What does it mean to return to dust?

You are free in the spirit world―free as air―to follow your own inclinations and desires.

The limitations to your own indulgence, and the extent to which you can infringe on the rights of others are regulated by the amount of law and order, existing in the sphere to which you belong.

For example, in the lowest sphere of all, where no law prevails, but the law of the strongest oppressor, you may do what you please―

You may injure―or oppress another to the very last limits of his endurance, and those who are stronger will do the same to you.

The most oppressed on earth are less unhappy than those seen in the lowest sphere of all where you find only those spirits who have defied all God's laws, and who have been a law to themselves, exercising the most boundless oppression and wrong towards their neighbours.

In those spheres, it seems that strong, cruel and oppressive, as a spirit may be, there is always someone still stronger to oppress him―someone still more cruel―still more wicked―still more oppressive―until you arrive at those who may truly be said to reign in hell―kings and emperors of evil!

And it goes on until the very excess of evil works its own cure.

The worst and most tyrannical will long for some other state of things―some laws to restrain―some power to control, and that feeling will be the first step―the first desire for a better life.

There is an increased degree of law and order, as the spirit progresses upwards.

The perfect observance of the highest moral laws is found only in the highest spheres, but there are many degrees of observance, and he who respects the rights of others will find his rights respected, while he who tramples on his neighbour will be trampled on by the strongest ones.

You are free to work―or to be idle in the spirit world―to do good―or to do evil―to win a blessing―or a curse.

The sphere for which you are fitted is the highest to which you can attain until your own efforts fit you to become a dweller in one higher.

Thus, the good need no protection against the evil in the spirit world.

Their own different states place an insurmountable harrier between them.

Those above can always descend at will to visit―or help those below them, but between them, and the lower spirits, there is a great gulf, which the latter cannot pass.

It is only in material life that there is a mixture of good and evil influence.

The spheres are very similar to mapping out a country where boundaries melt imperceptibly into one another, and changes in these divisions mark their different states as spirits progress on their journey.

There are seven spheres above the earth, and seven below it.

Each sphere is divided into twelve circles, which blend so closely into each other that one appears to pass almost insensibly from one to the other.

The earth plane circles around the earth, and permeates its atmosphere.

This great broad belt, circling the earth, comprises the first of the seven spheres above, and the first of those below it, and is used commonly in describing the habitations of those spirits who are earthbound because they are unable to sink below―or free themselves from earth’s influences and attractions.

The passing from the body of a lower sphere into that of a higher one is often, though not invariably, accomplished during a deep sleep, which closely resembles the death sleep of the spirit in leaving the earthly body.

As a spirit grows more elevated―more etherealised―this change is accompanied by a greater degree of consciousness until the passing from one high sphere to another is simply like changing one garb for another a little finer, discarding one spiritual envelop for a more ethereal one.

Thus, the soul passes onward, growing less and less earthly―or materially in its envelopment until it passes beyond the limits of the earth spheres into those of the solar systems.

There are some whose knowledge of life is so limited―whose minds have been so little cultivated―whose natures are so simple and child-like―that they are born into the spirit world as mere children, however many years they may have known on earth.

The discarded astral envelope dissolves into the elements of the earth-plane, even as the earthly body left at the first death decays into the earthly material from which it has been taken―

Dust returning to dust again, while the immortal soul passes on to a higher state.