How does the spirit world work?

How does the spirit world work? Spirits let thought do the job―

In the spirit world, there is no solid earth condition to interpose itself between spirits and their thoughts. Thought has direct action here.

Spirit thoughts in these lands have far greater power and scope than on earth.

To make things concrete on earth, one had to get past the thinking stage. Here one is always in the thinking stage because that is the last stage, as it were.

Immediately upon the thought, there follows the concrete article.

I do not mean for one moment that they merely think of what they need or desire, and hey presto! there it is.

Spirit homes are carefully thought about, planned, and then the masons and builders get to work. But their work is performed by thought alone.

There are no intermediaries in the form of the procuring of materials and the erection of scaffolding, and so on. Those friends thought and thought produced these very real and solid houses. And here they will remain.

You might imagine that the flowers grow here in much the same way as on earth, from seed, and so on. They do not.

In front of you, you might perceive great tracts of brilliant colours, each colour separate, stretching far away in field after field. There are trees of all kinds in every stage of growth, from mere saplings to veritable patriarchs.

You follow a path that leads directly to a large house.

Having sent a message to the ‘owner’ of the nursery, he is awaiting your arrival—Do you supply the flowers for all these lands? you query. Oh no, only for this area, as you might call it. There are lots more people doing the work in other parts. This is just one. Now where shall we begin? First come and see some of our products. Surrounding you are hundreds of flower beds, each containing a different kind of flower, and each arranged in orderly rows.

You find the masses of flower and colour fascinating.

You notice particularly the enormous number of blooms that grow upon a single stem of each plant.

Cast your eye on those hollyhocks. Did you ever see such beauties as those with blooms from the top reaching down all that way? And no fading or dying.

As far as you can see are bed upon bed of such perfect flowers as incarnate eye never has beheld. There are flowers of every variety known on earth—all the old cherished blooms, the ‘old-fashioned’ flowers, as one is liked to regard them, the hollyhocks and pansies, the snapdragons, Canterbury bells and wallflowers, stocks, and a hundred other kinds. As may be imagined, the scent from this great collection is superb—not overpowering, but sufficient to make its presence pleasantly felt and enjoyable.

Here you make your plant with its blooms already on it, in all varieties and mixtures of colours. You can have single blooms or double, as you fancy or as others fancy. And once you have made them and planted them out, there is nothing more to do, so to speak.

You follow your guide along path after path, from flower beds to avenues of trees and shrubs. The superabundance seems overwhelming, but everything you see will be put to good use and is not there merely for display.

When you look around you, you can see there is still plenty of room to make more beds and fill them.

You are shown into a spacious apartment containing many shelves filled with large volumes. You take down one volume and opened it at random.It shows a picture of a tulip, exquisitely drawn in colour.

It is not an artistic reproduction in the strict sense of the term—it is a purely botanical picture without background and reveals full details of the flower and its foliage, so that anyone viewing it would know exactly how the flower was composed. Especially true is its colouring—it is from these paintings that spirits learn all the details of the flowers before they commence the actual process of creation.

Before you can begin to build a flower or anything else if it comes to that, you must know precisely all the details necessary for a faithful reproduction. Near enough is not good enough. It has got to be perfect. And the only way to make it so is to know by heart every twist or turn of the object that is to be created. 

You could take it right off the drawing, so to speak—in fact, that is what the beginner always does. But afterwards, he will study the picture or an original if he prefers it, and that leaves him free when the work commences to devote his whole mind to the object in hand.

In all these volumes you will find coloured pictures of every flower spirits make here, both the earthly kinds and those that belong to the spirit world alone. In addition to these books, they have the prints hanging separately on the walls in another room. That is done for the convenience of anyone who wishes to view them without looking through the volumes.

You enter a very large chamber where hanging upon the walls are magnificent pictures of every type of garden to be seen in these lands. It is impossible to assess the greater beauty of any one over that of another. They are all equally wonderful.

Most of these gardens have actually been built somewhere or other in this area. Inventive faculties do not seem to have any limit as you can see.

Some of these sketches have been presented from other nursery gardens in the same way as you pass on drawings and sketches that portray some particularly happy novelty. A regular exchange goes on, for you know in these lands you are always on the move in things. Spirits do not stick in the mud!

For the actual creation of a flower, a small vessel similar to the ordinary flower pot is place on the table. Into this you pour some ‘soil,’ and without further preliminary, watch the vessel upon the table. At first, there is little to be seen beyond a slight haze of light round about the pot. Gradually, however, this forms itself into a distinct shape, which you can see is the outline of a stem with a flower upon it. This becomes more and more firm until there is the complete adumbration of a flower, even to the colour.

There is sufficient formation to be able to observe unmistakably the kind of flower it is, namely, a tulip.

You rise from your seat, take up the pot, and examine it minutely before you pronounce your satisfaction, and then pass it round for inspection. It is a beautiful object, shapely yet delicate, so that you can see clearly through it.

With one final effort of concentrated thought, the flower is brought up to its full solidity and colour with apparently little effort.

As a flower merely to look at, it is the best you can do, but something is missing—there is no animation to preserve it. You cannot give it or any flower that. That must come from another realm, and you do not ask for it until you are sure that what you have made is fitted to receive it.

Spirits make their mistakes—You expect to have some mishaps when you are learning, but no harm is done. You return the elements to their source, and begin again. You find a petal that has not been shaped truly—one side of the bloom is a shade higher than the other, and the colour is not exactly as you want it. And so you have to begin again.

You find an enormous amount of pleasure in your learning, but the greatest satisfaction comes when you are fully proficient and can turn out a flower or plant as perfect as the picture.

How does the animation come? Do you have to perform some sort of service for it?

What spirits do is to send to that higher realm where someone receives your message—All you know is that there is a rapid descent of the power you ask for. Of course, originally, it comes from the Source, but it is passed on to you from another personage.

It is a natural process and procedure, and the fact that you have created the flower or plant is sufficient. 

Your desire for its complete animation is fulfilled—Your request is answered without fail and without question. You hold the tulip in your hand, and instantly, you see a flash of light descend upon it. It comes and is ended almost before you realise it.

Now, you say, we have something very different—smell You gently wave the flower to and fro before you, and you are at once aware of the most subtle perfume.

You place your hands round the bloom—Why, you say, it is alive! You can feel the—what is it—sort of electricity? running up your arms. No—it is not electricity, but it is power. That is actually the life you feel, and it is passing some on to you for your benefit. You have not finished yet.

You put the pot on the table, then take hold of the stem of the plant and give it a little shake, as though you were trying to shake a drop of water off the petals. That is the way.

As you perform this simple action, a most perfect sound issues forth, as of the striking of a small silvery bell of clear and sweet tone. You repeat the experiment over and over again, such is your surprised delight.

Do all the flowers make that sound when this is done to them? you ask. All the flowers, and many other things beside. The water for instance. You can bring out some lovely sounds from that when it is disturbed. But before the tulip was given life, it was silent.