Is the spirit world like earth?

To obtain an adequate idea of the ground upon which spirits walk and on which their houses and buildings are erected, we must clear our minds of all mundane conceptions. 

First of all, spirits have no roads, as they are known on earth. They have broad, extensive thoroughfares in their cities, and elsewhere, but they are not paved with a composite substance to give them hardness and durability for the passage of a constant stream of traffic. They have no traffic, and their roads are covered with the thickest and greenest of grass, as soft to the feet as a bed of fresh moss. It is on these that they walk. 

The grass never grows beyond the condition of being well-trimmed, and yet it is living grass. It is always retained at the same serviceable level―perfect to walk upon and perfect in appearance. 

In such places, where smaller paths are desirable, and where grass would seem unsuitable, they have such pavements as are customary on earth. 

But they are constructed of very different materials. 

The paving is for the most part a description of stone, but it is without the usual dull drabness of colour. It closely resembles the alabaster-like material of which so many of the buildings are constructed. The colours vary, but they are all of delicate pastel shades. 

This stone, like the grass, is very pleasant to walk upon, though, naturally, it is not as soft. But there is a certain quality about it―a certain springiness, something like the resilience of certain earthly timber that is utilised in the making of floors. 

There is never, of course, any unsightly discoloration to be observed upon the surface of these stone walks. They always preserve their initial freshness. Often the pavements reveal a network of delightful designs formed by the use of different coloured materials and blending harmoniously with their immediate surroundings. 

As one approaches the boundaries to the higher realms, the pavements become noticeably more translucent in character, and they seem to lose some of their appearance of solidity, though they are solid enough! 

When one draws near the boundaries of the lower realms, the pavements become heavy in appearance―they begin to lose their colour until they look leaden and opaque, and they have the semblance of extreme solidity—almost like the granite of the earth plane.

Round about their own individual homes, spirits have lawns and trees and flowerbeds, with trim garden paths of stone similar to that which I have just described to you. But of bare ‘earth’ you would see little or none, for here there is no neglect through indifference or indolence or from other causes that are all too familiar to specify.

Where they have earned the right to possess their spirit home, they have also within them the constant desire to maintain and improve upon its beauty. And that is not very difficult to accomplish, since beauty responds to and thrives upon its appreciation. The greater attention and recognition spirits give to it, so much the greater will be its response, and it assumes to itself still greater beauty. 

Spirit beauty is no abstract thing, but a real living force.

The view from their own home here is one of green fields, of houses of charm, pleasantly situated amid woods and gardens, and with a distant view of the city. 

But nowhere are there to be seen any ugly tracts of bare or barren ground. 

Every inch that presents itself to the eye is cared for, so that the whole landscape is a riot of colour, from the brilliant emerald green of the grass to the multicoloured flowers in the gardens, crowned by the blue of the heavenly sky above.

It may be wondered, of what is the actual ground composed in which the flowers and trees are growing—is it earth of some sort? 

There is soil, certainly, but it does not have the same mineral constituents, as that of the earth plane, for it must be understood that life here is derived directly from the great Source. 

The soil varies in colour and density in different localities in just the same way as upon the earth plane. 

The colour of the ‘earth’ is governed by the colour of whatever botanic life it supports. And here again there is no special significance, no deep symbolical reason for this particular order of things. It is simply that the colour of the soil is complementary to the colour of the flowers and trees, and the result is that of inspiring harmony—harmony to the eye, harmony to the mind, and the most soothing musical harmony to the ear. 

What better reason could there be? And what simpler?

Assuredly, this world of spirit is not made up of a bewildering series of profound and complex mysteries, explicable only to the few. There are mysteries, certainly, just as there are upon the earth plane. And just as there are great brains upon the earth plane who can solve those mysteries, so here there are greater brains still, immeasurably greater, who can provide an explanation when our intellects are ready to receive it and understand it. 

There is no religious import in a beautiful earthly sunset. 

The spirit world is a world of activity, not indolence, a world of usefulness, not uselessness. Nothing in the spirit world is useless―there is a sound reason and purpose for everything. Boredom can find no place here as a general state of affairs. 

People have been known to become bored, but that very boredom begets their first step—or their next step in spiritual progression through their engaging in some useful work. There are myriads of tasks to be performed, and myriads of souls to perform them, but there is always room for one more, and it will ever be so.

Am I not living in a world that is both unlimited and illimitable? 

Spirits do not inhabit a land that bears all the outward marks of an eternal Sunday! 

Sunday has no place, no existence even, in the great scheme of the spirit world. 

Spirits have no need to be forcibly reminded of the great Father of the Universe by setting aside one day to Him, and forgetting Him for the rest of the week. They have no week.

With spirits, it is eternal day, and their minds are fully and perpetually conscious of Him, so that they can see His Hand and His Mind in everything that surrounds them. 

So many souls are almost shocked to be told that the spirit world is a solid world―a substantial world with real live people in it! They think that that is far too material―far too like the earth world, hardly one step removed from it, with its spirit landscape and sunshine, its houses and buildings, its rivers and lakes, inhabited by sentient, intelligent beings!

This is no land of eternal rest. 

There is rest in abundance for those who need it. But when the rest has restored them to full vigour and health, the urge to perform some sensible, useful task rises up within them, and opportunities abound.

Colour and musical sound are interchangeable terms in the spirit world. 

To perform some act that will produce colour is also to produce a musical sound. To play upon a musical instrument or to sing is to create colour, and each creation is governed and limited by the skill and proficiency of the instrumentalist or singer. A master musician, as he plays upon his instrument, will build above himself a most beautiful musical thought form, varying in its colours and blends of shades in strict accordance with the music he plays. A singer can create a similar effect in relation to the purity of the voice and the quality of the music. The thought form thus erected will not be very large. It is a form in miniature. But a large orchestra or body of singers will construct an immense form, governed by the same law. 

The musical thought form produces no sound itself. It is the result of sound and is a self-contained unit. 

Although music will bring forth colour, and colour will yield music, each is restricted to the one resultant form. They will not go on reproducing each other in a constant, unending or gradually diminishing alternation of colour and sound. It must not be thought that with all the vast galaxy of colours from the hundreds of sources in the spirit world, spiritual ears are being constantly assailed with the sounds of music—that they are living in an eternity of music that is sounding and resounding without remission. There are few minds that could possibly endure such a continuous plethora of sound, however beautiful it may be. They should sigh for peace and quietness—their heaven would cease to be heaven. 

The mind of a spirit person who has a deep love of music will naturally hear more because he so wishes than one who cares little for it.

The flowers and all growing things respond immediately to those who love them and appreciate them. The music that they send out operates under precisely the same law. 

An attunement upon the part of the percipient with that with which he comes into contact or relationship is a prerequisite condition. 

Without that attunement, it would be impossible to be conscious of the musical strains that issue forth from the whole of spirit nature. 

By spirit nature is meant all the growing things—the sea and lakes, all water, the soil, the rest. The greater the power of the individual of appreciating and understanding beauty in all its multivarious forms, the greater will be the outflowing of magnetic force. 

In the spirit world, nothing is wasted, nor expended uselessly. They never have forced upon them something that they do not want, whether it be music or art, entertainment or learning. 

Spirits are free agents in every sense of the term within the confines of their own realm. 

The music sounds are most certainly there, but it rests solely with spirits whether they will hear them or not. 

And the secret is personal attunement. 

Unlike here, spirits do not need to bring to bear any great force of concentration. It is but another process of thought and spirits are soon able to perform these various mental functions without any conscious effort. They are part of their very nature, and they are merely applying, in an extended form, without earthly limitations and restrictions, mental methods that are perfectly simple to apply.

In a heavy physical world, our physical bodies are prevented similar mental processes from producing any physical result. In the spirit world, spirits are free and unfettered, and those actions of the mind show an instant and direct, whether it be to move them with the quickness of their thought or whether it be to shut out any sight or sound that they do not wish to experience.

On the other hand, they can, do, open their minds, and attune themselves to absorb the many glorious sounds that come rising up all round them. 

Spirits can open their minds or close them to the many delectable perfumes that spirit nature casts abroad for their happiness and contentment. 

They act like a tonic upon the mind, but they are not forced upon them—they merely help themselves to them as they wish. It must ever be borne in mind that the spirit lands are founded upon law and order. 

But the law is never oppressive, nor the order irksome, because the same law and order have helped to provide all the countless beauties and wonders of this heavenly realm.