How do we build our spiritual house?

Spirit Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson discusses building methods in the spirit world―

Not the least important among the many physical features of the realm in which I live are the numerous buildings devoted to the pursuit of learning and the fostering of the arts familiar to the earth plane. These magnificent edifices present to the eye all the signs one would expect of the permanence of eternity. 

The materials of which they are constructed are imperishable.

The surfaces of the stone are as clean and fresh as on the day when they were raised up.

There is nothing to soil them, no heavy smoke-laden atmosphere to eat into them, no winds and rains to wear down the works of exterior decoration.

The materials of which they are built are of the spirit world, and they have a beauty that is not earthly. 

The spirit world is not static. It is ever-vibrant with life and movement.

We do not exactly move with the times, to use a familiar earthly phrase, because we are always very much ahead of the times!

And we have every need to be to meet the heavy demands placed upon us by the earth world. 

Let us take one specific instance, just one. 

As the earth world progresses in civilization, in its own estimation, the means and methods of waging war become more devastating and wholesale. 

In place of hundreds killed in battles in ancient times, the slain are now counted in hundreds of thousands. 

Every one of those souls has finished with his earthly life, though not with its consequences, and in so many cases, the earth world has finished with him, too. 

The individual may survive as a memory to those whom he has left behind him―his physical presence is gone. But his spirit presence is unalterably with us. 

The earth world has passed him on to us, oftentimes, not really caring what has befallen him. He will leave behind him those whom he loved, and who loved him, but the earth world, so it thinks, can do nothing for him, nor for those who mourn his passing. 

It is we, in the spirit world, who will care for that soul. With us, there is no shifting the responsibility on to other shoulders and passing upon our way We are faced with strict realities here.

The earth world, in its blind ignorance, hurls hundreds of thousands of souls into this, our land, but those who dwell in the high realms are fully aware long before it happens, of what is to take place upon the earth plane, and a fiat goes forth to the realms nearer the earth to prepare for what is to come. 

These dire calamities of the earth plane necessitate the building of more and ever more Halls of Rest in the spirit world. That is one occasion, and perhaps the greatest, for the changes that are always taking place here. 

Sometimes, the wish is expressed by a great number of souls for an extension to be made to one of the halls of learning. 

There is seldom any difficulty about such a desire since it is in no sense a selfish one because it will be there for all to use and enjoy. 

It was suggested that perhaps Ruth and I would like to witness a spirit building in actual course of being erected. Accordingly, we made our way to the city and to the library. 

There was a large number of people already gathered there with the same intent as ourselves, and while we were waiting for operations to begin, Edwin told us something of the preliminary details that are necessary before work actually begins.

As soon as some new building is desired, the ruler of the realm is consulted. Of this great soul, and of others similar to him in spiritual character and capacity, I will tell you later. 

Knowing, as he does, so intimately, the needs and wishes of all in his realm, there never arises a case where some building is required for the use and service of all but that the wish is granted. 

The ruler then transmits the request to those in authority above him, who, in turn, refer it to those still higher.

The next step is to consult the architects, and it may be readily imagined that we have a host of masters upon whom we can draw without limitation. 

They work for the sheer joy it brings them in the creation of some grand edifice to be used in the service of their fellows. 

These good men collaborate in a way that would be almost impossible upon the earth plane. Here they are not circumscribed by professional etiquette or limited by the narrowness of petty jealousies.

Whatever gifts we may possess in spirit, it is part of the essence of this realm that we have no inflated ideas of the power or excellence of those gifts. We acknowledge them in humility alone, without self-importance, unobtrusively, selflessly, and we are grateful for the opportunity of working, con amore, with our colleagues in the service of the Great Inspirer. 

After the plans for the new buildings have been drawn up, in consultation with the ruler of the realm, there is a meeting of the master masons. 

The latter were mostly masons when they were upon the earth plane and they continue to exercise their skill in spirit lands. They do so because the work appeals to them, even as it did when they were incarnate, and here they have faultless conditions under which they can carry on their work. 

They do so with a grand freedom and liberty of action that was denied them upon earth, but which is their heritage here in the spirit world.

Others who were not masons by trade have since learned the spirit methods of building for the sheer joy of doing so, and they give valuable aid to their more skilled confreres. 

The masons, and one other, are the only people concerned in the actual construction, since spirit buildings do not require much that has to be included within the disposition of earthly buildings. 

Such, for example, as the necessary provision for lighting by artificial means and for heating.

The building of this annexe was not what one would denominate a major effort, and it required the help of but a comparative few. It was simple in design, consisting of two or three medium-sized rooms. 

We were standing fairly close to the group of architects and masons, headed by the ruler of the realm. 

I noticed particularly that they had all the appearance of being extremely happy and jovial—many were the jokes that circulated round this cheerful band. It was strange to Ruth and me to think that a building was shortly to go up—

The halls of learning all looked so very permanent to my unaccustomed eyes, so very complete, that I could not think it would ever be necessary to make any additions to them. At length, there were signs that a beginning was to be made. 

It must be remembered that the act of building in the spirit world is essentially an operation of thought. 

The ruler of the realm stepped forward a few paces, and with his back towards us, but facing the site upon which the new wing was to arise, he spoke a brief but appropriate prayer. 

In simple language, he asked the Great Creator for His help in the work they were about to undertake. 

His prayer brought an instantaneous response, which was in the form of a bright beam of light that descended upon him and upon those gathered immediately behind him. As soon as this happened, the architects and masons moved up close beside him. 

All eyes were now turned upon that vacant spot beside the main building to which we noticed that a second beam of light was passing directly from the ruler and the masons. 

As the second beam reached the site of the annexe, it formed itself into a carpet of coruscation upon the ground. This gradually grew in depth, width and height, but it seemed to lack any suggestion of substance. It matched the main building in colour, but that was all so far. 

Slowly, the form gained in size until it reached the required height. 

We could now see plainly that it matched the original structure in general outline, while the carved devices similarly corresponded. 

While it was in this state, the architects approached and examined it closely. 

We could observe them moving within it until at length they passed from view. They were gone but a moment when they returned to the ruler with the report that all was in order. 

Edwin explained to us that this rather ghostly-edifice was in reality an adumbration of the finished structure, shaped in exact facsimile before an intensification of thought was applied to produce a solid and completed building. 

Any mistake or fault would be detected when the building was in this tenuous state, and corrected at once. 

No rectification however being necessary in this particular instance, the work was proceeded with immediately.

The downstream of light now became very much more intense, while the horizontal stream from the ruler and his collaborators assumed after the lapse of a minute or two a similar degree of intensity. 

We could now perceive the nebulous form acquiring an unmistakable appearance of solidity, as the concentration of united thought laid layer upon layer of increased density upon the simulacrum. 

From what I observed, it seemed to devolve upon the ruler to supply to each of the masons just that quantity and description of force that each required upon his separate task. 

He acted, in fact, as a distributive agent for the magnetic power that was descending directly upon him. 

This split up into a number of individual shafts of light of different colour and strength, which corresponded with his direct appeals to the Great Architect. 

There was no faltering or diminution of the application of thought substance to be perceived anywhere.

The masons themselves seemed to work with a complete unanimity of concentration, since the building attained full solidity with a remarkable degree of evenness. 

After what appeared to Ruth and me a very short period, the building ceased to acquire any further density―the vertical and horizontal rays were cut off and there stood before us the finished wing, perfect in every detail―an exact match and extension to the main edifice, beautifully alike in colour and form and worthy of the high purpose to which it was to be devoted. 

We moved forward to examine more closely the results of the feat that had just been accomplished.

We ran our hands over the smooth surface as though to convince ourselves that it was really solid! Ruth and I were not the only people to do this, as there were others who were witnessing for the first time, and with equal wonderment, the immense power of directed thought. 

The procedure, which governs the building of our personal houses and cottages differs a little from that which I have just described to you. 

An indispensable prerequisite to the ownership of a spirit home is the right to own it―a right, which is gained solely by the kind of life we live when incarnate or by our spiritual progression after our transition to the spirit world. 

Once we have earned that right, there is nothing to prevent our having such a residence if we should wish for one. 

It has often been said that we build our spirit homes during our earthly lives or after. That is so only in a broad sense.

What we have built is the right to build, for it requires an expert to erect a house that would justify the name. 

My own home was built for me during my earthly life by builders just as proficient as those who helped to erect the annexe to the library. 

My friends, headed by Edwin, had looked after all the details entailed in such work. They had sought out the men to undertake the task, and the latter had carried into effect a fine piece of craftsmanship. 

But it will rest entirely with me whether I leave my old home as it stands for others to occupy and enjoy or whether I demolish it. 

It is customary, I am told, to make a gift of it to the ruler of the realm for his disposal to others at his discretion.