weeks, she never once secured that pleasure which she had so long anticipated.

Wearied by her effort, she began to hunger for the company of those whom she had left in the spiritual world, where she was able at least to see and communicate with companions, for here on earth, to her surprise, the people completely ignored her, for to them she was non-existent. Her wish was quickly gratified through the agency of her unseen guide, who assisted her return to her lowly place in the heavens. When Nell had settled again in her rocky gorge, she sulked for some time, and more and more held herself aloof from her companions. Sitting thus alone, her mind wandered back to her early days on earth when she was a child. She remembered her mother's 157

cottage, and the clean and happy life she lived there, and comparing it with her present filthy surroundings and her degraded friends, she wished that she might be a child again.

How long this mental agony continued it would be difficult to say; probably weeks and months elapsed while she sat in this state, until the feeling of disgust became so powerful, that she determined to make an effort to free herself from her surroundings. With this object in view she diligently sought a means of escape by the only way that seemed possible to her, by mounting the rocky walls of her prison. After long effort she at last scaled their precipitous steeps, and was met at the summit by one who to her ignorant eyes seemed an angel. Grasping the extended hand held out to her they rose together into the atmosphere, Nell surprised at the lightness of her own body, which until then she had scarcely observed, but which had gradually been purified during the months of mental suffering she had endured.

After travelling for some considerable distance, they presently drew near a country most beautiful to her eyes, and she longed to ask questions from her spirit companion. No encouragement to speak was given, but by some means she was able to recognize that the intentions of her companion were good, and that she was being taken to friends who would be able to help her to begin an entirely new life. Drawing near a little cottage situated on a hill-side, they saw 158

one approaching, who seemed to Nell to be her own mother. In a moment she found herself weeping in her arms, while her guide who had brought her thus far in safety was no longer to be seen.

This typical incident in the translation of souls as they rise from dens of sin and ignorance to higher spheres of light was an ascent from the lower to the upper astral plane, passing through the middle degree.

The question may be asked, "Why should such temptation by unseen spiritual beings upon mortals, as mentioned in the above incident, be allowed?" First, it must be realized that no spirit can force a mortal to do what he does not wish to do; and secondly, the temptation offered is exactly similar in kind and degree to that which the mortal has to face from his own fellow-creatures.

159

The Astral World

160

Through Suffering to Resurrection Mary Bruce Wallace Spiritual Reconstruction (1918)

There are Celestial Bodies Also We are children of light. Let your light shine before men and so glorify the Father of light in whom there is no variableness, no shadow made by turning.”

I have so much more to reveal than there is language wherewith to express it. I long to speak in the language of heaven, soul with soul, but this is not yet possible for most people. Still, I desire above all else that you yourself my open the closed doors of the senses and look into the interior worlds. If you catch but a glimpse, it will kindle in you that exhilaration and aspiration so necessary to the climber towards spiritual heights.

Here is there, and there is there; in yourself alone is the one door that opens to heaven and God. “Knock and it shall be opened, seek and ye shall find,” then “Blessed are ye.” The whole trend of life is God-ward. You see the rays of the sun, how they reach far out, but are not separated from the sun, they are withdrawn to shine forth with greater brilliancy. The rays are always there, but the sun is in the 161

centre and source. If you do not realize your true life in the ray, get a glimpse of the sun of your soul, the light for your consciousness, and new desire shall come to birth within you. There are spheres of being where all is light and love, but the angels who inhabit these spheres do not understand this pure bliss, because it is their natural element; when the appointed hour arrives, however, they will descend the ladder of life to darkness and sorrow; and through this knowledge shall come to know the ineffable and inexpressible joy. They will re-ascend the ladder, one step at a time, each step highly significant, and so become Godlike, angelic men and women.

There are other spheres into which no inharmonious vibrations can penetrate, for they would be broken at the threshold; they are painless spheres from which we descend to sorrow and grief that we may know through this experience our own divine pure nature and our true element. We who have dwelt in the one will that radiates light and love, and that makes harmony, have to learn that we are theophanies, to live consciously in the will of God and to bring into creativeness the light, love, and harmony of pure existence. We become acquainted with grief, we are afflicted and suffer loss of that light and life may be brought to the uttermost circumference, that mortals may know immortality and consciously enjoy God for ever.

We come ever through suffering to joy. We may not say â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is finishedâ&#x20AC;? 162

until we have touched the depths of human experience and given ourselves for the good of all. Then do we re-ascend, children of light, having “Glorified our Father which is in heaven,” and possessed of the capacity for a discriminating joy and wisdom, for in our earth experience we gain the knowledge of the glory of God, and henceforth, with bodies luminous and celestial, we dwell in light, for the “Lamb is Light” — we make the sacrifice of self on the altars of life.

163

Man’s Connection With God L. Kelway Bamber Claude’s Book (1919)

The peace of your heart, in spite of great anxiety, comes from the innate knowledge that, however bad things may seem sometimes.

“God’s in His heaven: all’s right with the world.”

The mind of God is operating through the various spheres on to the earth-plane. It is almost as if a picture were thrown from a lantern first on to the seventh sphere; God projects his thoughts on to it, and those there get every thought, wish, desire, of God. It is as clear to them as if it were photographed on the atmosphere round them, so wherever they turn they know what God wants them to do. These “pictures” or thoughts of God seem to be composed of millions of “rays” (even in your atmosphere there are “rays” of which you are not cognizant on earth).

On the sixth sphere the picture is like a copy of the seventh, not quite so sharp in outline or detail, and so on, slightly decreasing in clarity and sharpness from sphere to sphere, till it gets to the first sphere, 164

where it is much fainter, because so close to the earth-plane. On the earth-plane it is faint indeed; but there, man, who has great power if he chooses to use it, could reproduce that picture if he put himself in the right mental and spiritual condition to do so. It has to be redeveloped by man’s attitude towards it. That’s what I mean by saying we can interpret God if we choose. Man is given the power to see God’s ways and wishes if he will put aside his lower self for a little while.

The guide who is teaching me said it is important for people to develop psychically as a step to the higher or spiritual side. Before people can become “psychic” properly they must develop physically and mentally too.

You say, “Mediums are often uneducated.” Yes; they do not satisfy in consequence, but by their mediumship they are a bit better than they would have been without it, Still, I am not saying what is possible, but what is best.

People must learn to control the physical, the lower, or what is called “animal” part of them, and not give way to temper, greed, sensuality, jealousy, and so forth; they must cultivate the spirit, the higher or God part, the “higher self.”

165

Sometimes the spirit wants to operate through the body (this is psychic or spiritual development), and is prevented by people giving way to any of the passions we have mentioned. It shows they must work harder to get control of the physical.

I have told you before, your spirit even now knows and can see everything; it is seeing me at present. Your spirit-mind is the subconscious mind; your spirit-mind can’t put itself in touch with the physical mind, it cannot link up with your brain. It is unable to, because you can’t concentrate on me; your brain is concentrating on what you are doing, not on seeing me.

Your conscious mind is operating through your brain. To be “developed” means you have gained such control over your body and brain that you are able to detach yourself from undesirable things and thoughts. It is this power a person sits to try and develop by quiet, concentration, and prayer. You see bow necessary it is to get complete control, so as to command the nature of the thoughts, to be able to lift the “lower self” to meet the higher.

You could not do it always, of course, for you have to use the physical brain for material things, and to protect the physical body from enemies. For instance, if you saw a man coming for you to hit you with a brick, it would be no use to stop to think beautiful thoughts; 166

you would have to do something, and pretty quickly!

By a few moments’ conscious practice every day, people can raise themselves so as to learn to “link on” or connect their minds and spirits, the lower and higher selves. The more and the oftener they do it the easier it becomes, so that in a little time there is a kind of semi-consciousness of that beautiful state helping them always.

The power you get by this “linking on” to the higher self has a great effect, not only on your own physical or lower self but on other people’s too; that shows that if the majority could believe and practice this, there would be no such thing as war or enmity on the earth-plane. It creates almost a tangible state or feeling. It is the power given by the continual drawing down into the physical organism of the bit of the Infinite that is in themselves, and because it is Infinite it has infinite power, much greater than physical power; it is personality or temperament.

God is an impersonal personality. He is a personality of good, the personification of it, but impersonally good. “Why call Him personal at all?” I call God that because He sends out certain forces or power, but He expects them to return (as, for instance, all He sends to inhabit physical bodies). Suppose we think of people as little ships sent out on the sea of life by God from His Harbor. His thought goes 167

to each one, “May you return to Me,” and the little ship goes out When it has been out for some years it may make for other ports, evil ports, and stay away till it becomes battered and its white sails get grimy; and then perhaps it says, “I won’t go any more to any chance harbor, but will try and steer for my home port.” Every ship launched from His Harbor God hopes will return. There is a sort of feeble interpretation of God’s thought in the saying, “We shall go hence in God’s good time.”

If the ships stayed in sight of it, they could easily return, but they get independent and think they will do better for themselves by going afar off; and the farther they go the more thoroughly they forget the Harbor from which they started.

Again, to speak of the God-force and try to explain more about it. It’s a mind that permeates everything. Next to being a mind it’s an organism of forces — all the forces or energy or power ever known or to be known. God’s mind controls everything — all the forces in the Universe.

168

The Spiritual Emanations of Light G. Vale Owen Life Beyond The Veil: Book 1: The Lowlands of Heaven (1920)

Perhaps if we endeavour to enlighten you on the chemistry of the heavenly bodies it may be both interesting and helpful to you. We do not mean the physical aspect of the science, as understood by modern astronomical scientists, but the deeper study of their constitution.

Every star, as you know, is itself a centre of a system which comprises in itself not only the planets in revolution round the star, but also the particles of matter which suffuse that system, but are too sublimated to be cognised by any system of chemistry which is possible to those who dwell in physical bodies, and in their research are compelled to use both material instruments and material brains. These particles are between the purely material and spiritual, and indeed may be used both in the physical and the spiritual economies. For the two are merely two of many phases of one progressive economy, and act and react each on the other, like a sun and his planet. 169

Gravitation is applicable to these particles also on both sides, and it is by means of this forceâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;as we will call it, as being a name you know, and also a very little understandâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;that we cohere these particles together and are able, from time to time, so to clothe our spiritual bodies as to become visible to the photographic plate, and sometimes to the human eye. But we do more than this, and over a wider range.

Were it not for these particles all space would be dark; that is, no light would be able to be transmitted from planet or sun or star to the earth; for it is because of the reflection and refraction of these that the rays are visible. Not that they are transmitted, for their transmission and passage depends on other elements of which we will now say no than this: It is not the rays of light, nor is it the so-called lightwaves which are visible to the human eye, but their action on these minute particles which, on the impact of these rays, become visible as waves.

Your scientists have much to learn yet on this subject, and it is not our business to impart much which men can learn by the powers they possess. If we did so then the benefit derived from your earth schooling would be materially lessened, and that is why we are careful to give you just so much as will help you onward without 170

neutralizing the good effect of individual and collective endeavour. Bear this in mind, and it will then perhaps be seen to have a bearing on whatever we deem it advisable to explain to you in such messages as these.

The stars, then, send forth their light. But in order to send it forth they first must possess it themselves. And as they are not self-constituted personalities, in order that they may have it they must be given it. Who does this, and how is it done? Now, of course, it is easy to answer â&#x20AC;&#x153;God, for He is the source of everything.â&#x20AC;? That is true enough, but, as you know, He employs His ministers, and these are without number, and each unit with an allotted task.

The stars receive their power of transmitting light from the presence of myriads of spiritual beings about them, all ordered and regulated in their spheres, and all working in conjunction. These have the stars in their charge, and it is from them that the energy proceed which enables the star to do its appointed work.

What we want you to understand is that there is no such thing as blind or unconscious force in all Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Kingdom of Creation. Not a ray of light, not an impulse of heat, not an electrical wave proceeds from your sun, or any other star, but is the effect of a cause, and that cause is a conscious cause; it is the will of some conscious being 171

energizing in a certain and positive direction. These beings are of many grades and many species. They are not all of the same order, nor all of the same form. But their work is controlled by powers of higher grade and sublimely still.

And so the great balls of matter, whether gaseous or liquid or solid, whether star or comet or planet, are all held together, and their forces energized and given effect not by the operation of some mechanical law, but by conscious, live beings at the back of, and working through, these laws. We use the word “conscious” in preference of “intelligent,” because the latter term would not accurately describe all the ministers of the Creator. As you understand the word, indeed, it would describe only a very limited number. And it would surprise you to know that those to whom you would apply the term are those which stand between the lower and the higher. For while the lower workers are not really beings of intelligence, the higher are more sublime than that term would imply.

Between the two there are spheres of beings who would bear describing as intelligent beings. Mark well that I am not speaking now in the terms we should use here, and which you will use when you come over here and have studied the conditions somewhat. I am using earth language, and endeavouring to put the matter from your point of view. 172

Now you will, from what we have already written, be able to see how intimate is the relationship between spirit and matter, and when the other evening we spoke of your own church building and the allotting of guardians and workers, among other things, for the care of the material edifice, we were only telling you of the same principle at work on a minute scale. Nevertheless it is the same principle exactly. The scheme which provides for the upkeep of all those millions of suns and of their planets took note also of the rearrangement of certain congeries of atoms—some in the form of stone, others wood or brick—which resulted in that new entity which you call a church. These are held together, each atom in its place, by the outflowing power of will. They are not placed there and left solitary. Were this done the building would soon crumble away and fall to pieces.

And now, in the light of what we have written, think of what people call “The difference of feeling” on entering a church, or a theatre, or a dwelling house, or any building. Each has its own suitable emanations, and these are in consequence of this same principle at work which we have tried to describe. It is spirit speaking to spirit— the spirits of the discarnate workers speaking, through the medium of the material particles and their arrangement and purpose, to the spirits of those who enter that place.

173

Thoughts Creative Power G. Vale Owen Life Beyond The Veil: Book 1: The Lowlands of Heaven (1920)

Because of certain matters which are of importance to those who would understand our meaning in its inner sense, we have decided to endeavour to-night to give you some instruction which will be of help and guidance when dealing with those things which lie beneath the surface of things, and which are usually not taken into account by the ordinary mind One of these is the aspect which thoughts wear when projected from your sphere into ours. Thoughts which are good appear with a luminance which is absent from those of a less holy kind.

This luminance appears to issue from the form of the thinker, and, by means of its manifold rays of divided colours, we are able to come at some knowledge as to his spiritual state, not alone as to whether his state is of the light or of the darkness, and of what degree in light, but also of the points in which he excels or comes short in any direction. It is by this that we are able to allot to him the guardians who will best be able to help him in the fostering of that which is good in him, and 174

in the cleansing away of that which is not good or desirable. By means of a kind of prismatic system we divide up his character, and so reach our conclusions, which are based on the result In this life such a method is unnecessary, for it is a matter concerning the spiritual body, and here, of course, that body is patent to all, and, being a perfect index of the spirit, shows forth his characteristics.

Only I may say that the colours of which I have spoken are here communicated, in a degree, to our clothing, and those which are dominant over the others serve to classify us into our various spheres and grades. But thoughts which are the effect of spirit action, are seen in the effect they, in their turn, produce on the environment of the thinker, and not only are seen, but felt, or sensed, by us in a more accurate and intense way than with you Following on this line of reasoning, you will naturally see that when we think anything very intensely our wills are able to produce an outward manifestation which is really objective to those who behold it. Thus are many beautiful effects produced.

Can you give me a particular instance, by way of illustration?

Yes; it will help you to see what we mean A company of my friends and myself, who were being instructed in this knowledge, met together in order to see how far we had progressed, and resolved on 175

an experiment to that end. We selected a glade in the midst of a beautiful wood, and, as a test, we resolved all to will one particular thing, and see if we were successful.

What we selected was the producing of a phenomenon in the open space which should be so solid and permanent as to allow us examining it afterwards. And that was to be a statue of an animal something like an elephant, but rather different; an animal which we have here, but which has ceased to inhabit your earth We all sat round the open space and concentrated our wills on the subject to be produced. Very quickly it appeared and stood there before us. We were much surprised at the quickness of the result. But, from our point of view, there were two defects.

It was much too large; for we had failed to regulate the combination of our wills in due proportion. And it was much more like a live animal than a statue, for many had thought in their minds of the live animal itself, and also of its colouring, and so the result was a mixture between

stone

and

flesh.

Also

many

points

were

disproportionateâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the head too large and the body too small, and so on, showing that more power had been concentrated on some parts than on others. It is thus we learn our imperfections, and how to remedy them, in all our studies.

176

We experiment, and then examine the result, and try again. We did so now Taking our minds off the statue so produced, and talking together, it gradually faded away. And then we were fresh and ready for our next trial. We decided not to select the same model as before, or our minds would probably run into more or less the same grooves, So we, this time, chose a tree with fruit on itâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;something like an orange tree, but not quite the same We were more successful this time.

The chief points of failure were that some of the fruit was ripe and some unripe. And the leaves were not correct in colour, nor the branches rightly proportioned. And so we tried one thing after another, and found ourselves a little more successful each time. You can imagine somewhat of the joy of each schooling as this, and the laughter and happy humour which result from our mistakes. Those among you who would think that in this life we never make jokes, and never even laugh, will have to revise their ideas some day or they will find us strange companyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;or perhaps we shall find them so. But they soon learn what the love of this land is, where we can be perfectly natural and unrestrained, and indeed are compelled to be so if we wish to be accepted into respectable company, as you would phrase it. I fear the obverse is rather true on earth, is it not?

Ah well, live and learn, and those who live in this lifeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and not merely 177

exist, or worseâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;learn very quickly. And the more we learn, the more we marvel at the forces at our command.

178

Collective Prayer Spirit AndrĂŠ Luiz - Francisco CĂ˘ndido Xavier The Astral City (1943)

As we advanced, I saw from my stretcher the pleasant surroundings which slowly unfolded to my view. Clarence, leaning on a staff made of some luminous substance, stopped before a heavy gate built into a great wall which was covered with a flowery wine. He touched a certain spot in the wall, the gate opened wide, and we entered in a silent procession. A warm glow bathed everything there.

The graceful play of lights in the distance reminded me of a beautiful sunset in springtime. As we proceeded, I saw before me charming buildings and beautiful gardens. At a sign from Clarence my stretcher was laid down and in front of us there stood an entrance to a great white building similar to an earthly hospital. Two young men in white tunics ran eagerly to my stretcher, moved me into an emergency bed, and carried me in.

Before he left, I heard Clarence say: "Take him to the pavilion to the right. I am expected elsewhere now, but I will come to see him in the morning." I gave that generous old man a parting smile of gratitude 179

as I was taken away to a large, pleasant, richly furnished room and laid on a comfortable bed. My heart was overflowing with gratitude towards my kind attendants. I tried to address them but only managed to ask:

"Friends, I beg you, what is this new world I find myself in? From what star does this bright invigorating light emanate?" One of them laid a tender hand on my forehead as if I were an old friend, and explained:

"We are located in the spiritual spheres close to the Earth, and the Sun that is shining on us at this moment is the same one that warmed you on Earth. However, our visual perception is far keener here. We can see that the star the Lord lighted to guide our activities is far more beautiful than we ever realized while on Earth. Our Sun is a divine source of life which has its light's source in the Creator of All Things.

" I felt a profound sense of veneration and awe as I gazed at the soft light streaming through my window. I realized that on Earth I had never looked up at the Sun and raised my thoughts to the One, in His infinite mercy, had given it to us to shine on our journey. I was like a blind man who, after living so long in darkness, is blessed with the 180

ability to see the splendor of nature. Just then they brought me some stimulating broth and a glass of cool water, refreshing water. The water seemed infused with some divine fluid, for just a little of it quickly produced a reviving effect. The food, whether a soothing nourishment or extraordinary medicine, revived me beyond my expectations; new energies pervade my entire being and profound emotions stirred in the depths of my spirit.

I ate, unaware of the experience which was soon to follow. I had scarcely finished when heavenly music - soft waves of sound rising to higher spheres - floated into my room. That wonderful melody went straight to my heart. I looked to my attendant for some explanation, and he said:

"This is the eventide service of the Astral City. Every department of this colony of service, dedicated to Christ, is attuned with the prayers at the Government House. Now stay here in peace. I will return as soon as the service is over." As he prepared to leave, I was suddenly filled with anxiety.

"May I go with you?" I pleaded. "You are still weak," he explained, "but if you feel that you canď&#x201A;ź" That music had filled me with renewed energies, yet I was barely able to rise from my bed. Aided by my attendant and with faltering steps I reached the enormous hall where 181

a great assembly was praying in deep, silent concentration. The delicate garlands of flowers which hung from a brilliantly lit dome seemed to form a symbol of higher spirituality. I could hardly contain my feelings of overwhelming surprise. No one seemed to notice my presence â&#x20AC;&#x201D; they all looked as if they were waiting for something. I had to work to hold back all of the questions forming in my mind. I quickly noticed in the background an intensely bright light reflected on a giant screen.

By some process of advanced television, a marvelous temple appeared on the screen a moment later. In it was the image of a venerable old man, dressed in white, sitting in prayer. Around his head shone a halo of brilliant light. Slightly below him, seventy-two figures accompanied him in silent prayer. I was surprised to see that Clarence was among the. I was unable to restrain my curiosity. I pulled at my attendant's arm, and he responded, whispering so softly his words resembled the murmuring of a light breeze:

"Keep quiet. All the residences and institutions of the Astral City are praying, with the Governor through long distance projection of sound and light. Let us praise the invisible Heart of Heaven." He had scarcely finished speaking when the seventy-two figures began singing a sweet and exquisitely beautiful hymn. As I looked at Clarence, his countenance seemed to shine with an intense high 182

light. The celestial voices rose in melodious cadences, in a most beautiful hymn of gratitude. Mysterious vibrations of peace and joy floated in the atmosphere, and as the silvery notes died away, a wonderful heart, blue with golden rays, became visible above us in the same distance. Soft music began, seeming to arise perhaps from distant spheres, and suddenly we were showered with beautiful blue flowers. Although I could easily seem them, I could not grasp those tiny flowers with my hands. On touching our foreheads they melted away, and at once.

183

Learning to Send Always Joyful Vibrations G. Vale. Owen The Life Beyond The Veil: The Lowlands Of Heaven (1920)

Suppose we were to ask you to look forward a little space and try to imagine the effect of our communications as viewed in relation to the ultimate outcome of your present state of mind. What then, think you, should have been the issue of events as we see them from our own sphere in the spirit world? It would be something like the effect of sunlight when it is projected into a sea-mist, which mist gradually vanishes away, and the scene it enveloped becomes clearer to the vision, and more beautiful than when dimly discerned through the enveloping mist.

So do we view your minds and, if the sun for a while dazzles and perplexes rather than clarifies the sight, you know that the end is light, and the end of all that Light in whom there is no darkness at all. Yet light is not conducive to peace always, but, in its passage, often creates a series of vibrations which bring destruction to those species of living creatures which are not fashioned to survive in the light of the sun.

184

Let them go, and, for yourself, go onward, and as you go your eyes will become used to the greater light, the greater beauty of the Love of God, the very intensity of which, blended as it is with infinite Wisdom, is perplexing to those who are not altogether of the light.

And now, dear son, listen while we tell you of one more scene which has gladdened us here in these regions of God’s own light.

We were wandering a short time ago in a beautiful woodland place, and as we went we talked a little, but not more than a little because of the sense of music which seemed to absorb all else into its own holy silence. Then, standing in the pathway in front of us, whom should we see but an angel from a higher sphere. He stood and looked on us with a smile, but did not speak, and we became aware that he had a message for one of us especially.

It was so, for, as we halted and stood in expectation, he came forward and, lifting the cloak he wore—amber it was in colour—he placed his arm and it round my shoulder and, laying his cheek on my hair—for he was much taller than I am—he said softly, “My child, I am sent to you from the Master Whom you have learned to trust, and the way before you is seen by Him but not by you. You will be given strength for whatever you have to do; and you have been chosen for a mission which is new to you in your service here. You will be able, 185

of course, to visit these your friends at will, but now you must leave them for a time and I will show you your new home and duties.”

Then the others gathered round me and kissed me and held my hands in theirs.

They were as glad as I—only that is not quite the word to use in my case, it is not peaceful enough. After a while, when he had let us talk and wonder what his message meant, he came forward once more and this time took me by the hand and led me away.

We walked for a little time and then I felt my feet leave the ground and we went through the air. I was not afraid, for his strength, was given to me. We passed over a high mountain range where many palaces were, and at last, after a fairly long journey, we descended in a city where I had not been before.

The light was not unkind, but my eyes were not used to such a degree of brightness. However, I soon made out that we were in a garden surrounding a large building, with steps up to it all along the front, at the top of which was a kind of terrace. The building seemed all of one piece of material of different hues—pink and blue and red and yellow—which shone like gold, but softly. Up these we went, and at the great doorway, without any door to it, we met a very beautiful 186

lady, stately but not proud. You wonder at the word used in this connection.

What it means is this:

The sorrow is not of those who dwell there, but is the lot of those to whom they minister. The sorrowful ones are those on earth, and it is the business of the residents in this House to send to them vibrations which have the effect of neutralizing the vibrations of sorrowful hearts on earth. You must understand that here we have to get at the bottom of things, and that is a very deep study, only learned in gradual stages bit by bit. I therefore speak of the causes of things when I use the word â&#x20AC;&#x153;vibrations,â&#x20AC;? as one you will understand best. She received me very kindly and took me with in, where she showed me over part of the place. It was quite unlike anything on earth, so it is hard to describe. But I may say that the whole house seemed to vibrate with life, and to respond to our own will and vitality.

This, then, is my present and latest phase of service, and a very happy one it promises to be. But I have only just begun to understand the prayers which are brought to us there and are registered, and we see or feel them, as it were, and send out our own vibrations in answer. This in time becomes involuntary, but is a great effort at first, I find it so. But even the effort has a reflex blessing on 187

those who work so. There are many such places here, as I learn, all in touch with earth, which at present would seem impossible to me except that, as the effects are also registered back again to us, I know the amount of comfort and help we send. I only am on duty for a short space at one time, and then go out and see the sights of this city and its neighbourhood. And very glorious it all is, even more beautiful than my old sphere, which I also revisit to see my friends. So you can imagine the talks we have when we do meet. That is almost as great a joy as the work itself. Peace in God is the atmosphere all around us. And this is the land where there is no darkness and, when those mists are of the past, dear, you will come here, and I will show you all—until you are perhaps able to take me by the hand, as he did, and lead me to see the work in your own sphere. You will think I am ambitious for you, dear lad. Well, so I am, and that is a mother’s—shall I say weakness, or rather blessing?

Good-bye, dear. Your own heart at this moment is a witness that is all real, for I can see it glowing happy and bright, and that is gladness also to me your mother, dear son.

Good-night, then, and God will keep you and yours in His Peace.

188

The Goodness of God is Everywhere G. Vale. Owen The Life Beyond The Veil: The Lowlands Of Heaven (1920)

We had a case of doubt to deal with, and scarcely knew how to act for the best. It was that of a woman who had been over here for rather a long time, and who did not seem able to progress much. She was not a bad sort of person, but seemed to be uncertain of herself and everybody around her. Her chief difficulty was about angels â&#x20AC;&#x201D; whether they were all of light and goodness, or whether there were some of angelic estate and yet who were of the darkness.

For some time we could not quite see why this should trouble her, as everything here seemed to be of love and brightness. But we found at last she had some relatives who had come over before her, and whom she had not seen, and could not find out where they were. When we got at her real trouble we talked it over among ourselves, and then we went to the top of a hill and stated our wish to help her and asked to be shown the best way. A rather remarkable thing happened, as unexpected as helpful.

189

As we knelt there the whole summit of the hill seemed to become transparent and, as we were kneeling with bowed heads, we saw right through it, and a part of the regions below was brought out with distinctness. The scene we saw — and we all saw it, so there could be no delusion — was a dry and barren plain in semi-darkness and, standing leaning against a rock, was a man of large stature. Before him, kneeling on the ground, with face in hands, was another smaller form. It was that of a man, and he seemed to be pleading with the other, who stood with a look of doubt on his face.

Then at last, with a sudden impulse, he stooped down and caught the prostrate form to his breast, and strode with him over the plain towards that horizon where a faint light glimmered.

He went a long journey with that burden and, when they came to a place where the light was stronger, he set him down and pointed out the way to him; and we saw the smaller form thank him again and again, and then turn and run towards the light. We followed him with our eyes, and then saw that the other had directed him to the bridge, of which I have told you already — only that end of it which is on the other side of the chasm. Still we could not understand why this vision had been shown to us, and we continued to follow the man until he had reached the large building which stands at the entrance of the bridge — not to guard it, but to watch for those who come and who 190

require refreshment and help.

We saw that the man had been sighted from the watchtower, for a flash of light signaled the fact to those below and to those on the next watchtower along the bridge.

And then the hill resumed its normal aspect again, and we saw no more.

We were more perplexed than ever now, and were descending the hill when our Chief Lady met us, and, in her company, one who seemed to be a high officer in some part of our spheres, but whom we had not met before. She said he had come to explain to us the instruction we had just received. The smaller man was the husband of the woman whom we were trying to help, and we must tell her to go to the bridge and she would be given a lodging there, where she could wait till her loved one arrived. The larger man whom we had seen was what the woman would call an angel of darkness, for he was one of the more powerful spirits in that dark land. But, as we had observed, he was capable of a good deed. Why then, we asked, was he still in the regions of darkness?

The officer smiled and said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;My dear friends, the Kingdom of God our Father is a very much more wonderful place than you seem to 191

imagine. You never yet met with a realm or sphere which was complete in itself, and independent and separate from all other spheres. Nor are there any such. That dark angel blends within his nature many spheres of knowledge and goodness and badness. He remains where he is first because of the badness remaining in him, and which unfits him for the regions of light. He remains also because, while he could progress if he would, yet he does not wish to do so at present, partly because of his obstinacy, and partly because he still hates the light, and thinks those who set out upon the awful uphill way fools because the pains and agonies are sharper then by reason of the contrast which they see between the light and the darkness.

So he remains; and there are multitudes such as he whom a kind of dull and numb despair prevents coming over. Also in his time of hatred and frenzy he is cruel. He had tortured and ill-treated this same man whom you saw with him from time to time, and that with the cruelty of a cowardly bully. But as you saw, that wore itself out, and, when the man pleaded this last time, some soft chord in the heart of the other vibrated just a little, and, on the impulse, fearing a reversal of his intention, he liberated the victim who wished to make the journey, and pointed out to him the way, no doubt thinking in his heart that he was a fool and yet, perhaps, a wiser fool than he, after all.â&#x20AC;? 192

This was new to us. We had not realized that there was any goodness in those dark regions before; but now we saw that it was but natural that there should be, or, if everyone were totally bad, no one would ever desire to come to us here.

But what bearing has all this on the discerning between the things which matter and those of lesser importance?

All that is good of God, and light and darkness, as applied to His children, are not, and cannot be, absolute. They are to be understood relatively. There are, as we now know, many â&#x20AC;&#x153;angels of darknessâ&#x20AC;? who are in the darkness because of some twist in their natures, some obstinate trait which prevents the good in them having its effect.

And these one day may pass us on the road of the ages, and become greater in the Kingdom of the Heavens than we who now are more blessed than they.

Good night, dear son. Think over what we have written. It has been a very wholesome lesson to us, and one which it were well if many in your present life could learn.

193

The Bridge G. Vale. Owen The Life Beyond The Veil: The Lowlands Of Heaven (1920)

We wish to relate an episode which we witnessed at the place where the Bridge — as I will continue to name it — emerges on to the uplands of life and light.

We were sent thither to receive a woman who was expected to arrive, having fought her way through those dreadful, dark regions which lie below the Bridge. She had not come over the great causeway, but through the horrors of the darkness and gloom in the region below. With us went a strong Angel from a sphere above us, who was specially commissioned for the task. This was one of the Sister Angels who organize our homes where the rescued are taken.

Can you give me her name?

Bearn — no, we cannot get it through. Leave it, and we may be able to do so as we proceed.

When we arrived there we found that a light was glimmering some 194

way down the rocky way which went down into the valley, and knew that some angel was there on the watch. Presently it grew more dim, and we noticed that it was moving away from us into the distance below. Then after a time we saw a flash far out over the valley, and this was immediately answered by a stream of light from one of the towers on the Bridge. It was not unlike what you know as a searchlight, and indeed answered a purpose somewhat similar. It shot out downward into the gloom and remained steady. Then Bea â&#x20AC;&#x201D; our Angel Sister told us to abide where we were for a time, and she went quickly through the air to the tower top.

Then we lost her in the light, but one of my companions said she thought she saw her speeding along the ray of light which slanted downwards towards the depths.

I did not; but afterwards we found that she had seen correctly.

I ought to pause here to explain that that light was not so much to enable the spirits to see (which they could do of their own power), but to give strength for the work and protection against the hurtful influences which held sway in the region below. It was for that reason that the first angel had sent out his signal, and it was understood by the constant watchers on the Bridge and answered in the way I have told. The ray of light is, in some way I do not understand yet, 195

impregnated with power of life and strength â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the best description I am able to give â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and it was sent to help him whose strength was in want of succor.

By and by we saw the two return. He was a strong Angel, but looked fatigued, and we learned later that he had encountered a band of very malignant spirits who did their best to get the woman back again amongst them. That is why he needed help. He walked on one side and she walked on the other side of the poor torn and tortured soul who was more than half in a swoon. They went very slowly for her sake now, walking in the ray of light towards the tower on the Bridge. We had never seen anything like this before, except once, and that I have recounted to you. I mean the Pavilion of light and the assembling of the people of many colored dresses. But this was, in a way, much more solemn; for there was anguish in the midst of joy, and there joy alone.

They reached the Bridge, and the rescued one was taken into one of the houses and tended, and there remained until she had sufficiently recovered to be handed over to our care.

Now, there are several points in this narrative which held new knowledge for us, and some which confirmed what had been mere surmises up to the time of that experience. Some of these I will name. 196

It is a mistake to think that Angels, even of such estate as those two who went and rescued that poor woman, are unable to suffer. They do suffer, and that frequently. And it is possible for the malicious ones to hurt them when they venture into their regions. Theoretically I cannot see why the evil ones should not now and then prevail so as to get them into their power. So well, however, are the powers of light and good organized, and so watchful, that I have not heard that this catastrophe has ever been known actually to happen. But their fight is a real fight, and fatiguing also. That is the second point. Even these high Angels can, become fatigued. But neither their suffering nor their fatigue do they mind. It may sound a paradox, but it is nevertheless true, that it is a joy to them to suffer so when some poor struggling soul is to be helped.

Also that light-ray — or perhaps I should say “Ray of power and vitality” — was so strong that, had they not protected the woman by surrounding her with a certain negative influence, it would have harmed her, because it would have been too great a shock to one so unprepared as she.

Another point is this. That ray was seen far out in the region of gloom, and we heard a murmur coming, as it seemed, from hundreds of miles away, down across the valley. It was a strange experience, for the sound was that of many voices, and some were of rage and hate, 197

and others of despair, and others cries for help and mercy. And these and other different cries seemed to be gathered each in its own particular locality, and to come from different directions. We could understand but little, but afterwards, while we waited for the rescued one, we asked Beanix â&#x20AC;&#x201D; (I am afraid I cannot do better than that, so it will have to stand. We will call her Beanix, but it does not look quite correct when written down) â&#x20AC;&#x201D; we asked her about those cries and where they came from. She said she did not know, but that there was provision for their registration, both collectively and individually, for their analysis, and that they would be scientifically treated in this science of love, and that then help would be sent out according to the merit of those who cried, and also in such form as would best be of service. Each cry was an evidence either of good or bad in some human soul in that region, and would receive its appropriate answer.

When the woman was handed over to us we first let her rest and surrounded her with a quiet restful influence, and then, when she was strong enough, led her away to a home where she is being cared for and tended.

We did not ask her any questions, but let her ask the few she was able to put to us. But I found that the poor thing had been in that dark land for more than twenty years past. Her life history on earth I have partly learned, but not enough to make a connected narrative. And it 198

is not well to remind them too vividly at first of the earth they have left so long ago. They usually have to work back from the present through their experience in the spirit life, in order to understand it and the relation of the whole — cause and effect, sowing and reaping — all explained.

That must serve for this time. Good-bye, dear, and God’s blessing and our prayers shall be with and for you. May He keep you in His peace. Amen.

199

Water of Life G. Vale Owen Life Beyond The Veil: Book 3: The Ministry of Heaven (1921)

And now, dear friend and fellow-pilgrim, let us take a journey inland from the Home of Rest and see what chances by the way to those who journey so. For we are both pilgrims, you and I, and are on the same road to the same brightness still beyond and away over the high mountains which border this sphere and that one next ahead.

We leave the grounds and gardens of the Home behind us and take our way down a long high colonnade of trees which leads to the open country, and as we go we notice that the way goes not straight onward, but follows the line of the valley beside the river which comes down by this way to the sea. Let me now before proceeding explain some of the qualities of the waters of this river.

You have read of the Water of Life. That phrase embodies a literal truth, for the waters of the spheres have properties which are not found in the waters of earth, and different properties attach to different waters. The waters of the river or fountain or lake are often 200

treated by high spirits and endowed with virtues of strengthening or enlightenment. Sometimes people bathe in them and gather bodily strength from the life-vibrations which have been set up in the water by the exercise of some group of angel-ministers. I know of a fountain situated on the top of a high tower which sends forth a series of musical chords of deep harmony when it is set to play. This is used instead of bells to call the people of the surrounding lands together when some ceremony is forward.

Moreover, its spray disperses itself over a wide radius, and is seen to fall around the gardens and homes spread out over the plain in the form of flakes of light of different colours. These flakes are so constituted as to bring to those on whom or around whom they fall a sense of the general nature and purpose of the meeting about to be held, a kind of glow which suffuses the whole being and brings a sense of comradeship and communal love which makes the recipient the more eager to be away to the gathering. Also by this process is borne through the district a sense of the time and place of meeting, and often, too, the knowledge of some Angel Visitor who is to address the assembly or to transact some business, as deputy of the Lord of his Sphere.

The chief property of the waters of this river whose banks we now follow upward is that of peace. In a way far beyond all earthly 201

understanding all the qualities of its waters infuse peace to him who strolls beside its waters. Its various colours and hues, the murmur of its flowing, the plants to which it contributes fertility, the shape and appearance of its rocks and banksâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;all, in a very intense measure, bring peace to the soul who needs it. And there are many who need that peace among those returning from the lower spheres across the great lake, for it is a strenuous life we lead at times, my friend, and not at all the deadly monotonous existence so many earth people imagine. So that there are times when it is necessary to lay the burden down for awhile, and for our future operations regain that calm and strong quietude of spirit so necessary to the adequate carrying out of our allotted work.

You must also understand that there is in everything here a permeating personality. Every forest, every grove, every tree, lake, stream, meadow, flower, house, has a pervading personality. Itself it is not a person, but its existence and all its attributes and qualities are consequent on the sustained and continuous volition of living beings, and their personality it is which is felt by all who come into contact with each and any of these, and that in a degree in ratio to their sensitiveness in the particular direction of the resident personality. Some, for instance, are more sensitive to those beings whose activity lies in the trees; others to those of the river. But all seem to sense the qualities of a building, especially when they enter 202

within, for these are erected mostly by spirits more nearly of their own quality and degree, while most of what we might call nature spirits are of a state and manner of existence and of function much more removed.

Now, what obtains in these Realms is usually found true in your earth sphere also, only in a lesser degree of intensity as sensed by the ordinary individual, consequent on his deep immersion in matter at this present stage of evolution. It is only less apparent, it is not less true.

203

The Inter-Relation Of The Spheres. G. Vale Owen Life Beyond The Veil: Book 2: The Highlands of Heaven (1921)

Moreover, friend, it is a good thing and a helpful to bear in mind our presence at all times; for we are near, and that in ways both many and various. When we are personally near at hand we are able to impress you with helpful thoughts and intuitions, and so to order events that your work may be facilitated and your way more clear than otherwise it would appear to you.

When in person we are in our own spheres, we still have means whereby we are informed not alone of what has happened in and around you, but also what is about to happen, if the composition of circumstances pursue its normal course.

Thus preserving contact with you, we maintain and ensure our guardianship that it be continuous and unceasing, and our watchfulness that it shall in nowise fail on your behalf. For here, and through the spheres between us and you, are contrivances by which intelligence is sent on from one sphere to those beyond and, when 204

necessity require it, we enjoin others to carry out some mission to you, or, if the occasion so requires, we come to earth ourselves, as I have done at this time.

But further still, and in addition to this, we are able each to come into contact with his own charge direct in certain ways, and to influence events from our own place. Thus you will understand that the whole economy of the Creator, through its manifold spheres of light, is unified in action and correlated. So that no part is but is influenced by all those other parts, and what you do on earth not only is registered in the heavens, but has effect on our minds and thoughts, and so on our lives.

Be, therefore, of very careful mind and will; for your doings in thought and your doings in word and your doings in act are all of great import, not alone to those you see and touch around you, but also to those around you unseen and untouched by you, but who see and touch you constantly and often. Not these alone, but those who go about their business in their own spheres are so affected. It is so in my own, I know, and how much higher I do not hazard to say.

But, were you to ask me, I would reply that your doings are multiplied by transmission through the spheres of light by seventy times seven; and that no end is found to their journey within the ken of man or 205

angel. For I little doubt, if that at all, they find out at last the very Heart of God.

Be ye, therefore, perfect, because your Father Who is in the Heaven of the Heavens is perfect; and no imperfect thing can find acceptance and approval to enter where He is in His awful Beauty.

And what, then, of those spheres where they who do not love good and beauty dwell? Well, we are also in touch with those, and the help sent there is as readily sent as to the earth sphere; for those realms of darkness are but further removed, and not disconnected, from us. Those who are there are learning their lesson as are you in your earth sphere, but theirs is more dim than yoursâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;no more than this. For still are they sons and daughters of the One All Father, and so our brothers and sisters too. And these we help when they cry, as we help you at your petition. It has been given you already to know somewhat of the conditions of life there obtaining.

Even the Stars are Creations of Creators.

206

At The Bridgeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;In The Land of Darkness G. Vale Owen Life Beyond The Veil: Book 3: The Ministry of Heaven (1921)

New Year's Eve, 1917.

5.15-6.25 p.m.

OF our descent hereto we have spoken in brief, but now we come to those spheres where the light grows more dim, and of which not so much has been told by those who have come earthward to show to men what awaits humanity when they cross the borderline and become vibrant with the quicker life as it pulses in these realms of spirit. So we would presently be more discursive for the sake of those who would the rather attain to an equal knowledge of what is of light and shade, and those who are of the weaker sort, and who desire and need the buoyancy of joy and of beauty, may turn about and leave us to cross the chasm alone, awaiting our return to the spheres where light is dominant over all, and little of shadow there is to sully the fairness of the life abounding.

207

So, having passed through that tract where people come on leaving earth, and of which we have already spoken in brief, we passed on into the darker realms. And now we felt increasingly that pressure of soul which needs stout hearts and wary feet to combat.

For you will mark that we were not to pursue that method by which the higher ones may sustain their contact with those in the darkness, yet be to them unseen. We were to condition ourselves, as hereto, to the environment of the spheres inferior to our own, so now to those of even lower estate, so that we become of body not indeed so dense and gross as the inhabitants in proper, but yet so nearly approximate as at times to be able to be visible to them at will, and quickly, and even that they might, on occasion, be aware of our touch upon them and that they might also touch us. So we went but slowly and afoot, and all the time in-breathing the condition which was ambient about us to this same end and purpose. And we thereby also got at some sympathy of feeling with those among whom our labours were now to be.

There is a region which is still in the sunlight, but ends in a steep descent, where the bottom lies in darkness. As we stood there to view, we looked across the deep valley, which seemed to be filled with gloom so gross that we could not penetrate it from our standpoint in the light. 208

Above the murky ocean of mist and vapour a dull light rested from above, but could not sink beneath the surface far, that ocean was so dense. And down into that we had to go.

The Bridge of which your mother spoke to you runs right across the valley and lands on a lower elevation beyond. Those who from the depth climb up that side, then rest a period at the further end, and come across the great causeway to the hither side. There are rest-houses here and there along the way where they who are too weary still to make the journey at one stage may stay and refresh themselves from time to time. For even after gaining the Bridge, the journey across is a painful one, inasmuch as on its either side they see the murk and gloom from which they have but lately come, and hear the cries of those, their sometime companions, who still linger beneath, way down, in the valley of death and despair.

Our purpose was not to cross this Bridge, but to make our descent into the depths from this side.

What is beyond the "lower elevation" you spoke of, and on which the further end of the Causeway rests? The Causeway rests on a ridge not quite so high as the Rest-Land which leads to the regions of Light. That ridge is but a short one, and runs in parallel with the precipice 209

where the hither end of the Bridge finds issue.

So that ridge stands as a mountain, in shape an elongated oval, with the valley beneath it and between it and the Rest-Land. Beyond is a vast plain on a level with the valley's bottom, but unequal of surface and broken up into cavities and ravines, and beyond there is a dip into regions lower still, and of darkness more gross. It is up that mountain that they perforce must climb who would reach the Bridge from that side. The mountain-ridge is short only as compared with the vastness of the region in whole. But it is so great, notwithstanding, that many lose their way and return to the valley time and again. It depends on the degree of their vision, which again is in ratio to their quality in repentance and will for the better life, how soon they find their way of escape.

So we stood awhile and pondered, and I turned to my companions and said: "It is a murky place, my brothers, and it does not call us with much sweetness. But thither lies our way, and we had best be agait to make it." And one replied: "I feel the chill of the hate and despair from the bottom of the pit. We can do but little in that ocean of anguish. But such little as we can do cannot wait the doing, for the while we wait, they suffer." "That is the word to say," I answered him, "and it is the spirit of Him who went beforetime. We have followed Him into His Light. Let us now go into the darkness, for that, too, is 210

His, since He claimed that also as His own by His going." So we took the path downward, and as we went the gloom became more gloomy and the chill more full of fear. But we knew we went to help, and not to fear aught, and so we did not hesitate in our steps, but went warily withal, and looking this way and that for the right path, for our first station lay a little to the right-hand as we went, and not between the Rest-Land and the Ridge, and it was a colony of those who were weary of the death-life they had endured, and yet who lacked the strength to break away, or the knowledge which way to take, if they should leave their present desperate anchorage. As we went, our eyes became more attuned to the gloom, and we could see about us, as on a night one might see the country outlying a city by the ruddy flares on the watch-towers thereof. We saw that there were many ruined buildings, some in clusters and some solitary. Decay was all about us. It seemed to us that no one had ever made whole any house, once it began to fall into disrepair. Having builded it, they left it to build another elsewhere at the first sign of wear, or, having tired of it before it was finished, had left to build another. Listlessness and want of endurance was all about us in the airâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the listlessness of weary despair and the despondency of doubt, both of their own strength and of their neighbours' purpose.

There were trees also, some very large, but mostly leafless, and those with leaves not comely, for the leaves were of dark green and 211

yellow, and spiked with lance-like teeth, as if they, too, took on the aspect of enmity from those who had lived near them. Here and there we crossed a waterway full of boulders and sharp stones and with little water, and that water thick with slime and stinking.

And at long, long last we came within sight of the colony we were seeking. It was not a city, but a cluster of houses, some large and some small. They were scattered about, here and there, and not in order. There were no streets in the city. Many dwellings were merely mud-huts, or a couple of slabs of stone to form a shelter. And there were fires about the open spaces to give light to the inhabitants. Round these, many groups were gathered, some sitting in silence looking at the flames, others loudly brawling, others wrestling in their anger, one with another. So, we drew near, and, finding a silent group, we stood by waiting and looking upon them with much pitifulness in our hearts for their hopelessness of spirit. And, seeing them, we took hands one of another and thanked our Father that He had given us this present work to do.

212

The Celestial Company Cora Richmond My Experiences While Out of My Body (1923)

Those comprising this Realm seem like another order of beings than those with whom one had freely mingled and communed in the spirit States of Earth and even in the Vale of Delight, but they are those who once were mortals "Spirits of the just made perfect." There was no abrupt contrast or change from the highest spirit states, yet this Realm differed in a vastness, a glory, that became more and more surpassing wonderful. Although the states merge and mingle one seemed to be saying in passing through the Vale of Delight.

"We leave the Spirit states, we enter the Angelic state."

The Beings that compose the Celestial Company are each and all ensphered in their own brightness, each revealed as an illuminated sphere having a particular radiance all its own.

These Spheres seem unapproachable, unbroken except where from within the luminous orb divides or seems to include one in it Aura sphere. It came to the consciousness, by perception or knowledge 213

from previous teachings, that these Aura spheres are the Angels: the completed, the perfected lives; divided in manifestation on Earth and in Spirit states, united here. Oh! With what rapturous thrill came this knowledge!

The perception of the Angels as they are in their own States of Being!

These perfect orbs of Light meet and mingle in Divine accord yet each perserves the distinct individuality.

As we entered into that Celestial Company the Angel Guides, who had companioned and instructed during all the experiences in the spirit states, became also ensphered.

One Angel: the previously noted dual expression became one orb of radiant beauty!

Thus was borne to the consciousness that the Angels when manifesting to those in spirit states or to those in human life appear in separate forms (man or woman as the case requires) and that the forms may be in appearance or personality those last known on Earth. This apparent division is, however not real; one endowed with higher vision and insight can see (or perceive) the ensphereal Angels 214

even during the manifestations of the angels to spirits or mortals.

215

Spiritual Thoughts of Light Edward C. Randall Frontiers of the Afterlife (1923)

The question of light in the next world has always interested me, and it is one of the subjects upon which I have sought information. I speak of Dr. Hossack, for the reason that he has given me the most satisfactory explanation of any. This was my question to him:

"What is the character of your light, and how does it differ from sunlight?"

The answer:

"The light we have is obtained from the action of our minds on the atmosphere. We think light, and there is light. That is why people who come over in evil condition are in the dark; their minds are not competent to produce light enough for them to see.

"There is greater intensity of light as we go up through the spheres, which comes from the blending of the more spiritual minds.

216

"Our life is merely the condition of mind which each one has. We create images in thought, and have the reality before us, just as tangible as your houses and buildings are to you. You do not have any conception of the great power and force there is, or may be, in thought. It dominates all conditions and makes us what we are. One who realizes this may control his destiny.

"Thought is a fluid, which becomes substance to us when once it is formed into an expression. It is a vibrating, living thing, and should be recognized as such and controlled accordingly."

Another spirit speaks of light as follows:

"When you speak of the sun in the spirit world, you mistake, for there is no such thing. There is light here, radiated from the atoms. Our light is very different from your sun. Your light is grosser than ours; it is unnatural to us, and, therefore, painful to the spirit. Our light is soft, radiant and very brilliant. Your physical eye can never behold it; it is so ethereal, so beautiful, that it blends with sensation."

But why? What natural law produces spirit light? If this were explained in detail, nothing would be left for deductive reasoning. These descriptions but serve to spur one on to greater effort, and must, of necessity, make deductions and partly by that process 217

understand spirit conditions. I have ever noticed that in seeking knowledge of after life conditions, something is left for one to do if he would attain the desired result. This is in accordance with the oft-repeated statement that the spirits only help others to help themselves.

Another's understanding follows:

"There is a great central force, the rays from which gradually lessen in their vibratory action. This force comes from the outside of your world, as you call it, and reaches the lowest ebb in the center of your earth. This central vibratory action is in the highest sphere, and is so intense and vivid that the souls who are in the finest state of development are the only ones who come near its circle. It is the apex of the universe, and that is why there are lesser degrees as it is rayed out through infinite space. These vibrations of light reach the earth and all the other spheres, and the vibratory action of light on each planet depends on its distance from the seat of this creative or central force.

"Some of the planets are much higher in vibratory action than is your earth, and if you were to go to them, and could still retain the earth conditions surrounding you, as usual you could not see any life because your vibration would be so much lower. The need of this 218

condition is so apparent when once one grasps the immensity of the universe and the harmony of its laws.

"If you were able to see all the conditions and people beyond you, life would be chaos and confusion each sphere mixing with another â&#x20AC;&#x201D; with no regulations nor harmony anywhere. As it is, each has its own place in the scheme of progression, and this visible wall of vibratory force is the safety guard to continued rational living.

"This force is life, intense, vibrating, dominant. In conception there is the merest touch to this elemental force; consequently, life is forwarded and the continuation of the species insured. It is something discernible as a part of nature and nature is but an expression of this great force.

"Those souls that progress through each step is slowly, but surely, becoming a part of that great force which is life; life itself is light, and ultimately individuality will be lost in the immensity of that great, harmonious life force and will become, in turn, a tiny part of the new conception in the earth form again. I do not mean that this is reincarnation. An atom only is needed to create life in the lower earth forms, and that is taken from the immense whole. This is the law of the universe. There seem no words to tell you, or to make you understand clearly, the plan and purpose of creation; one must 219

accept it and try to realize that one's own life, seemingly so important to one's self, is in reality such a little thing in the immensity of the universe, and yet just as essential to the whole as one petal of a flower is to the perfect rose. It is a part of the perfect whole, and necessary.

"Make that part that is developed by you clean and wholesome, and the going on will be filled with beauty; it will be but the going into a new country, among good friends and great advantages, along spiritual and harmonious lines. But to those who live in the dark and do evil and selfish things, the going will be along rough and stormy places and the helping hand hard to find'

We know so little of light. We have always had the sun, but even now know little about it. Man first devised the torch, which not so long ago was all he had; then came the candle; then whale oil and the lamp; next petroleum assisted man; and, within our own time, he has invented the electric light,â&#x20AC;&#x201D;evolution of the primitive torch. The ether itself is light, as is evidenced by the fact that the dynamo draws from the atmosphere this substance and condenses it. We may behold electricity, which is a physical expression of the ether that fills all space in the whole universe. The more a man knows, the more he is willing to learn. The less a man knows, the more positive he is that he knows everything. 220

The question of light is a legitimate field of inquiry, in which any man may make researches, as little has been told concerning it. The suggestion that there is light of another character and that life itself is the light which lights the spirit world, is no more startling than that made concerning the electric lamp a few years ago. There are still many things in nature that we do not know, with all our boasted knowledge.

Our sun is physical. All that is visible is physical, but nothing physical enters the planes that surround this globe. As I understand, nothing physical is visible to spirit people unless they descend into the earth or to lower spirit planes; then they visualize as when in the body. There are countless numbers of spirits also that for ages never rise above earth conditions nor see the radiance of the higher spheres.

A great law governs spirit, as well as physical, sight. A beautiful, tender, loving thought radiates and goes out from the mentality in long, undulating waves. The longer the thought wave, the finer the thought, the higher its vibrations and the lighter in substance, but a selfish thought sends out a short wave, and, because of its deficient length, it is dark. The mind is a shuttle and is ever weaving about us a condition that will surround us completely on the day of our dissolution. If we develop our minds along fine lines, the thought that 221

goes forth from the soul in the next life will illuminate the path of our progression, but if we fail to observe that law, we pay the penalty, for each soul furnishes all the light discernible along its own pathway in the spheres beyond.

The source of life—that is, the source of energy—does not seem to be known by spirits. Only the infinite can comprehend the infinite. They simply know, as I gather, that there is a great, central source of power from which emanates the life force that finds expression in the various places of consciousness. They know something of conditions that exist in the plane on which, for the time, they live, and, just as we of the earth, they labor for a better understanding of nature's wonderful laws. Our progression to this next sphere will not change our ambitions or desires, or our comprehension; and vision—what we see will depend on the light that our souls will radiate. We cannot touch a button or turn a switch and light our way, nor can we borrow a lamp. Self-effort and a clean life along right lines will light the way where the great law places us when the night comes after earth's fitful struggles are over.

222

Clearer Light But No Coercion Coming Light Mary Bruce Wallace (1924)

The thought mist of your earth is very dense and stifling, so that it needs great spiritual power to transform it. These blessed pioneers are even now cleansing your atmosphere by their own purity and power. Very beautiful are they; many of them angelic, not belonging to the children of men of this world, for, as I have told you, very great power is needed from the inner and higher realms to accomplish the desired result.

Not until the Divine decree went forth for the thinning of the veils was this campaign possible; so your earth atmosphere has not, previous to the present era, been penetrated by the angel hosts. You will understand, therefore, why we regard the future with so much hope. A new era began at the moment when the first seraphs descended upon their Divine mission, making the first clearance in the clouds around you. Now we are descending swiftly after them, all of us organised, thousands of workers, tens of thousands, each with his special mission to perform for which he is specially fitted; no shirkers, but all earnest, chosen messengers of the Divine will. 223

You will now begin to perceive the reason for our optimistic attitude with regard to the new age so swiftly approaching. Not for long can any materialistic trend of thought hold sway in the minds of men, for it will be swept from them almost as soon as generated, and not allowed to influence others as hitherto.

Man will find himself marvellously enlightened, he knows not how; lifted "into realms beyond his previous imagination. The first to catch the light will be the poets, the idealists, the thinkers of all types, of every class. There will be a great wave of enlightenment entering the world through the souls of such. The emotional nature will respond more quickly than the intellectual to our knocking at the door. There is a reason for this. Imperfectly developed though the emotional nature often is, yet has it a doorway always open to the realms of light, a doorway that is often closed in the intellectual type of man.

You will find that the Irish nation will be one of the first to hear our call, to follow our prompting, to climb rapidly to the heights whereon we stand. We see Ireland very swiftly uprising from her chains. America also is stirring, though she is not so near the awaking point as Ireland is. She will be longer held by the bonds of materialism, created by money interests. Far away in the East do we see light. Much will you behold soon that will confirm my words. Rejoice that this is so. Be at 224

peace. The coming time must still be veiled, but not for long now."

The world atmosphere to us is intensely dark with sordid thought and feeling accumulated in masses, generation after generation, because of worldly souls who have passed through their earthly existence with little or no thought of heavenly things. This change cannot be expected to take place in any miraculous way, in the twinkling of an eye. Man must slowly absorb spiritual energy somewhat as a plant absorbs its sustenance from the air and sunshine around.

Placed in a new atmosphere, he will unconsciously draw in that which we desire. We, as it were, sweep away the clouds of darkness from about him, and, as these depart, spiritual sunshine takes their place. The soul then becomes open to undreamt-of possibilities and ideals. The whole outlook is changed for the better, more or less according to the degree of the individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s response.

According to the point of evolution that each soul has reached, will be the extent of his enlightenment. I am telling you this to give you a faint idea of one of the ways in which we shall be able to affect the outer world, unnoticed by the beings moving therein. Thousands of us will be actually by their side in a way never before possible, for we can descend into their atmosphere as soon as it has been cleared 225

and purified in the way described. There are large companies of us who might be called ‘preparers of the way.’ These are at present occupied in sweeping away the enveloping clouds. Then they will transmute them by spiritual power generated in our inner realms, somewhat as the sun dissipates mist.

Very far is it from our desire to coerce man in any work undertaken. We would have it entered upon in perfect free will. Only thus will it be possible to make it a success. This principle ought to be considered more fully in dealing with the lives of young people starting out on their life¥s journey in your world. Many parents, teachers, guardians, endeavor to force the youth or maiden along paths which seem to themselves desirable, but which are often against the well-being or desire of the souls concerned.

Well would it be if young people, when they came to the age of discretion, were advised to enter into the Silence, there to discover for what work in the outer world they are best fitted. So would a career be made fruitful instead of abortive. We behold many calamities in young people’s lives due entirely to this endeavor to force the will in the direction desired by older, and often more material minds. Leave these precious souls free to follow their highest intuitions.

226

The world atmosphere is mercenary, very dangerous for the youth entering therein, full of insidious temptation. Let all teachers who are open-minded to this, and sufficiently spiritual to realise its dangers themselves, be on their guard lest materialistic thoughts and motives hamper those young souls so eagerly pressing forward upon the roadway of life. How we long to help you all in the training of youths, and even children, in this respect!

Yet will it be some time before the outer world recognizes the importance of valuing all things from our standpoint. Very sordid is the outlook of the average teacher of youth. We are pressing in with deep desire to change these materialistic trends of thought, and we shall succeed. Although, as I said, we do not coerce, yet we shall certainly endeavor to change the mental atmosphere by every means in our power, creating channels of light in the midst of your darkness.

227

Contemplation and Communion Walter DeVoe Inspiration (1928)

Cultivate an exalted imagination, and it will enable you to live superior to all the heavy depressing thoughts and feelings of mortality. In your quiet moments, let your imagination soar into the heights of immortality that your spirit may inbreathe the invigorating ozone of heaven.

Why grovel in the depressing imaginations of mortals when you can rise in thought and conceive the splendor and beauty which the Angels know? In these supreme heights of glorious thought all beings are healthy and happy, and you can partake of their healthy blissful life. You can feel your spirit inbreathing the healing essences of eternal life.

In your hours of silent communion you can experience an inner joy aroused in you by the contact of your soul with the souls of glorious immortals. In these communions you partake of the soul-substance of their emancipated lives. Your strength is renewed, your courage is revived, and you gain a conviction of your own immortality which 228

cannot be darkened by the doubts and fears of mortals.

Form mental pictures for contemplation. Exercise your spiritual imagination by trying to conceive of the glories that exist in that realm of reality. As you endeavor to make mental pictures of conditions in the spiritual and celestial realms you will exalt your imagination and enlarge its capacity to understand the wonders of life eternal. As you endeavor to describe the beauty and nobility of the immortal inhabitants of those sublime spheres you open your mind to receive the visions which the Angels desire to give you as nourishment for your spiritual faculties.

You need not fear to give free rein to your imagination in picturing the wisdom and wonder of Jehovih's creations. For the most beautiful imagery you can conceive is far surpassed in the magnitude and mercy of the Creator's kingdom. All the exalted thoughts you form in your meditations increase your capacity to conceive of the wisdom, love and power of your Creator. Whatever you imagine or describe will become more real to you, and your understanding will become vitalized and illuminated as your imagination is exalted.

Your soul needs the substance and strength of the most interior and exalted realm of soul life. Exalt your thoughts to that realm, quietly picturing the beings that dwell in that exalted state. Conceive of a 229

great white luminous Celestial City great enough to be home to millions of Angels. Conceive of this Celestial City as composed of luminous soul-substance, glistening with the intelligence of the souls of which it is formed. As you let your mind dwell upon this thought it will grow more real and substantial to your imagination because such a glorious city exists, and the more you exalt your imagination in trying to conceive of it the more sensitive will the higher faculties of your mind become to impressions of its beauty, and the more responsive to the inspiring thoughts and feelings of the beings who dwell therein.

Exalted and blissful will your meditations become as you keep your thought upon this Celestial City. You will feel the thrill of the healthy, vigorous life of those beings who have entered into the consciousness of that life which is eternal. Imagine yourself resting in the glory of that Celestial City. Feel that all the mental weights of earth are being dissolved from your mind as your spirit is imbued with the soul radiance of the Angels. Even from this practice of exalting your imagination you will begin to glimpse the white light of that inner realm. As your spiritual faculties are quickened by your communion with exalted Immortals you will glimpse countenances so benign and eyes so full of liquid tenderness that every mortal feeling will be melted into a sense of sweetness and satisfaction and you will know for yourself the joy of soul consciousness. 230

As you progress in your imagination of spiritual realities your pictures will become more vivid and satisfying. You will be able to withdraw your mind almost immediately from the distractions and disturbances of the outer world by visualizing some perfect or ideal condition of spiritual existence. For instance you can conceive of an army of Angels advancing toward you from the white Celestial City.

You may not be able to picture in detail the members of such a glorious army, but you can think of a multitude of beautiful joyous immortal beings luminous with love eternal.

Now focus upon one radiant being from amongst the multitude. You are looking mentally at a glorious Being, and the thought of the soul radiance shining from his nature holds your attention. Such a mental picture has more influence to quiet your mind and exalt your imagination than many words because the vision that you hold before your mind is more attractive than many words. You are visualizing a personified Word of Divine Love. Your mind enters into the state that you picture. You find rest and peace in the contemplation of that exalted Being. You can imagine him speaking words of encouragement and strength to you, and while your mind forms the thoughts you imagine he is speaking to you, still the effort which forms the thought holds your mind in a very interior state, and 231

develops powers of your spirit which will be more fully expanded in the immortal life. In all these meditations you are beginning to exercise creative faculties which are commonly used by all souls who have entered into the higher life. The more you use them now the greater will be your consciousness of spiritual life while here, and the more developed you will find yourself when your spirit drops its vestment of flesh.

Imagine this radiant angel standing before you as the leader of a great concourse of angels speaking these words to you,

"I am radiating the love of all angels to you, that your spiritual nature may be awakened, and that you may know the eternal life of the Creator's Presence. Exalt your mind into my state of everlasting life, and conceive of the reality of the glorious life which the Creator has provided for all His children. In these moments of exalted realization you will be attuned with us and become a transmitter to the souls of mortals of the love-light in which the Angels dwell.

"There is nothing to keep you from exalting your imagination into our presence but your unwillingness to evoke this time to communion with us. Let not the outer life of materiality and selfishness absorb all of your attention because your eternal happiness and welfare depend upon the development of your inner soul nature. The 232

faculties of your immortal soul must be cultivated even as your senses and intellectual powers must be.

233

The Exalting Truth of Immortality The Pathway of Light Walter DeVoe (1936)

In a series of visions, I beheld in symbols the spiritual conditions of the earth over a period of a hundred years, a period which is not yet complete.

I saw the earth swathed in dark spiritual vapors which arose from the minds of its peoples. Within the vapors were millions of earthbound spirits.

High above the clouds of earth shone a Sphere of Light, a mighty spiritual Sun. Reaching out from this Sun to the cloudy zones enfolding the earth was a Ray of Light which to my vision took on the appearance of a golden stairway, extending from heaven to earth.

Millions of Immortals were ascending and descending this Golden Stairway of Light. From it in all directions extended pathways that led into paradisiacal planes where there were homes and schools and res ting places for spirits who had risen above the clouded mentality of the world into the more serene and luminous states of spiritual 234

existence. The further away they were from earth, the more beautiful and luminous were these planes of spiritual existence.

But the Golden Stairway of Light extended no farther down than to the mental clouds that enfolded the earth in spiritual darkness because it could not penetrate these dark spiritual vapors of earth. Millions of the spirits of earth were so absorbed by earthly desires that they did not aspire to rise out of their intellectual darkness. Consequently they did not seek for the Golden Stairway of spiritual progression and freedom from earthly turmoil and distress.

Then I saw a great multitude of beautiful and benevolent Immortals from all the planes of earth's paradise, moving by a mighty inner impulse down the Golden Stairway to bring the light of their heavenly knowledge to earth.

And when they came to the place where the Golden Stairway ended, they went to work with fiery zeal, and by the united power of their soul-light they burned a way through the clouds very close to earth.

Having completed this task millions of spirits came down this Stairway of Light, and in the hand of each one was a little book inscribed with the title, The Truth of Immortality.

235

The Immortals carried these books down to earth, and as far as they could into the dark and miasmic highways and byways of human thought. Whoever was able to receive a little book began- to glow with a new spiritual life, and to express the happiness of faith and hope revived.

I saw this Light of the Immortal& extending out through the mentality of the western world. Religious leaders denounced the mediums and teachers through whom the Light of Immortality was- given and proclaimed their teachings to be of the devil. The fearless conviction of these teachers weakened the very foundations of the sectarian organizations. Fear inspiring ideas of death began to lose their hold over the minds of mortals.

Multitudes testified that in dreams and visions they saw and heard their friends whom they had mourned as dead. They realized that there was hope and happiness for all beyond the grave. No God of vengeance ruled. Love reigned, and all souls would outgrow their darknesses and sins and become wise and perfect sons and daughters of the Divine Creator.

As I beheld the persistent efforts of the Immortals through many years, it seemed that they would be successful in revealing the Truth of Immortality to all humanity, and would lead all to see the Golden 236

Stairway of Spiritual Progression that they had built from heaven to earth.

But the forces of darkness which had ruled the world so long were not to be overcome so easily â&#x20AC;˘ How ignorance takes form in the spiritual world and influences the mind of humanity on earth was then shown to me most vividly.

The Destruction of Darkness

In this vision my attention was drawn away from the earth toward the Sun of Splendor, and my soul leaped with joy at the sight I beheld.

Out from the Sun of Splendor came myriads of glorified human spirits, each one also like a sun, and at their head was One whose figure was as a Flame of Fire.

Under the Leadership, of this Resplendent Being, a great army ofbright and beautiful Angels began to march down the Golden Stairway of Light. Not as single individuals, not in groups and companies as from separate realms like the former descent of Immortals, did they come, but in close formation like a well-drilled army in companies and battalions.

237

From their eyes flamed the fires of a strong and steady Purpose. They personified the dignity and majesty of the Divine Will. Their brows glowed with Divine Thought, and I felt from this great Host of Immortals a Determination to mercifully master and conquer delusion, greed, selfishness, and all the lesser beasts that held the souls of mankind in thrall. The Hosts of Angels represented the Organized Determination to deliver mankind; and of their ability to win the victory there was no doubt in my mind.

It was shown to me that whereas the purpose of the former descent of Immortals had been to prepare the minds of mankind with the revelation of the facts and principles of the spiritual universe, this coming of the Angels was to master all opposing forces, and to organize the principles of Heaven into a permanent foundation for the Creator's Kingdom on earth.

As I watched the oncoming Host of Angels, I was given a vision of their work over a period of several years during which time they accomplished a vast mission within many of the lower spiritual realms close to the planet, and resurrected millions of earthbound spirits into higher states of spiritual life.

I marveled at the wisdom displayed in the methods used by the Angels in mastering the mental forces of darkness and the 238

discordant conditions in which the earth was enfolded. Instead of going down in to the magnetic field close to earth, and clothing themselves with visible forms to be seen by men and spirits, the Angels remained invisible in the exalted state of Love.

Not entering into or clothing their bright spirits with the heavy mental states of mortals, they did not become earthbound, but remained superior to the discordant mentality of the world.

Instead of impressing people on earth with dreams and visions and advice, as the former Immortals had done as a means of turning their attention to spiritual realities, the Angels ignored the mental states entirely and concentrated a mighty Ray of Love upon the inmost soul-nature of humanity. This infusion of vitalizing love quickened their souls and aroused a new feeling for the principles of eternal life and wisdom.

To those souls who labored unselfishly to Do the Will of Love, there came an increasing Light and Power from the Organization of the Angel Hosts.

This Power was in the form of a great Company of Pioneer Angels who proceeded forth from the main body or Organization, and coming close to their coworkers on earth, they enfolded the workers 239

in their glory, and protected them with an adamantine wall of pure white Light. But these Angels remained in a more interior spiritual state than the spirits of earth, and hence were invisible to them and protected by the Light from all the dark and discordant states of earth's mentality.

From this union of men and Angels there radiated a mighty influence of love which penetrated through all minds of the world, weakening the forces of selfishness and ignorance and strengthening the Spirit of Love in the souls of men.

After this unity of Heaven and Humanity had been developed by their ministering together for some time I began again to wonder about the forces of delusion. I saw that these forces had become aware of some subtle opposition which they did not know how to combat. It was an invisible influence, but none the less tangible, and they sensed it permeating the mind of the world, undermining their power, and making them feel weak and futile. Soon, however, those whom the forces of darkness influenced on earth became aware of the teaching which opposed the doctrines of the beast. Through them the dark forces became aware of the centers of opposing Light, and an awful hatred raged within the dark forces. They turned all the flaming force and noxious fumes of the millions of earthbound spirits who composed their minds toward the Places of Radiance. 240

Bu the Doers of the Creator's Will on earth continued to pour out their love, amplified by the love of the Angels, to bless and heal humanity. While they were keenly aware of the opposition of the beast, and saw many of their friends fall under its spell and turn away from them, and even work maliciously to disrupt their efforts, nevertheless they tolerated these souls and blessed them so that their malice and vindictiveness were dissolved and did no harm.

Although the forces of darkness fumed and filled the atmosphere with destructive hatred, they could not penetrate the adamantine Light which enfolded the Places of Radiance. Nor could their influence penetrate into the more interior and exalted State in which the Angels sustained their organized Power.

As I watched the work of the Angels and the growing influence of their messengers on earth, I saw with gladness that increasing numbers of souls became attuned to the Light and consecrated their lives to the Creator's service. With every new soul a greater spiritual influence was added to the Places of Radiance, and the Organization of Angels gained a greater power over all the mental states and conditions of mankind in the entire world.

As the resurrecting Light of Angelic Love grew stronger and stronger, 241

a mighty miracle appeared. The darkness began to disintegrate. I saw the Light Ray of Angelic Power strike the form of darkness, and millions of spirits rose from it. More and more the Angels released the souls bound by the awful psychology of darkness and delusion, and drew them into the freedom of the higher states of spiritual life. So, I saw the darkness gradually disintegrate under the penetrating power of the Light of Heaven, until even the memory of its ancient doctrine and power faded from the minds of men.

242

Spheres of Various Vibrations William Dudley Pelley Why I Believe The Dead Are Alive (1942)

The profoundest thinkers and investigators in these matters agreed — and their experiments go to prove — that people do not alter their temperaments in the slightest by “dying”, but they do awaken to a world vastly different in environment. In orienting themselves to that environment — or in the combination of these two factors, temperament and changed environment — some phenomena are produced that are often confusing on this mortal level.

I QUOTE from a manuscript that came into my office for publication in later issue of my magazine: “People on the earth are much disposed to herd together according to their kind. The rich seek each other, the poor huddle into crowded tenements, and the thieves and gangsters have their resorts. Every city has its Four Hundred section, its Bohemian Quarter, and its slums. In the Land Beyond the Veil, people are also separated — on the basis of their moral development — into levels, more commonly called “planes” or “spheres” that surround the planet.

243

“The ‘spheres’ of lowest vibration — though of a vastly higher vibration than what we know on earth — are closest to the earth — in fact, the lowest intermingles with the earth’s surface. In a regular ascension from the center are spheres of higher and higher vibration, and in each of these spheres reside people — ex-human beings — of various degrees of evolutional development, the ignorant and the sinful occupying the lower spheres and attaining to higher spheres as they advance in love and wisdom.”

TO QUOTE further: “When a truly good man dies he is usually not conscious in the full sense, for quite a space of time. He passes somewhat quickly through the lower spheres, to about the Fourth — or whatever corresponds in vibration to the moral development he had attained. Those of wicked lives remain in the First Sphere, being what is known as Earth-Bound spirits. They are unconscious for a long while after death, and when they arouse, find themselves in a region of almost total darkness, bate of vegetation and inhabited by the lowest of the low and the vilest of the vile. This condition corresponds to the Purgatory taught by the Roman Church. Swedenborg speaks of it as ‘The Hells’. Those who are simply ignorant and weak, rather than downright depraved and vicious, find themselves in the Second Sphere, where it is lighter, and there is more opportunity to gain knowledge of higher and better things. “The great mass of everyday, ordinary people, not very wise, neither good 244

not bad, just full of blunders and stumbling along — these find themselves in the Third Sphere. Here is where Raymond, son of Sir Olive Lodge, tells us he landed, and though his intelligence and moral development very shortly permitted his rising to the Fifth Sphere, yet he announced that he was going to stay in the Third and await his parents, and so not chance going beyond them and missing them when they came over.

“THE VERY best of mortals, men and women whose lives have been developed to the service of mankind, go to still higher spheres, each sphere being thus inhabited by beings of parallel development, and therefore harmonious and happy. The higher the sphere, the smaller the population, is the condition that follows, and the numbers in the higher spheres are reduced by the custom of those advanced soul’s spending most of their time in spheres below their own, where they go to teach and help the les s advanced and weaker members of the race. Wherever they go they are at once recognized by their brightness. There id no uncertainty as to their mortal standing. No hypocrite in the ‘heaven world’ can pass for better than he is, and no saint can fail to be known.

“A real Master, resident of the Ninth or the Tenth Sphere, is a most splendid object to look upon, with serene and lovely countenance, superb beauty and dignity, and a brilliance dazzling to the eyes.” 245

The Spiritual Planes of Earth Arthur Findlay The Way of Life (1953)

These visitations can be better understood when it is realised that:

"The first plane is quite close to the earth. There is a distance between each plane, but distance does not mean quite the same thing on this side as it does to you on earth."

Moreover, these spheres, of which the planes are the surfaces, move round with the earth and, like our atmosphere, are always in the same place. This means that our friends and their surroundings always remain above us. Unless they travel to other parts of their world, as we do, to China or Australia for instance, they inhabit a country above, in space, the one they inhabited on earth. So we are not far wrong if we imagine a large invisible British community in Etheria, which once inhabited Britain, settled above us in space, and the same with the other countries of this earth. The inhabitants for some time remain settled above the country in which they once lived when on earth and, so long as the memory lasts, they continue to take an interest in it and its inhabitants. This is what was said: 246

"These planes move with the earth and form part of its orbit. The first plane is a kind of Clearing Station where the different nations live together. Family Life is most important, and the members await relatives of their generation to go on together to the next plane. So far as the first plane is concerned it does exist above the surface of the earth, but it is also in connection with the earth plane."

When I asked once if we could think of the first plane as like the surface of the ocean, and the earth surface as the bed of the sea, the imaginary water being the substance through which they can travel back to earth, and we, when we die, reach them, I was told

"It is true that the etheric planes are above and around the earth, but the first plane is close to the earth. The reference to the bed of the ocean can only be accepted as a simile. We have nothing quite corresponding to your earth vision of the ocean bed, which we can give as an illustration of what your surface looks like when you are coming to us from earth."

How do they see their surroundings? Without light nothing can be seen. They tell us that they have no night, and constant reference is made to their light. Whence then does it come? That problem 247

intrigued me, and I asked them many questions on this subject. Here are the answers:

"Yes, we are living just above you and can come to you instantly. We have very bright diffused light which is very much more pleasant than the light from your sun, as it is not so glaring."

Another put it like this:

"Our atmosphere is naturally luminous, and extends much higher than does your atmosphere. On the first three planes there are shadows, but beyond these they get less and less definite as the atmosphere becomes more luminous. Just as there are shadows so there is shade."

And at another time I was told:

"We have no night here as you understand night."

Once at the close of a sĂŠance we said, "Good night," and this is what we heard

"There is no night in God's great land of love. Good day, and a 248

bright morning for all of you after your rest."

Much the same was said on one occasion during the War:

"I will not say good night. There is no night where I am, no blackouts here."

"But if you want sleep and rest, what happens then?" I once asked, towards the close of a sĂŠance.

"If we feel we want rest we can get subdued light; not so subdued as you understand it, but sufficient to enable us to rest. We have no night here as you would understand night. We get our light from the source of all light, but I cannot continue further tonight as the power has gone, so good night, and may the Light that lightens all darkness lead you into the light you are so earnestly seeking."

To be confirmed on another occasion in these words:

"We get subdued light, but not so subdued as you experience."

"But where does your light come from?" I asked.

249

"We have a sun and a greater sense of its invigorating power than you have of your sun. We should feel very lifeless without it. It is present on every plane, and produces colours more varied and beautiful than are yours. Only a portion of the etheric sun's vibrations are reflected on each plane. We are conscious of those in harmony with the plane on which we live, just as you are of those which are reflected by your plane."

Another Etherian described their sun in these words:

"We receive our light emanations from our etheric sun, concentric with your sun, whence comes light of great splendour, and this is reflected to our eyes by the vibration of our substance, just as is your light by the vibration of earth substance. The reason for our not having darkness is because the rays of our sun are reflected by our atmosphere at a greater height than are the rays of your sun."

This greater luminosity of their atmosphere was confirmed in other words on another occasion:

"We have day and twilight. Our atmosphere can reflect our sun's rays for a longer time than yours can, so we have twilight instead of night. We do not need sleep as you do, so we do not 250

miss having no night."

It seems as if the process of light reflection from their sun is much the same with them as is the process with us. The higher the atmosphere, so is the reflection greater. When those parts of the etheric planes are away from the etheric sun the luminosity of their atmosphere gives them light. We on earth experience the rays of the sun of the same frequency as are the vibrations of physical matter, and the etheric sun's rays are reflected on the various planes by vibrations of the same frequency. The sun is emitting vibrations in harmony with the earth, the first plane, the second plane, and so on. Our atmosphere does not extend so high as does their atmosphere and its reflection is not so extensive as is their reflection. Consequently we have night but they have twilight.

A much fuller explanation, with diagrams, of how we appreciate the colours produced by our sun will be found in The Unfolding Universe. Just as our sun sends out rays through the ether which :are reflected by the vibrations of physical substance to our eyes, so they tell us that:

"Our etheric sun sends rays through the ether and these are reflected to our eyes by substance. Consequently, like you, we experience colours but they are more brilliant and varied than 251

are yours."

Another emphasised this in these words:

"We get our light from the source of all light, a great central force. Its brilliance depends on the distance the plane is from this source."

And this gives light which was described in these words:

"Our light is soft, radiant, brilliant, beautiful and blending."

I have been told that the luminosity of their sun prevents it being seen, but its light produces colours beyond our imagination. Consequently Etheria is a beautiful world, a fact which was emphasised repeatedly, and, as their words were always correctly recorded at the time, let us read what they told us once of the beauties of the world in which they live:

"If I could just take you by the still waters and through the green pastures, through our lovely gardens, and show you our hillsides, our mountain ranges, and all the beauties of this wonderful country. Flowers that bloom in all colours which you will never know in the earth life, and which never fade and decay. 252

The beautiful birds that sing in the trees, without fear. It is a wonderful country, and I worship the thought of the Mighty Chief who made it all; the Happy Hunting Ground. I found, when I came to this side, dear friends, it was not a hunting ground, unless it was hunting for friends known on earth, and who were as anxiously seeking for me."

253

The Spheres Nearest The Earth Arthur Findlay The Way of Life (1953)

When I set about making my enquiry, the place in space from which the voices came was uppermost in my mind. So I put this question to an Etherian with whom I was speaking: "You told me your world revolved with this world. How does this happen, and also, do you travel with the earth round the sun?"

This was his reply:

"The spheres nearest the earth revolve because we belong to this planet. We cannot see your world revolving in space, because we revolve with you. We cannot see your world until we take on earth conditions. In taking these on, we slow down our vibrations, and come through from one plane to another, until we get our vibrations down more to a level with those of which your world is composed. We can all come down, but we cannot go up beyond our own plane until we are prepared for the change."

254

The Higher Spheres Arthur Findlay The Way of Life (1953)

After a mother in Etheria had spoken to her daughter in the circle, we sat for a few minutes awaiting the next voice to speak to us. Then, out of the silence, a clear manly voice remarked:

"I am just an Indian speaking. I am not like my friend Whitefeather. I have not got the tuition but I have learned, by mixing with the people who come from Higher Spheres, something of those advanced spheres where they live. You know, my friends, in the Spirit World, space is beyond expression. We cannot measure it or limit it, and beyond in space are worlds beyond worlds, all peopled by those who have advanced far beyond us, and we on this side are only on the fringe of that journey towards those spheres where they dwell, gorgeous in their light, their beauty and their love, so that I must fail in my description of them."

On another occasion Whitefeather spoke himself. When Sloan was in trance, Whitefeather was his principal control. However, all the 255

communications recorded in this book, except one, were given by Etherians who used their own voices by materialising their vocal organs as already explained, and it was in this way that Whitefeather spoke these words, when concluding a talk he had with the lady whose name he mentions:

"I have learned a little and I pay tribute most heartily to your beloved son, Mrs. Lang, who educated me to the language which I now speak, and in the tone in which I now speak, but I am still Whitefeather, the old Whitefeather in heart. Only I have gained a little further knowledge and have progressed a little in the life on our side. God bless you, says Whitefeather."

Here we may have an answer to a problem about which I have often pondered. What has happened to the multitude of beings who have occupied this earth since the time of primitive man? We have discovered something about those who have lived and died within our times, and who were like ourselves, but these are a minute fraction of those who have lived on earth as men, women and children. Going back the fifty thousand years since the time of sub-man, millions and millions of backward primitive people have passed on into the other world, and must occupy some place in what we term space.

256

If we progress after death, they likewise will have done so, and are still doing so. Life and mental development seem to be closely linked, and if Whitefeather, who on earth was by our standard a simple ignorant Red Indian, can reach the stage he has now attained, why not every one? Why not the primitive black races, the cannibals, the savages, the Australian aborigines, in fact, why should the law of progression favour only the advanced races of mankind?

I remember Whitefeather in 1918. He knew only a few words of English and was simple and childlike, as he doubtless was on earth, yet, as children do, he has grown up to be a man of intelligence and culture, if we judge by what he says.

Education, and the right environment on earth, can work wonders on all mankind, the colour of the skin having nothing to do with the potential power of the mind to develop. This being so, no limit can be placed on the range of the mind and, as an African negro can be educated on earth to become a University Professor, so, by education, the most backward of mankind can develop and progress both here on earth and hereafter in Etheria. As mind can develop here, so it can continue to develop there.

257

Communication between the Different Spheres Arthur Findlay The Way of Life (1953)

This is what we were once told by an Etherian at the close of a long talk

"I have progressed since then, and now I am able to return to the surroundings of earth life and be clothed in apparel like what I used to wear. The clothes change. I cannot tell you how, but, as we draw near the physical, the clothes change, there is no doubt about it. Perhaps I have not put it very clearly to you, but, when I draw near to the Earth Plane, I find myself standing in the surroundings where I used to stand, with similar garments to those I used to wear in earth life, and the robes I wear on the other side of life-the Summerland side change, imperceptibly to me, when I cross the border through the mist. Of course, there are others who can come, more advanced than I am, and they always come in their spirit robes. I wish you could see them -they are very beautiful."

Their minds have not only supernormal power over substance, but 258

they also seem to have the power of transferring thoughts from mind to mind without the use of speech. They do use the spoken word just as we do, but they have a telepathic gift which is very rare and exceptional on earth. This is what I was once told in answer to a question I asked about the different languages spoken in Etheria

"There are the various earth languages spoken here, such as English, French and German, but they are conveyed from mind to mind mentally. Communication takes place mentally from one to another, not only by the spoken word as on earth. This is just as if I were to say that the mind of the spirit gets into telepathic

touch

with

the

mind

with

which

communicating."

A lady present asked her mother in Etheria if she had met Aunt Agnes, to be told

"No, but I have spoken to her, just as you would talk to someone on the 'phone. It is not the same, but that is the only way I can describe it. When I get the condition, I am able to speak to her. She is on beyond me. You will get many surprises at what happens here."

A man in Etheria who said he was not far advanced, in fact, that he 259

was

rather

backward,

confirmed

this

telepathic

form

communication which all understand, no matter what was their earth language, because the pictures formed in one mind are conveyed to the one with which it is in communication. This is what he said

"I do not want to go very far on my way until I get the members of my own family with me. Meantime I understand that once we pass beyond these spheres in which I have been for a very long time, we shall at once acquire the knowledge of a language which everyone knows."

This greater freedom of expression, their greater ease of travel, their immense mental power over matter, may be the reason for the greater harmony which there prevails. This remark was once made in the course of a long conversation between the sitters and an active friend and helper on the other side

"There will be no unification of the peoples of the world until they all reach this plane of life, where no enmity, no jealousy or hatred to anyone can intervene. That is what I meant by unification, and then all will be well for all, but, until that time, be up and doing, by prayerful thoughts and kindly deeds, to help to bring comfort and cheer to the lonely ones."

260

When reading the next chapter, it will be evident that they are generally delighted to get into contact once more with friends on earth. In spite of the difficulties they experience in communicating with us, they face it with a will and determination because, as we were once told by one of our friends there:

"It is a great satisfaction to us to know that the little thoughts, which we have managed to give of our knowledge of life here, are acceptable to you. Thank you very much. You will find when you come to my side that there was so much you could have done in earth life if you had just opened your heart. I am not speaking to you personally, you know, at all. I am just voicing the thoughts which are in my soul from my own experience."

261

The Realms of Earth and Early Life in Spirit Radiance The Eloists (1992)

Life on the lower atmospherean plane is as varied in experience as are the number of individuals inhabiting it. All have their own peculiar experiences and stories to tell. Suffice it to say that on arrival here the individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s initial change is far less substantial than you, dear mortal, would think. The transformation called death does involve the transition from one dimension of existence to another, but the process involves more of a shedding of a dull and coarse exterior than it involves any change in wisdom, virtue, or understanding.

All of us find ourselves on arrival here relatively unchanged, at least from our point of view. For though you cannot see us, to ourselves 262

we feel every bit as real and solid as ever we felt in the past; and though some never lose their consciousness for a moment in the passing while others may sleep for weeks or years in their transition before regaining consciousness, yet on their awakening they feel every bit as whole and human as they did in the past.

Once the person realizes the great truth of immortality, not because anyone has told them so, but because they know it from personal experience â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a flash of enlightenment steals over their being (if they are at all in touch with their "conscience") and that sudden awareness can be quite a shock to oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sensibility. One suddenly begins to look to the past with a completely new perspective and to the future with a far broader understanding. Those who have given of themselves unselfishly and generously, those who have not been pretentious, calloused or egotistical, meet with this realization with little remorse, but others we fear often become quite dejected and require a great deal of counseling and assistance. Loving mentors 263

who specialize in this service take personal care of their charge and with great understanding and sensitivity guide them to find peace in their hearts and help them find the means to mend whatever wounds may pique their souls.

Some souls, it is true, are either too coarse to care about the errors of the past or the lack of promise in their future. Others still are not aware that they have passed the portal of death at all and cannot be made to understand. Many of these must be left to go their way until they are ready for assistance. Beings always stand ready at the watch to give assistance when it is requested, but till then the laws of spirit require us to let them go their way unmolested unless they drop so far into the depths of darkness that they become a risk to other spirits or mortals. At that point, we must intervene for the safety and well-being of all. The fact remains, however, that growth must first be desired for one to grow, and assistance cannot be appreciated or well appropriated to know that help is required for the impediment under which they suffer.

The environment into which one enters on arrival is dependent on two factors. One is the grade of development at the time of passing, for that will determine whether that individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s constitution is adaptable to a given atmospherean grade or plateau. Those who are of a lower grade of development naturally gravitate to the plateau 264

which is relatively more dense in atmosphere and therefore at an elevation that is closer to the earth where the lumens of spiritual light are more subdued (by the greater proximity to an earthly plane). Those who have, through assimilation to the I AM within their being, nurtured greater love, kindness, compassion and good works throughout their lives will find themselves naturally assimilated to a higher plateau where the atmosphere is lighter, brighter, more rarefied (as are their very beings) and as a consequence more radiant with higher lumens of spiritual light that emanates from within them, and around them, yet from no apparent central source.

The second factor, though somewhat dependent upon the first factor, is the individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sum total state of mind, for the quality of oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s thoughts tend to create an environment or landscape that is somewhat symbolic or representative of that individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s quality of thought. Those who enter the lowest planes of existence, for example, having lived a life filled with crime, hatred and deceit, will find the world about them to be dark and decayed, distorted and desolate. Those who have been selfish and self-serving will find themselves very much alone with themselves in a stark and barren plane. Those who were progressive, loving and kind may find their abode on first arrival to be composed of grassy hills and gardens filled with trees, flowers and birds. The possibilities are almost endless, but these examples propose to illustrate the truth that our 265

thoughts do play a greater role in our lives when we are in spirit, for we are more ruled by our thoughts and feelings than you are in mortality. At least on your plane of existence the effects and power of thought are not so blatantly apparent as here in spirit. The fact remains that all souls who are not bound in darkness, who are in ascension regardless of grade, are met and nurtured on first arrival here by helpers or guides who may or may not be known to the new arrival. Such helpers are at that personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s disposal to give assurances, guidance, to answer any questions and guide them on their way. But at all times one is given complete freedom to accept assistance or reject it as one wishes, and, seen or unseen, there is always someone nearby to give aid as soon as the desire for it is thought or vocalized.

When help is desired, there occurs a fundamental change in thought, and just as suddenly there will appear those who are ready to help. This is not necessarily because assistance was far away but because the unprogressive mind of the troubled soul was prevented from seeing those who were nearby all the time. Many who are particularly troubled in spirit believe when they have wakened from death that they are alone in a darkened cave or closet, when all the while the darkness and solitude existed only in their state of mind and their own limited vision. Those who have passed over in a bitter or angry state of mind may find the world they have created within 266

their immediate environment is all rocks and cliffs and chasms, and little do they realize that the barrier between them and a happier environment is more a product of their state of mind than it is one of physical transportation.

The lower atmospherean planes are more sensitive by nature to illusions of mind and mood, and this is why those angels who are of a more exalted state of mind and authority are easily able to create subjective heavens on the lower planes to please and stimulate earthbound esâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;yans into a more progressive attitude, even though these heavens are an illusion and a faĂ§ade. Such were the happy hunting grounds that have been popularly described in the Native American culture. Once one has been elevated to a higher state of awareness within the more organic second resurrection plateau, such playground. deceptions are no longer needed to prod newborn spirits into the pathway of growth and so they are no longer employed at those levels. However, the angelic beings who reside on these planes do actively participate together to create, through their combined thoughts and will, an environment of landscapes and buildings that best suit their purpose.

Man is not merely an animated clod, to lie down with his fellow-clods, and know no more than they. We do not see all there is of him: he has a wondrous body, but a vastly more wondrous spirit, to which no 267

night is dark, no body opaque; no distance can baffle its gaze, no bodily sense limit its knowledge. It is the true man, and the body but its encasement â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the shell, only useful till the spirit is plumed for its flight. Then the materialist and the adventist are alike wrong. The materialist sees but the surface of things, knows nothing of the all-controlling spirit within, yet makes his knowledge the boundary of the universe. The adventist calls in miracle where it is altogether unnecessary. Man is a spirit: he is not to become one. Nature knows no favored saints, who are to be spiritually created for the barbarous heaven of a half-Jewish, half-Christian mythology, while the rest are left to sink into nonentity; but she has given to all freely as life, light, and air, that spirit can smile at death, and soar triumphant when the lifeless body sinks to the dust.

268

The Realms of Earth and Early Life in Spirit The Eloists Radiance (1992)

The heavenly realms about your planet are as varied and sundry as are the countries and cultures that have resided under its canopy, only multiplied many times over to allow for the many levels and tiers of existence, which cover ever broader spheres than that of the corporeal earth, and include many races and cultures that had long since quit the earth plane before your recorded histories began. Life on the lower atmospherean plane is as varied in experience as are the number of individuals inhabiting it. All have their own peculiar experiences and stories to tell. Suffice it to say that on arrival here the individual's initial change is far less substantial than you, dear mortal, would think.

The transformation called death does involve the transition from one dimension of existence to another, but the process involves more of a shedding of a dull and coarse exterior than it involves any change in wisdom, virtue, or understanding.

All of us find ourselves on arrival here relatively unchanged, at least 269

from our point of view. For though you cannot see us, to ourselves we feel every bit as real and solid as ever we felt in the past; and though some never lose their consciousness for a moment in the passing while others may sleep for weeks or years in their transition before regaining consciousness, yet on their awakening they feel every bit as whole and human as they did in the past.

To many the transition is a painful experience emotionally, for once they realize they are dead as to mortal existence and yet as alive and alert as ever, the sudden comprehension of that truth and all the unspoken implications that this fact entails, often causes pains of remorse for all that was left undone due to one's shortsighted misconception of the true meaning of life. Once the person realizes the great truth of immortality â&#x20AC;&#x201D; not because anyone has told them so, but because they know it from personal experience â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a flash of enlightenment steals over their being (if they are at all in touch with their "conscience") and that sudden awareness can be quite a shock to one's sensibility. One suddenly begins to look to the past with a completely new perspective and to the future with a far broader understanding.

Those who have given of themselves unselfishly and generously, those who have not been pretentious, calloused or egotistical, meet with this realization with little remorse, but others we fear often 270

become quite dejected and require a great deal of counselling and assistance. Loving mentors who specialize in this service take personal care of their charge and with great understanding and sensitivity guide them to find peace in their hearts and help them find the means to mend whatever wounds may pique their souls.

271

An Infinite Universe Beyond The Eloists Radiance (1996)

Life remains an eternal progression both in mind, subjectively, and in body, objectively. We have a saying that "we journey to the stars," but there is a degree of poetic license in that, though in a certain sense it is true.

A common misconception for new arrivals on our spirit side of life is that this atmospherean realm is the whole heaven. We tend to believe that we have at last arrived in heaven, a specific and finite location, where we will remain for an eternity to come. We go about our business learning what the real life of spirit is all about, noticing that it is quite unlike corporeal existence and appreciating for the first time that here in spirit the real life has at last begun and that it was the corporeal existence that was really the "world of shadows and illusion", and not the world of spirit as we had imagined in the past.

We set about our business of renewing old friendships, rejoicing in our lost loves, and redeeming our greatest errors and regrets. We find our home of rest and rejuvenation, and we undertake our chosen 272

tasks for greater growth and understanding. Many become so absorbed in these efforts that they never allow themselves the luxury of wondering whether there is a greater reward to follow or a broader heaven to inherit.

Those who have been able to escape the darker realms below the first resurrection are often so engrossed in their labors that they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t realize that there is more to follow, more than even the experience of an eternity can begin to grasp. Eventually their progression leads them into the more enlightened circles that surround the atmospherean heavens of the earth.

As they enter into these more mature and cooperative relationships, they begin to learn of the higher realms that lie above and beyond the small planet of their birth, bringing into their consciousness the first glimmerings of their true destiny; the one that encompasses the expanse of an eternity in contrast to the mere hundreds or even thousands of years of existence about their corporeal planet.

The great "void" of space in which the stars and galaxies seem to float like bits of dust in a great cosmic bell jar is not the cold and lifeless expanse that it seems to be to mortal eyes. The ether is the solvent for the infinite realms of spirit that are as real and substantial to us in spirit as the hills, valleys, oceans and mountains are to you in 273

corpor. These realms exist in a different dimension from corpor, extending above and beyond us, encompassing a world as distant, diverse, and awesome as anything you could imagine.

To dwell within these wonders offers us an experience of endless fulfillment and delight. How can we begin to explain to you in mortality what we find difficult to explain to inhabitants of the spirit realms who are far ahead of you in appreciating the real world of spirit?

Some inhabitants of these ethereal realms have progressed to the point where they are able to travel in great ships on journeys of hundreds of thousands of years in duration. They traverse countless regions in these heavens that are to us like inhabited "planets" for advanced immortals.

There are countless more that are like an as yet uninhabited wilderness. These etheric realms are quite unlike the corporeal planes and even quite unlike the atmospherean plateaux. When viewed or experienced in close proximity by an angelic inhabitant, these etheric heavens belie the complexity of their structure in much the same way that an earthly habitation belies the complexity of the planet as a whole.

274

A person standing on an earthly plain is only aware of a flat and grassy expanse. They have no immediate awareness that the earth is a spherical globe covered with mountains and oceans, and even polar caps at other locations.

An angel from an etheric heaven, one of countless numbers that fill an infinite universe beyond, may live in a region similar to a mountain or valley or forest community, though appearances are quite unlike what one would experience as a mortal on earth. The ground is different, and we do maintain a base to walk upon (rather than floating endlessly in the air like sentient balloons).

Our skies are quite different as well: colorful and prismatic, in constant change and fluctuating with soothing colors that are both delicate and intricate, giving us an endless source of delight. While inhabiting such an etheric plane, one is unaware of the complexity of that etheric heaven as a whole. To explain such an etheric heaven to you is difficult, but we will make a humble attempt. Have you ever seen one of those carved ivory balls that are popular in the orient?

There is a ball within a ball, within a ball, many times over and each sphere has intricate carvings over its surface with countless openings that expose the smaller balls within. This structure is reminiscent of our etheric heavens. Approaching from a distance one 275

may be aware of one or several such spheres that are often many times larger than your solar system, and at other times somewhat smaller. Sometimes many are grouped together in close proximity to one another, while at other times they may stand isolated some distance from its nearest neighbor.

When viewed from an etheric ship, it first appears as a distant orb of kaleidoscopic colors some immeasurable distance above and beyond the shipâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s location. As you come close, however, one feels the same sensation of descent as one would feel when landing on a planet, but in this case the habitable surface may be exterior or interior, with incredibly vast channels or roadways that lead from one level to the next.

Each level has its own inherent means of illumination so that all is bright and colorful in every direction and at all levels. Here in spirit we are not dependent on a solitary sun for our illumination, for all light emanates from the Ever-Present Light of the Creator within all substances and everything is free from darkness or shadow.

Some etheric worlds are not spherical but they are less common. Between these etheric realms there are chasms and avenues or roadways through which our etheric ships may travel on journeys that often encompass hundreds of thousands of years. Sometimes 276

they travel to other etheric worlds. Other times they descend to corporeal systems that travel along these roadways and between these heavens. It is almost as if the corporeal solar systems are swept along these great etheric rivers like so many leaves carried by an earthly stream.

Here in spirit, however, size and dimension so far exceed that which you are accustomed to on earth that the measurements involved would surpass your ability to comprehend. But what is most impressive is the fact that, unlike the space about your corporeal universe, which is predominantly darkness and vacuum, the universe of spirit that encompasses the same place, but within a different dimension of existence , remains predominantly light and substance, though of a spiritual nature.

Peace and love to all souls.

We feel that all is well. Jehovih is in control. Your faith and oneness and your attunement then puts you in control, too. The best will always be the result when we put our faith and trust in the Creator. The path to positive change, to healing and to growth is well lit for those who take the time to look, listen and feel; and then act upon the inspiration. Put yourself in the position to receive inspiration; then use this new information wisely each day. We, your angelic brothers 277

and sisters, are here to help you make the best of each day. Today is a good day to be in the light of the Creatorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s presence. All is well.

THE END

278