The Alphabet of Life

Do all spirits who have left the human form have the power to communicate through mediums here or do only those who were the most mediumistic while here in the form have the power to communicate?

Those who were the most mediumistic while here have the most power in making these mundane manifestations. However, it is a gift that all may avail themselves of, if they seek so to do.

The saying is that like attracts like. Still we do find the opposite sometimes. What are the causes that attract spirits to persons of an entirely opposite character?

The causes are legion. It would be impossible to enumerate them. Sometimes a disembodied intelligence or spirit is attracted to a subject or medium in consequence of the external surroundings – surroundings that are in no way connected with the medium. Sometimes it is in consequence of some physical ailment, sometimes the contrary. Sometimes the quiet mind of the subject attracts them, sometimes the turbulent mind. Indeed, the causes that are in constant operation to attract all classes of spirits earthward are innumerable. 

Theodore Parker (Spirit)

Does the spirit-body have corresponding organs, anatomically considered, which pertained to the mortal body? And when the spirit enters the spirit-world, does it have the same desires, inclinations and tastes that governed it here? And further, is the spirit-body an exact likeness or counterpart of the mortal body, of a well developed mortal body at the ultimate of its mundane life?

Externally, the spirit-body corresponds to the natural body but there is a constant internal change going on. As the spirit, mentally, becomes larger, more advanced in wisdom, the external takes on the changes of the internal and becomes more beautiful, more perfectly formed, more in accordance with the needs of the indwelling intelligence. 

Whatever a man or woman is in the spirit-land, the representation appears on the external. They cannot seem to be what they are not. There is no such thing as disguising one's soul characteristics after death. All things are governed by stern, immutable law and the soul is not exempt from law; form is not exempt from law but all move by virtue of law and law that is adapted to their unfoldment. 

Every form in being changes its external characteristics according to its own internal law. 

Yes, the spirit-body does retain the external organic life so far as form is concerned, if you speak of it as belonging to human life. All the various organs are represented in the spirit-body. And if they are represented in the spirit-body, they are for use but the necessities of the soul are not exactly the necessities of the physical body. One may need the grains and fruits and animal life of the sphere to which it has been born and the other also needs the fruits and grains and animal life of the sphere to which it belongs. There is a difference. One is the crude, the other is the refined, the ethereal. One is the outside life, the other is the inside life. The mechanic in the spirit-land deals with the thoughts of the mechanic; the fruit-grower in the spirit-land deals with the thoughts of the fruit; the artist deals with the thoughts of the beautiful representations that you have here in mortal life. And yet thought is present in tangible form in the spirit-land, clearly and brightly and lawfully defined. It is not a world of imagination. It is not a vague, unsubstantial, unreal world. No. It is a world substantial and real. It is a step beyond this mundane physical world. It is the beautiful perfection of this world. If the rose is beautiful here, it is far more beautiful there. All forms that are represented on the earth – and these physical forms are no exception – also find a representation in the spirit-land. 

William E. Channing (Spirit)