Where do we go after we die?

The spiritual world is a type of the earthly world, exceedingly more refined and beautiful, where spirit-lives have all that we have on earth on a higher, more exalted, heavenly plane—

They follow all the occupations that we follow on earth—

There are ignorant spirit-lives here, but they do not remain so long. 

They cannot, in the nature of things. 

Spirit-lives live and move and have their being much as we do here—

They have homes—temples—halls—laboratories—conservatories—grand wisdom edifices—wireless telegraphy—boats of all kinds—photography—thought photography—hypnotic suggestion—music—theaters—psychical investigation societies, for the purpose of investigating the powers of the soul—spirit-lives do not as yet understand all about the soul. 

They also study botany—natural history—astronomy, but their observatories are somewhat different from ours.

They study all about the manners and customs of the inhabitants of other planets, and their fauna and flora, for no two planets are exactly alike—no more than two things—or two persons are just alike. 

Coarse, hard manual labour is left behind with the body.

Do the spirit-lives eat? 

Yes, they do, but they do no coarse feeding. 

Nothing can live and be sustained without replenishment, for spirit-lives are constantly throwing off substance—just as we do here, excepting that their substance is sublimated matter, while ours is coarse matter.

Do you have all the organs there, which belong to the body here?

Yes, they do—

If the life of the earthly body is the spirit thereof, and the spirit is in the form of the earthly body, which it certainly is, do spirit-lives not have organs similar to those of earth? 

Do they have hands and not a stomach? 

Do they have a head and not a heart? 

Do they have feet and not brains?

Every organ of the body that we have, they have also, for it is the life—or the spirit of those very organs that they take with them when the body dies.

Now if they have feet, it is that they may walk. 

If they have eyes, it is that they may see—

If ears, that they may hear—

If a brain, that they may think—

A stomach that they may digest food.

Each and every organ fulfills its duty there, as here, except the organs of reproduction. 

Reproduction belongs only to earth—still, they possess the organs, but they do not reproduce. 

Like the fruits of earth, all seed-germs take root only in material substance. 

Now the question is—

How, and what do they eat? 

They eat everything that is good for food—that is, to feed the sublimated material body. 

Their food necessarily is sublimated material. 

They cannot take life of any kind—they cannot eat animal flesh. 

If in our world peaches grow on trees, they do in the spirit-world, for the sublimated tree is there—or the spirit of the tree filled with luscious peaches without stones—or pits—or much skin—

Seed-germs gravitate to the material earths, but the sublimated essences gravitate to this spiritual world.

If we have grapes here, so do they there, plentifully, without the seed—or skin.

The skin of their fruit is soft, sweet and waxen, and the luscious fruit melts in the mouth without much mastication.

Vegetables grow here in their  soil, but they do not cultivate them. 

The sweet, pure, refined essences of these things rise up from earth, and gravitate to their proper places, and appear very much as our vegetables do. 

Spirit-lives take them from their spiritual ground and eat them as they are without cooking. 

They do no cooking. 

That necessity is done away with.

Do they sweep and dust and clean as we do on earth? 

No, they are not obliged to sweep—or dust. 

They have no material dust. 

Dust is coarse matter. 

But there are filthy spirit-lives—

There are really spirit-lives in the lower sphere who actually wallow in filth, but the filth is of the mind—

Thoughts are things, and become objective, and gather about them sublimated matter corresponding to the thought, but when spirit-lives think pure, sweet, clean thoughts, they gather clothing to correspond.

Now the question is—

If spirit-lives eat, do other animals eat those lower in the scale than themselves? 

Yes, other animals eat, but not each other. 

They are a step higher in the scale of being. 

All herbivorous animals eat of the sweet, sublimated herbage and grass—the ethereal essence of such as we have on earth—also, fish feed on the sublimated essences within the ethereal waters.

Now you say—

Well, the carnivorous animals—how is it with them? 

There is not a carnivorous animal on the earth that slays and eats equal to man, and really, there are but few carnivorous animals after all, and the greater part of these are not wholly so. 

The bear will sometimes kill a man in self-defense—or at least it thinks so, but it seldom eats him.  

The bear much prefers wild berries, roots and nuts to flesh. 

The lion will also kill a man given a chance, but he thinks he is thereby protecting his mate and little ones. 

The lion, in its natural state, is not wholly carnivorous—it also eats tender shoots and green twigs.

Man is really more carnivorous than any other animal. 

There are more cattle, sheep, hogs, poultry, fish, and game slain and eaten by man than by all the carnivorous animals in the world.

Now if this carnivorous man, when he arrives in the spirit-world ceases from necessity to slay and eat, it can readily be seen that the carnivorous animal can also eat of the sublimated material essences to sustain its ethereal body.

You must all see how exquisitely beautiful and useful the spiritual spheres are. 

The more beautiful their thoughts, the more beautiful their surroundings. 

They bring into play the most beautiful thoughts and desires and good feelings possible, which clothe them in dazzling splendour and beauty. 

Spirit-lives appear clothed much as we do on earth.

A lady on earth thinks how she would like to be dressed. 

Spirit-lives think how they should like to be dressed—they desire to appear so-and-so, and their ethereal clothing forms about them according to their desires. 

Can one suppose that spirit-lives never laugh—never dance—never make merry? 

Oh, you are mistaken.

Cheer up, your dancing days are not over, simply postponed, for a short time. 

Soon, you will be once more youthful, light, gay and happy beyond compare, and as beautiful, as you can possibly desire. 

Now you must know that all these things exist in the world of spirits, else how could they educate their little ones—the babies and little children that come there at all times from earth? 

These little spirit-lives must have their play—their games—as on earth—

The young people must have amusement—

They must, according to their nature, dance as on earth, and the old return again to their halcyon days. 

Now all the teaching that the children have in the spirit world is given in the form of play—or amusement, and they seek it with avidity. 

No child is forced to do anything against its natural bent, and they should not be on earth.