I find that every hour my spiritual vision awakens to new beauties

I find that every hour my spiritual vision awakens to new beauties.

Samuel Bowles (Spirit)

How far is your home from earth and in what sphere is it?

How far is your home from earth and in what sphere is it?

Counting by miles, I must be very many of them from the earth but by magnetic attraction and our power of locomotion, I am but little ways from the earth, for in an instant I am able to reach down when love calls me.

The spheres, as I have studied them, I wish to make the subject of a work hereafter, as I know with what little I have experienced, I shall give a somewhat different idea of them from what I perceive is in many minds in earth life. But in these papers, writing as I do with only a short experience, I wish to describe scenes from the plane on which I am now existing and from that which I have passed through. I must, step-by-step, learn the glories that will open to me and then tell you. In this effort I trust I have only begun a series of efforts which may grow clearer as I advance.

May all things be made plain to me because I would still labour for my fellow men – those who soon, at the longest, are to come over here and see whether my pen-pictures have led them into wrong ideas of spirit life.

Experiences of Samuel Bowles

If you have a variety of temperatures, how can flowers of different seasons in earth life bloom together in spirit life?

If you have a variety of temperatures, how can flowers of different seasons in earth life bloom together in spirit life?

As to the flowers all blooming together, your earth world, with its variations of climate, warm in some places, cold in others, produces endlessly the essence or spirit of the finest and hardiest flowers to go on with their eternal growth. Thus, you see, when flowers once exist here, they will always exist; only subject to changes somewhat like the changes you have there.

I know this will be enigmatical to you but see its wisdom. If one particular flower kept the same appearance, it would become monotonous, like those manufactured by hand in earth life. But it is not so. New buds and blossoms greet our sight – the old ones with their drooping heads, sending their spirit to the new.

Samuel Bowles (Spirit)

You wrote of cool shade trees. Do you have hot and cold weather there?

You wrote of cool shade trees. Do you have hot and cold weather there?

I wrote of cool shade, not so much because there is exceeding heat to flee from, as that the green shade is pleasant after the glare of light that exists. Though we have neither very hot nor very cold weather, there is still a variety which makes it pleasant for all. What would be agreeable for one might not be for another and, therefore, climates are so well chosen and arranged that all may be satisfied.

Samuel Bowles (Spirit)

What is the green grass made of and does it go to seed?

What is the green grass made of and does it go to seed?

When you wish me to tell you of what green grass is made, as with every other spiritual element you give me a question I cannot answer. If I asked of what your grass is made, you would name the different properties existing, while I should have to say that our grass consists of the spirit of the properties of earthly grass. Our grass is subject to changes. In some instances I have seen it present the appearance of going to seed. But that was not in contact with our homes, as it is the will of the owner that all should be beautiful here. Our tastes are much the same as in earth life but we work more with our will power than with our hands.

Samuel Bowles (Spirit)

What is your house made of and who made it?

What is your house made of and who made it?

You ask what is my house made of? To a mind surrounded by the material, this is very hard to make plain. For ages on the earth plane there have been mansions built and houses of less pretentious appearance but after doing good service there, they rot and crumble away. This is because the subtle essence, which held the material together has departed and, as matter is ever existent, the finest part, instead of settling into the earth, must rise.

Therefore, that essence as well as that which comes from buildings destroyed by fire is fashioned by the All Creative Power into our homes. And thus our homes are made which cannot fail in their variety to please the most critical taste. No spirit in a material sense builds his home; still as the spirit expands and his love for the beautiful is increased, the home he lives in will assume more beauty and be capable of changes until the spirit passes to a higher sphere.

Experiences of Samuel Bowles

Ask yourselves which is the more reasonable?

If the heaven I picture is too natural and you turn to the Book of books for a better description, ask yourselves which is the more reasonable?

Experiences of Samuel Bowles

O! Love

O! Love, thou art all of life worth living for, and all of immortality, because thou art infinite!

Samuel Bowles (Spirit)

We cannot escape the consequences of an evil life!

We cannot escape the consequences of an evil life!

Make every day count you higher in the scale of goodness

Think, live rightly, keep your body pure and your soul will be correspondingly better. Make every day count you higher in the scale of goodness.

Our works do follow us

Our works do follow us. The great law that what ye sow that shall ye reap is true to itself.

This great law is so true to itself, that what ye sow that shall ye reap

This great law is so true to itself, that what ye sow that shall ye reap.

Prepare for a natural heaven

We must prepare for a natural heaven.

Old age is a garment worn out

In these homes we enjoy sweet communion with kindred, unalloyed by the cares of earth. Here those who left you, aged and wrinkled with a long life of hard work, are again in the prime of life. Old age is a garment worn out and is left in the past.

Samuel Bowles (Spirit)

Dress depends on the state of the soul

Dress in your life depends on the state of the pocket; here, on the state of the soul. Therefore, it is not strange to us see a spirit clothed in the plainest garb, while even then the old body is being arrayed in the finest of satin. On the other hand, I have seen spirits here so gorgeously clothed that they looked like white, glittering forms. I have no words to describe the texture or its manufacture, for it comes just as naturally as the spirit body and, as I said, the increase in beauty of body is in proportion to the increase of soul-worth. The manner and fashion of dressing as in earth, we leave behind, except when we wish to appear to our earthly friends in a natural way – then, from the elements we can extract from the clothing of those around, we are taught to clothe ourselves for the time being.

Experiences of Samuel Bowles

Do we always wear the same clothing?

Do we always wear the same clothing? is often asked. I will answer, no. For as the spirit grows, as its capacity for good enlarges, our raiment grows brighter. It changes in texture and assumes beauties before unknown.

Samuel Bowles (Spirit)

I have told you heaven is work

The usual idea of heaven is rest. The idea of rest for the weary is still prevalent in earth life but each awakens to the great truth that heaven's rest is work – work in its highest sense.

Also, the thought exists in many minds that heaven is freedom – and so it is to a disciplined spirit, for the interests of spirit life are so precious that one will, of his own free will, naturally gravitate toward that work most necessary to be done, while an undisciplined heart has to learn by degrees that the law must be fulfilled.

Samuel Bowles (Spirit)

An ocean of eternity

The world is like the rivers and smaller streams, all making their way to the great sea and so the motley crowd are coming, one by one or in great numbers, into this ocean of eternity.

Samuel Bowles (Spirit)

It is a part of the great plan that the strong should care for the weak

My ideal heaven, the one I thought of in the long hours when death and life were fighting for victory, was one which changed the man – one which made the avaricious man less avaricious: the liar one who would immediately seek the truth – the drunkard one who would wish to drink from pure fountains. But a surprise awaited me.

Advanced spirits tell me, when, at times, they would look into the mystery of higher spheres, they are called on by a voice, not to be disregarded, to visit earth life and help free some suffering one from the old body. So, when we would feel wise and begin to know spirit life, we are called again to look into the old lessons of earth life. Our chief growth depends on how we receive the lessons that are taught us through our own suffering or our sympathy with the sufferings of others. It is a part of the great plan that the strong should care for the weak. When we see great troubles hovering over you there, though we cannot avert them, we can lighten their fall and our greatest growth comes from the most efficient work done to those who are still in form.

Samuel Bowles (Spirit)

A hell is as necessary as a heaven

A hell is as necessary as a heaven and we cannot help but suffer from the outgrowth of our own wrongs.