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Showing posts with label Everything Afterlife – Letters from the Spirit World. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Everything Afterlife – Letters from the Spirit World. Show all posts

28 February 2024

Is the spirit-world something or nothing?


My first proposition is this

The spirit world is somethingor it is nothing. 

There is a spirit worldor there is not. 

There can be no half-way about it.

If  the spirit world is something, you ought to know about it. 

It is folly to say

I cannot know very much about the higher life until I get there. 

You can know a great deal about it. 

Anythingeverythingcan be known if the knowledge is diligently sought for. 

There are thousands of spirits eager and willing to give this knowledge to those who seek for it in the right way.


If the spirit-world does exist, it is a real and tangible world, filled with life and beauty―

If there is a spiritual world, it is for the purpose of holding spiritual life, for life is spirit

Without spirit, there is no life. 


Everything that lives and moves and has a being is the spirit that lives, and moves within it, or rather, the life or spirit covers itself with matter, and whenever that matter is cast aside, the life or spirit rises and takes its place within the spiritual world―

The principle holds good with everything that has the power of growthor has a form.


The waters rise into the spiritual realm, carrying with them the life and spirits within them in their various beautiful forms. 

This spirit-land, Summer Land, spirit-world, exists.


To spirit-lives, the things of earth look coarse, unreal, and unsubstantial

All spiritual forms come up from the earth, for all spiritual germs must develop within matter, and as they develop and throw off their coarser covering, they rise into the spiritual realm.

The trees, the grass, the flowers, the shrubseven to the tiny mosses and lichens.

All things separateeach to its own order or kingdom. 


The earth is the great reservoir, or feeder, of the realms, which rise above and surround it. 

Vegetation, grass, trees and flowers yield up their lives more slowly than the animal and insect kingdom do, for the animal kingdom is higher than the vegetable or floral. 

The animal yields up his life or spirit at once, and rises rapidly upwardnor does it pause until it strikes the spirit-land. 

The animal has a certain amount of intelligence and finds its place according to its attractionsa wild animal immediately seeks a dense, spiritual forest

A domestic animal often pauses near the lovely, spiritual homes, or revels in the green meadows beside the running streams and rivers, gazing with its large, beautiful, dewy eyes at the lakes

The birds wing their way, singing their sweet songsthey love to linger near the habitations of men—or spirits.  

The insects also gravitate to their natural places.


The spiritual world is not an intangible nothingness, but real―filled with real-life, and the living souls and spiritual bodies of men, women and children
with its homes, colleges, institutions for knowledge of all kinds, and as rapidly as the errors and mistakes of earth can be purged away, peace and purity reign supreme—

Wisdom and love go hand in hand, and an eternity of joy and gladness awaits the soul.

23 January 2023

The Devil's golden hoofs are relentless.

Each and every man who tramples upon and robs his brother, whatever method he may employ, is a personal Devil, and his golden hoofs are hard and relentless.

Spirit Robert G. Ingersoll

Caye Caulker, Belize Barrier Reef | dronepicr/Wikimedia Commons | (CC BY 2.0)

21 February 2014

Every truth given by us to the world below makes that world better

All worlds in space move in strict time, perfect rhythm and heavenly harmony. Each moves within its own measure. The music of the spheres is not a mere figure of speech, but they throb in unison, they move in time, their rhythm is perfect, and their harmony according to the great harmonies of heaven. The more you know about this world the better able you will be to make the earthly world correspond to it. The more you know about us, and our lives here, the nearer you will try to make your own lives like ours.

Every truth given by us to the world below makes that world better.

Madam — 

Vengeance is mine and I will repay, saith the Lord of hosts

Vengeance is mine and I will repay, saith the Lord of hosts.

The true meaning of that saying is this — The Lord of hosts is the principle which governs them. If they are governed by the principles of war, hate and slaughter, those principles will turn again and rend them, for they are the principles of vengeance, or revenge, and nothing that is revengeful can be Christ-like or truly spiritual, and when the war spirit governs a nation, by war, or the same principle, shall it be laid low; and those nations that have warred the most vengefully shall be warred upon with more vengeance than any others and shall be conquered and laid waste, for a great natural law or principle can never work otherwise.

Madam — 

16 February 2014

No one should follow any calling that does not make them happy

 A Series of Letters from the Spirit of a Well-known Lady 

Letter Number Sixteen

No men or women should follow any calling that they do not like—that does not make them happy.

I know many hard-worked sewing women, on earth, who repine thus—How I wish I were rich and could queen it in society. At my next reincarnation—I am now speaking of those who believe in reincarnation—I hope I shall be born into the family of a king, prince, or millionaire, that I may be a queen in society and a fashionable leader among the elite.

My poor darlings, you won't have to wait to be reincarnated, neither will it be at all necessary. You can be a queen in the spirit world just as soon as you are ready. You can be a leader among the elite just as soon as you are fitted to lead and have wisdom enough. It is knowledge that will make you happy here, not riches. I was once a needle-woman myself, in my earlier days on earth. Ah! I know just how you feel, and I will help all sewing-women; that is part of my mission.

I, at length, grew old and large, as I said before, but now I am youthful and light and, they tell me, very beautiful. I can trip the light fantastic toe with the best. I wanted to be a leader also, for, although of noble birth, my fortunes had fallen; but it is all right now. I became somewhat of a leader in thought, later in life, as well as an authoress. Ah! I made many mistakes and who does not? Our mistakes make us stronger in the end. By a mistake I mean that which we do not know to be such that which we think is right at the time—that is mistake; but when one knows a thing to be wrong, that is evil, fraud, sin, that will have to be atoned for with pain and suffering; our mistakes, even, must be atoned for, but they do not bring the same remorse and suffering that wilful sin or evil does.

I forgot to tell you that my reception did not consist of great men alone, there was an equal number of great or gifted women present. I am a woman and I am determined to take the part of women. Do you think those men would have been very happy all alone by themselves? Why, they would need women there, if for no other reason but that they might worship them. Yet we did not worship them, we didn't think they were a bit better or more gifted than we were, and we were women just as much as we had been on earth, and they were men just the same as they had been.

I tell you, friends, we were even more womanly than we had been, and the men were more manly. Don't let that old, foolish idea get into your minds—that the spirits and angels are neither men nor women, but all as one sex. Nothing can be more untrue. The same law holds good here as on earth. We do not bear children, to be sure, but I never had a child when I was on earth, and there are thousands of other women who never bore children, but they are women for all that, just as much women as though they had borne children, and no woman bears children after a certain age. Is that any reason why she is not a woman, and just as much a woman as though she had?

Now you ask me—Is there, then, love between the sexes? and I answer most emphatically, yes! What ennobles a man or woman more than deep and constant love—eternal love, if you please? On earth it is the foundation of all things; without it nothing can be; without it there can be no men or women. Love is the creator of all things—sexual love, not platonic. How else could justice ever come to those who die young or in infancy? Are they never to know the joys of love? Out upon such nonsense! Are the unmarried and lonely never to know love and companionship of husband and wife? Are those who are most miserably mated to vicious, debauched and drunken husbands—or sometimes the reverse—are they never to know the joys of true love and companionship of a good, true husband or wife? Think again, my friends.

No; our spirit children grow up, they love, they mate and marry very much as you do, except that they are taught to whom they rightly belong and make no miserable mistakes.

A good and pure girl does not marry a vile man. Goodness is matched with goodness and purity with purity, and that is as it should be on earth.

Why, you ought to see some of the glorious weddings we have here. The act of a priest saying a few words over them does not marry them here.

Now, I don't want to be misconstrued. I don't want anybody to think that this is not necessary on earth. No doubt it is, although it does not constitute true marriage; but, of course, as you are now, it is necessary, at least you think it is, and as one thinks so it is; but we do not marry that way here. A patriarch may say a few words of blessing over a young couple; but we celebrate marriage here as on earth, and our celebrations are often most grand and impressive. I hope to write you about one sometime, but I will add here that the sole end and aim of marriage is not propagation. It appears so sometimes on earth, but you will soon learn better when you get here. Husbands and wives on earth who have been married a great many years and have ceased to bear children, if they ever had any, find that their happiest time has been after they are too old to have children; they are more truly united, if there is any unity between them at all, than they were in their younger days; their love for each other is stronger; they grow into a oneness, or unity, that they knew nothing of at first; and if they are truly united they go on together in this life, happy and joyful.

Now, Professor Franz Petersilea has told me that he wrote, twenty years ago, about the employments in heaven. At that time no one seemed to accept it as true, not even Spiritualists. He sent the book, which he called The Discovered Country—for truly he felt that he had discovered a country new to him—by influencing his son, to a number of publishers, who, on glancing it over, considered that he was losing his mind, and returned it with most uncomplimentary remarks; but the son did not lose heart. He knew that the spirit of his father wrote it; he had evidence upon evidence of the fact, and he knew, also, that his father was not capable of falsehood, especially to the son he loved best of all the world; and now see how the world has moved on. Such men Rev. M. J. Savage and Rev. Heber Newton, and many other divines, not only believe it but preach it from their pulpits; and who now thinks of calling them insane? Nobody. And now nearly all Spiritualists believe it. They are a little more chary about animal life, but let that pass at present, except a word or two.

That great and good man, Dr J. M. Peebles says, as I now read in the mind of the medium, and as Professor Petersilea wrote twenty years ago—The Spirit World is no shadowy realm but real and permanent. There are forests, fields, flowers, sparkling fountains, flowing rivers, pleasant grottoes, immense libraries, palatial mansions with gorgeous domes constellated and astral; cottages and princely palaces with tessellated floors, tapestried walls, diamond pointed ceiling and scenery of transcendent loveliness.

Now I advise every one who has read this in The Progressive Thinker to copy it out in large, golden letters, and hang it in a conspicuous place in their very best room, and read it over thoughtfully every time the eye rests upon it. Professor Petersilea wrote the same thing twenty years ago, but no one believed him.

Now, Dearest Dr Peebles, I once knew you when I was in the form. Perhaps you will remember me and guess who I am. I will whisper my name in your ear at home, but it will never do to write it. Those words that you uttered were the grandest truths you ever uttered; but, dear Doctor, just think for a moment. Would not those forests look a little lonely without a particle of animal life there? Animal life is higher up the scale than forest life. Would not those groves and meadows lack something if there was not a bird there to sing? Would not those waters appear void without the beautiful fish? Would not those cottages and homes look as though they lacked something without a domestic animal, pet such as horse, dog, cow, cat, bird, especially the dear little hummingbird and butterfly; and all these things are higher than the groves, the waters, the mountains, the fields, and so forth. Why did nature, or spiritual law, leave out the higher, or the middle strata of life, and accept, or form the lowest and the highest, the highest being the spirit of man, or human spirit? Dear Doctor, remember that spirit is life and life is spirit, no matter what that life may be, or in what form it appears.

I now read in the mind of the medium—But Dr Peebles once said, or wrote, of a singing bird in the heavens, or spirit world.

Doctor, if one bird has been permitted to exist in the spheres, how can it be that all others are excluded? If one bird lives, all must, else it would be a miracle, and there are no miracles; and if one bird lives, all animal and insect life must live also, for natural law could not allow the birds to live and not other animal life as well, for a bird is but a flying animal. 0, Doctor, the truth is grander than even you thought it to be—but to go on with my subject.

It is now conceded by nearly all Spiritualists, and taught by many divines, notably Rev. Savage and Rev. Newton, that there are employments in heaven much like those of earth; and this is true. Now if there are employments, you must see at once that there must be amusements as well; and this is true; but the cruel sports are all left below and will go out of date there after awhile. People don't go fishing here, for fun, with a cruel barbed hook for the poor fish to swallow and then writhe in agony until they die. Men don't go out, here, to shoot poor, little birds, and other small, harmless animals, for fun, and consider it fine sport; neither do they set hounds to chase poor little, defenseless rabbits and hares, that they may, at last, shoot cruel shot into their panting sides. Think of it, ye men who have immortal souls. Put a picture before your eyes of one poor, little, innocent hare, flying for its life before a pack of great baying hounds, and great men on foot and on horseback, flying after the hounds and rabbit that they may shoot the poor, little, terrified, defenseless mite. Look at yourselves, ye great, egotistical egos, and see how ridiculous you appear, and what horrible ogres you really are.

No; there is nothing of that kind here in the spirit world, but all innocent and harmless amusements and sports we have. Theaters abound in the spirit world, but representations of vice and crime are left out. Our theaters are great educators of the spirit people. Many who would not understand a scientific lecture would enjoy and comprehend the same truths if given in a sparkling play; and, then, our youths and children need them, and they are enjoyed by both the learned and the unlearned, and, speaking in earthly parlance, by both young and old; then, we have great rejoicings and festivities of all kinds which are adapted to innocent minds and also wise ones.

If we have water we also have boats, but they are pleasure boats. We do not have locomotives or cars; we do not need them. We do not have mills or factories; we do not need them. But concerts, theaters, lectures, balls, parties and receptions we do have in plenty, and a thousand other things that I cannot describe, for they transcend anything you have upon the earth, consequently I am not able to give it through the mind of a medium.

No need to be reincarnated, my dears. You will find all that you need without it.

All you on earth who have aspired to be actors and actresses, but owing to circumstances could not, will find ample opportunity here. All who have aspired to be singers and musicians, but were disappointed, will become such here. Why, you ought to hear some of our prima donnas; nothing like it was ever heard on earth—and operas glorious! Plenty of opportunity for Wagner and all other great operatic composers. If you want to follow the calling of a music teacher, such calling you may follow with profit and pleasure and then give pupils' concerts and other concerts, with grand Rubinstein often as leader, and as often Wagner, Mozart, and all the other mighty musicians. You may also lead, yourself, if you please and are qualified; and for lectures, teachers of all grades and descriptions, plenty of employment here. No money in it, of course, but plenty of love, honour and respect—but for the old school of doctors there is no employment. You will have to make the most of your time on earth, for there is no sickness among the spirits except that of the mind. But the hypnotic suggester will have a good time and plenty to do. Better turn your minds in that direction, my good doctors, else you will not be wanted. And you, creed-bound, orthodox divines and Catholics, better come along with the rest or you will be left far behind.

Now, again, I read in the mind of the medium about an earthly teacher who adopted a little baby girl and taught her through what to her meant play or amusement; and she became one of the most learned of children. That is precisely what we do here, and the way we do it. Everything that a child or youth learns here is placed before it as pleasing amusement or play, or something that is delightful and beautiful; and that reminds me that you all ought to buy the book called, Mary Ann Carew, written by herself through this medium. You will find it at the office of The Progressive Thinker. This lady was the mother of Carlyle Petersilea. She passed into spirit life when he was but three years of age. She had little children in the spirit world and left two or three on earth. In that book she describes how children are educated—tells of her own and others. The book is an exquisite history of her own experience in the spirit world, and her maiden name on earth was Mary Ann Carew. She was the first wife of Professor Franz Petersilea; a lovely and beautiful creature. I have often met this lady here, and know whereof I speak.

We have no prisons, no penitentiaries, no police courts, no courts of any kind. All you officers and keepers of those things, better turn your attention toward education, and ameliorating the condition of mankind, so that, after a little you may be able to turn your prisons, jails and penitentiaries into educational halls and institutions of learning; then you will not feel so strange when you get here, and will find plenty of employment. All things of this nature that you commence on earth will reach up into the spheres and you can go right on with them, much to your delight.

Yours truly, MADAM —

The spiritual world is a type of the earthly world

A Series of Letters from the Spirit of a Well-known Lady 

Letter Number Fifteen

Those who have read what has been written in my former letters, cannot fail to see that this spiritual world is a type of the earthly world, exceedingly more refined and beautiful, where we have all that you have on earth on a higher, more exalted, heavenly plane; that we follow all the occupations that you follow on earth, and that, as a rule, we are much wiser than you are.

Of course, there are ignorant spirits here as there, but they do not remain so long. They cannot in the nature of things. I hope that I have proved to all reasoning minds that we live and move and have our being much as you do there; that we have homes, temples, halls, laboratories, conservatories, grand wisdom edifices, wireless telegraphy, boats of all kinds, photography, thought photography, hypnotic suggestion—that is the very thing that I am engaged in doing at this moment—music, theaters, psychical investigation societies for the purpose of investigating the powers of the soul; for, although we are spirits, we do not as yet understand all about the soul. We also study botany, natural history, astronomy; but our observatories are somewhat different from yours.

Professor Franz Petersilea has described some of our clock observatories very accurately; moreover, we study all about the manners and customs of the inhabitants of other planets and their fauna and flora, for no two planets are exactly alike, no more than two things or two persons are just alike. Coarse, hard manual labour is left behind with the body.

Now you ask me—Do the spirits eat? and my reply is, Yes, they do; but they do no coarse feeding. Nothing can live and be sustained without replenishment, for we are constantly throwing off substance, just as you are there, excepting that our substance is sublimated matter, while yours is coarse matter.

Now I am aware that many will laugh at my assertion. Let them, and let them contradict it if they will, and then tell us how the spiritual body is sustained, for it is composed of sublimated matter, just as sure as we live.

Do you have all the organs there which belong to the body here?

Yes, we do; we certainly do. Contradict it, ye wise ones, if you will, but if the life of the earthly body is the spirit thereof, and the spirit is in the form of the earthly body—which it certainly is—have do we not have organs similar to those of earth? Do we have hands and not a stomach? Do we have a head and not a heart? Do we have feet and not brains? Every organ of the body that you have, we have also, for it is the life or the spirit of those very organs that we take with us when the body dies.

Now if we have feet, it is that we may walk. If we have eyes, it is that we may see; if ears, that we may hear; if a brain, that we may think; a stomach, that we may digest food. Each and every organ fulfills its duty here as there, except the organs of reproduction. Reproduction belongs only to earth; still, we possess the organs, but they do not reproduce. Like the fruits of earth, all seed germs take root only in material substance. Now the question is—How and what do we eat? We eat everything that is good for food—that is, to feed the sublimated material body. Our food necessarily is sublimated material. We cannot take life of any kind, therefore we can not eat animal flesh. I would like to make this world as clear to you as possible. If in your world peaches grow on trees, they do in our world, for the sublimated tree is here, or the spirit of the tree, filled with luscious peaches without stones, or pits, or much skin, for as I said, seed germs gravitate to the material earths, but the sublimated essences gravitate to this world. If you have grapes there, so do we here, plentifully, without the seed or skin. The skin of our fruit is soft, sweet and waxen, and the luscious fruit melts in the mouth without much mastication.

Vegetables grow here in our soil, but we do not cultivate them. The sweet, pure, refined essences of these things rise up from earth and gravitate to their proper places and appear very much as your vegetables do. We take them from our spiritual ground and eat them as they are, without cooking. We do no cooking. That necessity is done away with.

Do we sweep and dust and clean as you do on earth? No. This same question has been brought up in other minds before now. No; we are not obliged to sweep or dust. We have no material dust. Dust is coarse matter. But there are filthy spirits as well as filthy men and women. There are really spirits in the lower sphere who actually wallow in filth, but the filth is of the mind and, as I have before stated, thoughts are things and become objective, and gather about them sublimated matter corresponding to the thought, but when we think pure, sweet, clean thoughts, they gather clothing to correspond.

Now the question is, If we eat, do other animals eat those lower in the scale than ourselves? Yes, other animals eat; but not each other. They are a step higher in the scale of being. All herbivorous animals eat of the sweet, sublimated herbage and grass, the ethereal essence of such as you have on earth; also fish feed on the sublimated essences within the ethereal waters.

Now you say, Well, the carnivorous animals; how is it with them? Men of earth at the present day are extremely carnivorous. There is not a carnivorous animal on the earth that slays and eats equal to man and really there are but few carnivorous animals after all, and the greater part of these are not wholly so. The bear will sometimes kill a man in self-defense, or at least it thinks so, but it seldom eats him. The bear much prefers wild berries, roots and nuts, to flesh. The lion will also kill a man, given a chance; but he thinks he is thereby protecting his mate and little ones. The lion in its natural state is not wholly carnivorous; it also eats tender shoots and green twigs.

Man is really more carnivorous than any other animal. There are more cattle, sheep, hogs, poultry, fish and game slain and eaten by man than by all the carnivorous animals in the world.

Now if this carnivorous man, when he arrives here, ceases, from necessity, to slay and eat, it can readily be seen that the carnivorous animal can also, and it can also eat of the sublimated material essences to sustain its ethereal body.

You must all see how exquisitely beautiful and useful the spiritual spheres are. The more beautiful our
thoughts, the more beautiful our surroundings. You can also see that reincarnation is not true, or at all necessary.

Lady — and I loved beautiful things, and we soon had a home corresponding to our thoughts—a home wherein we could entertain many guests, for we intended to give entertainments. We did not intend to lead the lives of recluses, but to be glad and merry. Company, merriment and gladness did not at all interfere with the attainment of wisdom or knowledge; quite the contrary, they were great aids in the quest. We found that spiritual beings were very social, and we intended to make the most of social life. All spirits who have gained wisdom or knowledge in any direction are eager to quickly impart it to others; for this is a great and beneficent natural law, and one of the happiest ways is in meeting together for the purpose of each imparting to the others whatever point in wisdom they have gained; be it ever so small, it matters not.

These social or home gatherings are by invitation. The public institutions are for all. For instance— We hear of the death on earth and the birth into spirit life of some great musical, or literary man or woman. Suppose, for instance, it is music in which he or she excelled, and we give an entertainment or reception to the newcomer; consequently we invite as many of the most gifted and famous musical geniuses as is convenient for us to entertain, or as can be reached and can come; then we send an urgent request for the new-born spirit to come also, and such seldom fail to respond. Now we do very much as you do on earth, bring into play the most beautiful thoughts and desires and good feelings possible, which clothes us in dazzling splendour and beauty. We appear clothed much as you do on earth.

A lady on earth thinks how she would like to be dressed. She then buys the material and employs a dressmaker; but we are not obliged to do all this. We think how we should like to be dressed—we desire to appear so and so—and our ethereal clothing forms about us according to our desires. The time at which the company is to arrive has been appointed and they are punctual.

Now the newcomer meets the very ones that he has so long worshipped, and longed to see and hear, and soon they are engaged in the art they all loved so well, and the grand old masters—who are now young, vigorous and beautiful, and have learned very much more than they knew on earth—are performing some of their grandest and most heavenly music, while the newborn is listening in an ecstasy of delight, and thinking how little he really knew, after all, about music.

There is something else I wish to impress forcibly on the minds of earth. Don't think we are forever in high flown ecstasy. We were made to be happy, laugh and be merry, and after we have the music we chat, laugh, joke, exchange ideas, or thoughts, poke fun, and have a gay and enjoyable time generally, in a refined and spiritual way, never descending to vulgarity. We leave that to the vicious and the vulgar. There is in another apartment a banquet spread, and the brilliancy and beauty of that spread is beyond anything on earth. We have what appears to be wine, yet is not like the wine of earth but a sparkling elixir of life that is a feeder of the spiritual life currents within us; we also have sparkling water. Our table is loaded with spiritual fruit, nuts, bread-fruit, and all the most dainty and delicate things imaginable that do not require cooking or the taking of life. Our table is decorated with flowers, besides other beautiful and sparkling decorations. The walls of the apartment are lined with exquisite paintings from the greatest masters of the art who have ever lived on earth, and a large number of little gems are set between. Now we take seats at this festive board and eat daintily. We talk and laugh and are gay and happy. After supper we trip the light fantastic toe; we dance spiritual dances. Can one suppose that spirits never laugh, never dance, never make merry? Oh, you are mistaken.

Now I, before coming to this life, had become a very large, fat old lady, weighing more than two hundred pounds. Of course my dancing days were over, but my heart often danced, and when I saw the young and beautiful dance and make merry, I used to think sadly—Can I never dance and be lighthearted more? and I know that thousands of my earthly sisters often think the same. Cheer up, dear ones, your dancing days are not over, simply postponed for a short time. Soon you will be once more youthful, light, gay and happy beyond compare, and as beautiful as you can possibly desire. Now yon must know that all these things exist here, else how could we educate our little ones—the babies and little children that come here at all times from earth? These little spirits must have their play, their games, as on earth; the young people must have amusement, they must, according to their nature, dance as on earth, and the old return again to their halcyon days. Now all the teaching that our children have here is given in the form of play or amusement, and they seek it with avidity. No child is forced to do anything against its natural bent, and they should not be on earth.

Yours truly, MADAM —

15 February 2014

The Great Laws of Chemical Affinity

A Series of Letters from the Spirit of a Well-known Lady 

Letter Number Fourteen 

Now the great laws of chemical affinity hold good here as on earth, and are far better understood.

Why do the waters of earth seek each other, and all seek a level? Chemical affinity. Why does the dry land hold itself together? Attraction of gravitation and chemical affinity; and these two great laws run through all things, and they are just as operative here in the spirit world, as they are on the earth. When the emanations or refined essences rise up, or are pushed up by the dense atmosphere, they do not return to earth, they are too sublimated; the earthly attraction of gravitation has no more power over them, but the great law of chemical affinity still holds good and they come under a still higher law of the attraction of gravitation—in other words they attract and gravitate together to form a sublimated spiritual world, more beautiful than tongue can tell or brush can paint. The ethereal waters seek each other, and their level, as on earth, the difference being that one is material, the other ethereal; one exists in the dense atmosphere, the other in the ethereal atmosphere or ether.

That which forms our land is also drawn together by the higher or more spiritual law of gravitation, or the attraction of gravitation and chemical affinity, and thus we have land, or ethereal land, hills, dales and mountains; by the same laws we have trees, vegetation, grass, flowers, shrubs; but fish, insect, and animal life are egos or entities as on earth, and are from the earth as are also the ethereal essences or emanations that rise up from the earth. These developed entities, or egos, which once dwelt within the ethereal atmosphere as germs, rise again as entities or egos into it, and are once more clothed, but this time in sublimated, ethereal matter, yet all things are, after all, egos, or entities, clothed in ethereal matter.

It is very strange to me that the learned men of earth should always be delving in coarse matter to find out what they want to know, just as though there were no atmosphere in which all life originates, or ethereal space wherein may be found all things and the cause of all things. Nothing originates within earthly matter, but all things originate within the atmosphere or ether.

A flower or plant of any kind does not draw its life from the earth, its roots simply find lodgment there to hold or sustain it in place, then the little rootlets seek water or moisture within the damp ground, but its life, its beauty, its colour, are all drawn from the atmosphere, not from the earth. Plant a seed and cover it tightly away from the light, the sun, and the air, and see if it will develop into a tree, shrub or flower, or vegetation of any kind; and no seed can ever be formed without the ethereal germ; and all will come to know this sooner or later.

When one talks of life commencing and living within all matter, one is talking nonsense. Life exists in a germinal state within the atmosphere, and enters matter through the great laws of chemical affinity and the attraction of gravitation.

Now I do hope I have made myself clear, for I want to tell you more about this glorious world wherein I now dwell, and I don't want people to think that my sensitive's mind is unsound, as has been stated by many who desire to injure him. It is because his mind is sweet and sound and rises up to meet the beauty and grandeur of the spiritual, that we are able to write at all.

Lady — and I soon found that we could not return to earth any more in our material spiritual bodies, and so we concluded that, for a time at least, we would not visit earth, not until we understood the spiritual better and were better fitted to teach of things as they really were, or as we had found them; not until we had a work to do, a mission to perform; and that time has now come. But; while I am writing this letter, my sublimated material spiritual body is at rest in the spirit world, but my soul, my astral and thought bodies are here with this medium, or sensitive rather, for I like that word better, it better expresses the truth.

Now do not wonder at this which I tell you and think it not true. You do not think it at all strange that you go to sleep on earth; in fact you cannot exist without sleep, but your soul doesn't sleep, the astral body doesn't sleep, and the thought body is as busy as ever.

Well, you ask me, what does sleep? and I reply—Nothing sleeps. The body and material brain become weary and need replenishing, the soul takes the astral and thought bodies with it and goes a visiting, that is all, leaving the body quiescent, but the soul takes good care not to break the magnetic cord which binds it to the body, in other words it is bound to it by the great law of magnetic attraction, which it may not sever until the body becomes unfit for it to dwell in, then the cord is severed and the body no longer has the power of holding itself together through the law of magnetic attraction. The soul, clothed in its thought and astral bodies, now gravitates, through the law of magnetic attraction, to the spiritual realm.

You now ask me why the material body does not remember that which the soul has been busy in receiving? and I answer—The soul does not talk and think as the body does, it does not analyse and compare as the material brain does. It receives and stores up energy. Shall we call it soul-power? Shall we call it will, strength, energy, to run the machine? for the body is simply an engine or machine run by the will-power, energy and strength of the soul, and the soul must be replenished. Nothing can be continually exhausted without being replenished from some source, and the soul is fed and replenished from the great reservoir of soul, or over-soul. I do not mean by this, a God, or a God in the form of a person, but the Great Soul-Fountain of all that is or was or ever shall be. I cannot make it any clearer to you than this. But when the body is laid aside and we enter the spiritual, all things are changed in this respect. The soul still drinks at the great Soul-Fountain, but the spirit body has become so clear and refined that like a superfine sensitive plate it holds and remembers all things, for memory is simply spiritual photography—be sure and remember that—photography that never fades. The soul also remembers all that ever transpired to it while in the body of coarser material substance.

Now Lady — and I visited a great many temples and halls of learning that we might acquire this knowledge, and we must also have a home of our own in this beautiful world, where we could rest, where we could enjoy home just as you do on earth, where we could surround ourselves with beautiful things. Other people's homes were not ours and spiritual beings differ in their tastes just as you do on earth. Some seek one thing and some another. Some like one employment and some another. There is not in all the spheres one home exactly like another, and no two spirits are alike—they all differ just as you do. We do not care to be beggars or tramps, any more than you do, and by this I mean we did not care to intrude on the privacy of other spirits to their discomfort; we did not care to lie down in the open fields, or lanes, or by the public highways, for we surely have them here, and as all other spirits seemed to have homes we became aware of the necessity of having one also.

Although we found, as you do on earth, a natural spiritual world, we did not find homes already made for us, no more than you do on earth, unless some dearly loved one has already built one for the one thus loved.

To be sure I could have entered the home of some of my relatives, but I did not wish to.

My earthly father and mother had been in the spheres for a great length of time. I was not fitted to dwell within their supernal heights, and to have a home of my own was the very most natural thing to do. I did not care to live all alone, neither did Lady —, so we concluded to build one together, which we did.

Professor Franz Petersilea has told you how we build our homes here, and I can add nothing more. He has told you the truth.

Our homes are first modelled within our minds, according to our tastes and desires; the thought is a thing and takes on or clothes itself with sublimated material substance, which it attracts according to the law of magnetic attraction and the spiritual attraction of gravitation, consequently we soon had a home according to our united desires. I will not weary you by describing it; enough to say it suited us to a charm and was as beautiful as a dream; for the so-called dreams of the imagination are spiritual realities; for we dreamed or imagined the home in our minds; and you do precisely the same thing on earth. You first dream or image your home in your mind, then you clothe it with stone, brick, or wood, as you please. We here clothe ours as we please, but do not use the coarser, more material brick, stone or wood; but, if we think intently of a beautiful jewel, or any other substance, the thought has form and attracts through magnetic chemical affinity substantial matter according to the thought.

Now I read in the mind of the sensitive, and also in many other minds of earth, this—Rev. Minot Savage and Rev. Heber Newton have said, much to the delight of their people, that they think there must be homes and employments similar to those of earth within the heavens or heavenly spheres. If they call it heaven, what does it matter? It means the same thing; and when they uttered these thoughts, they uttered eternal verities or truths, and I have been trying to tell you how these homes are built, how the halls and temples are erected, and how people follow the bent of their gifts and inclinations. It is useless to talk of homes, halls, and temples, without comprehending, in a measure, how they come to be; how they are built; what they rest upon, and by what they are surrounded; and this task seems to devolve on a band of spirits called together for the purpose. I belong to this band, so does Lady —, so does Franz Petersilea, and a great many others, and we have chosen this sensitive to give it to the world.

Of course there are other sensitives whom we use also, but this one is one of the best, and I implore you all to listen gravely and respectfully, at least.

No one can believe, unless that to be believed appeals to his reason and judgment, but all can listen with respect and then think out these problems for themselves, and we stand ever ready to help them when they call in all sincerity for us to do so.

There have been those who have said that if spirits built their homes in the way we have told them we did, they, the spirits, must be insane. Now I shall ask those who have said this—How are the homes in the Spiritual World built? Do the spirits cut down trees, have sawmills and planing machines, and all the other paraphernalia that goes toward the building of an earthly home? Do they burn brick, make mortar and so forth? Do they quarry stone? No one can suppose that they do these things; the one who could would certainly be more insane than the spirits who give truthful information on the subject. The spirits certainly have employments, but hard manual labour is left on earth, and only appertains to earth. We could not cut a tree if we wished. The tree is spiritual and cannot be hewn down—moreover, if we have homes here they must be built by ourselves, otherwise who would build them? Even if we entered a shining city already built, there must have been those who built it. But enough. I have told you the truth. Now everything that comes under the head of art, or construction, is constructed in the same way—the same principles hold good—but the natural spiritual world exists the same as your natural earth does. Of course the laws already mentioned bring into requisition all the power that resides within man, or spirit, and by this you see that our employments are as varied as those of earth, and even more so, for we have many things here not yet wrought out on earth, for everything you have there is given down to you, from the spheres, through the mind or by photographic impressions upon the mind by spirits.

Yours Truly, MADAM —

02 February 2014

Sisters, if you suffer under such horrors, read Oceanides

In Oceanides, spirit author, Professor Franz Petersilea, shows us what a woman once suffered from the abuse her husband heaped upon her – bound in a miserable union with an uncongenial partner. Sisters, if you suffer under such horrors, as thousands do at the present day, read Oceanides – it will comfort you. If you wish to see the spiritual world as it is and the happiness and joy that is yet in store for you, read the book, for it was written in a spirit of love and the book will comfort and bless all who read it if read in the right spirit. 

01 February 2014

The Law of Gravitation

A Series of Letters from the Spirit of a Well-known Lady 

Letter Number Thirteen

At this writing I wish to tell you about the attraction of gravitation. First I shall make an assertion, and the assertion shall be a most truthful one. Perhaps not many have thought much about it. All the better; you want new thoughts. Never run in an eternal treadmill of old thoughts. Try to get fresh, new ones, and if you try you will find an eternal supply ever ready to be received, and eager to be put to the best use possible. But, put your thoughts to the test—try them in the light of your highest wisdom and reason—and if they stand the test, then are they true.

My assertion is this—The earth has the power of drawing and holding to itself all material things. The spiritual world has the same power of drawing and holding to itself all spiritual things. One attracts heavy or coarse matter, the other fine, sublimated matter, and the attraction of gravitation of the one is as powerful as the other—no, that is not quite exact—one is far more powerful than the other. The spiritual realm is far more powerful than the coarser and heavier earth.

Why, the spiritual realm is attracting and holding countless billions of tons of attenuated matter every day, and yet with this great truth staring them in the face, some doubt the existence of a spiritual world. Every blade of grass, every leaf of vegetation, tree and shrub, every stream, river, pond, and all large bodies of water, are being drawn upward as rapidly as the sun and air can do it. To be sure a very large part of the water condenses, and when it becomes too heavy for the upper air is attracted back to earth, but not nearly all of it—much, very much never condenses sufficiently to be attracted back to earth, consequently is attracted by the higher, lighter spirit world, and as I stated in a former letter, becomes subject to the natural laws appertaining to that world—and what of the countless tons of other matter that is being drawn upward every day? Can the most learned of men on earth deny this statement? No, sirs, you cannot. Then why don't you tell the people something about it? Why don't you tell them what becomes of all these countless billions of tons of matter that are being drawn upward each day of the year?

Now, I, Madam —, a spirit, challenge the whole world of learned men to contradict my assertion. I want you to contradict it. Still, I would like you to contradict me in a gentlemanly manner. I expect you to treat me as gentlemen should treat each other, or as gentlemen treat ladies, even if I am a spirit lady.

When I was with you in the form I exacted gentle manners and kind treatment, and was ever ready to be gentle and kind to those who were gentle and kind to me. But, to take opposite sides in a debate is all right, and we can use any arguments we please if we do not descend to personal abuse, remembering that you have no more right to abuse a spirit, because it has left the body, than you have if it stood before you in the flesh, for it is a person the same as yourself. The reason why I want to be contradicted is that I wish to agitate the minds of the people of earth on this all-important subject.

When one speaks of the spirit world as anything tangible and real, as having land, water, hills, dales, grass, flowers, trees, buildings, schools, and so forth, others look upon them as lunatics fit for an asylum. Then, again, there are thousands of so-called Spiritualists whose ideas are exceedingly vague and uncertain; they look upon the spirit world as a vapourish kind of spookland, which amounts to a certain kind of nothingness, wherein formless, invisible spirits, who amount to little else than nothing, forever aimlessly float about, progressing toward nothingness.

Now you may each and all declare that you don't think so; but what the world wants is something definite, and there is nothing easier than to arrive at what you do want.

There is nothing indefinite in nature, neither in the spirit world nor in the earthly world, and one is as definite as the other, one is as real as the other, and I want those who do not think so to prove to the contrary, if they are able, and I will prove the opposite, for I am able.

Tell me, ye sages – What becomes of all the countless millions and billions of tons of matter that rise up from your earth at all times and seasons? You may reply that it remains a formless, conglomerate mass, but I assert to the contrary. You may say that it all returns back to the earth, but I say to the contrary. You may say, as you are in the habit of doing, that it is worked over and over again, but I say no, no, no, and reiterate, no! and just here is where you savants make your mistake.

A portion of the grosser elements are attracted and drawn back to earth, those that by the law of natural affinity belong to earth, but not the finer, the more sublimated, the spiritual; that is attracted and held by the spirit world. And now let me tell you another great fact – Your earth grows larger and lighter every year. Two or three millions of years ago your earth was not as large as it is today, and it was much heavier and coarser than at present; its mountains were higher and more abrupt; its surface more rocky, its volcanoes far more numerous and active, and many spurted forth boiling water well mixed with rock and sand and often much bituminous matter. Now»if your earth does not weigh nearly as much today as it did some millions of years' ago, where is its lost surplus weight? Nothing is lost—nothing can be lost—but it has gone somewhere, it is going somewhere every day. Of course it will be eons of ages, to man, before it will all be spiritualised, but in the meantime what has become of this enormous bulk of matter that it has already lost? Let me tell you—let me whisper it softly in your ear – It has gone to form beautiful, exquisite, sublimated material, ethereal, spiritual spheres or zones, which lie all around the earth in different stratas, one above another; the first commencing just beyond the dense atmosphere of earth.

Now I want some of you savants to contradict me in a kind way, so that you may not raise my ire and indignation, for I am not yet beyond indignation and I cannot say when I shall be. I have not yet found any spirit who is, for if they were beyond feeling they would cease to feel love, in fact, cease to have any feelings whatever. Perhaps you may say that I cannot prove that the earth is lighter in weight and larger in circumference than it was some few millions of years ago; but I think I can.

A porous body is lighter than a solid one, and the earth is more porous, by far, today, than it was a few million years ago. Sponge is lighter than rock, and the earth is far spongier than it once was. A thistle-down is lighter than a pebble of the same size. The earth is more downy, by far, than it once was. Anything which is pulverised occupies a larger area, or takes up more space than that which is compact and solid.

Can anyone deny that the earth has been pulverising for millions of years? There was a time when the whole face of the earth was a vast body of rock and water, and, my friends, it was not nearly as large as it is at present, besides it had not on its whole surface so much as a particle of moss, and not a living thing within its waters for they were at the boiling point and could not sustain life. Life came later when they were cool enough; and moss could not grow upon the rocks because they were too hot, it could not form until they cooled a little, and at that time, my friends, the earth had not a spiritual sphere about it. The moon has no spiritual sphere at present, that is in store for it. But as soon as the germs of life could develop, the spiritual spheres began to form, yet this period is so remotely in the past that finite man can scarcely conceive of it, or infinite man with his present limitations; moreover, all planets which are nearest the sun are heavier and smaller than those farther away; those far on beyond the earth are larger and lighter even than the earth. These facts alone ought to be proof
enough of the truth of my assertion.

Jupiter weighs far less than the earth according to its bulk, being a more perfect world and not a mass of fire as some may think. They are simply mistaken, that is all, and reason from wrong premises. A world cannot be made from fire, for fire is combustion, it destroys and scatters instead of coalescing and condensing.

No world is made of fire. Fire is simply an effect. Something is being consumed by the action, or driven apart, or changed into an elementary state; consequently one can see at a glance that the solid, compact earth cannot be made of fire, or fire-mist, but by the attraction and coalescing of atoms, which contain all the principles of earthly matter.

But, even at this, the earth is a secondary world, being a child of the sun, or a ring cast off from the sun, but the sun was first formed in the way above mentioned. Of course I cannot enter into a very long dissertation in this short letter, hut Professor Franz Petersilea has written it all out in his books. Oceanides, one of his books, will tell you all about it in the most charming way possible. It only costs fifty cents. Get it and read it. It will also show you what a woman once suffered from the intemperance of her husband, and the abuse he heaped upon her. Get it, 0, ye women who are supinely suffering under such horrors, as thousands of you are at the present day, although this happened many years ago.

But you, egotistical men. I warn you not to read it.

Ye dames who are happy and have good husbands, or even passable ones, you need not get it. It is not meant or written for you. But you, my poor, suffering sisters, tied to drunkenness and debauchery, squeeze out fifty cents and go buy it. It will do you good. It will show you the spirit world as it is—it will show you the happiness and joy that is yet in store for you. You can get it from the office of The Progressive Thinker, and every book purchased may the blessings of the angel world rest upon the purchaser. Read it and they will—be sure of that. The angels wrote it or caused it to be written, for a comfort and blessing to you, and they will comfort and bless all who read it if they read it in the right spirit, for in the spirit of love was it written. The one through whom it was written would give it without money and without price, but it has cost him a number of hundreds of dollars,which he earned in other ways, and he can illy afford to lose them, for it costs money to live in the material world; but this book was not written for the purpose of making money out of mediumship. He only desires to, receive back that which the book cost him in actual cash, for, owing to the prejudice of the world against Spiritualism, he cannot earn the money he once could. But I am diverging from my subject, which I will continue in my next letter.

Yours Truly, MADAM

Nothing is lost—nothing can be lost—but it has gone somewhere, it is going somewhere every day

Nothing is lost—nothing can be lost—but it has gone somewhere, it is going somewhere every day.

Madam —

The Thought Body

A Series of Letters from the Spirit of a Well-known Lady  

Letter Number Twelve

In my last letter I wrote of the sublimated material spiritual body, of the thought body, of the astral body, and the ego or soul; and fearing that I may be misunderstood, let me here say that on earth a man has a body of bones, a body of flesh, a body of nerves, a body of veins and arteries, and a body of skin, or the epidermis, and these various bodies go to make up his material form; but within that material form is a sensational or spiritual body, a thought body, an astral body, and the ego, or soul, yet all these are apparently within one body, for only one form is visible to the sight. So in spirit life, there is but one form apparent, yet this form is composed of spiritualised material substance—or like the epidermis—a fine spirit body, a thought body, and an astral body, together with the soul.

Therefore one can see that as Lady — and I grew wiser in spiritual knowledge we began to take on the more dense, sublimated material, spiritual body; consequently, each time we visited the spheres, it became more and more difficult for us to return to earth in our sublimated material forms, and at last we left the house in Russia altogether, for the spirit realm was so entrancingly beautiful, its homes so exquisite and refined, that earth and its scenes became more and more distasteful to us, almost disgustingly coarse, and really much of it quite so, and at last if we returned at all it must be in our attenuated spirit bodies, leaving our more dense bodies at rest in the spiritual realm. Besides, it now must be for a purpose, or some strong magnetic attraction must draw us, such as a powerful love of some kind, or that we have some especial mission or duty to perform, or we could join a band of spirits or angels for the same purpose, in that way becoming stronger and more powerful for the performance of good works. Our sensitive says we flit back and forth like birds. But when we are engaged in writing a message we remain for an hour or more as the occasion requires.

Now I am here at this moment because I have a mission and duty to perform for those who are still in the material body, being one of the spirits or angels commissioned to give truth to the world below our own.

There is one idea that is at present being given forth to the world as a great scientific fact, while in reality it is scientific nonsense; and that is, that the minutest atom of matter is possessed of a certain amount of intelligent spirit.

0, what balderdash! Matter is matter, and spirit is spirit, and soul is soul. Spirit and soul clothe themselves with matter, and only the spirit and soul are intelligent. Matter possesses no intelligence of any kind, and speaking closer to the point, nothing possesses intelligence but the soul. The spirit is simply the soul's vehicle and matter its clothing. Does clothing or a dress possess intelligence? Bah! Can learned nonsense go farther into ridiculousness? One would think that there existed no air, no ether, nothing but matter—matter! and that all life first existed within matter, and spirit, intelligence, and soul was evolved from matter, whereas it is exactly the contrary.

Life—intelligence—soul—exists first within the air—the ether. It picks up matter as a rag to cover it, that it may dwell within materiality for a season until it is grown or developed. And this applies to the smallest thing that has life. It is life itself, and it is surprising that Spiritualists, of all others, should accept such nonsense. When the air and earth, or matter, kiss each other, then there is a marriage, and then life and intelligence enter earth, or matter, and only then. Take away the germs of life that exist within the air or the ether and matter would remain forever sterile. Take some earth, for instance, destroy all the germs that it might possibly contain—but here I wish to add, they are not destroyed, merely driven out or back into the ether—then seal up this matter so that not a particle of air or ether can touch it, and it would remain forever without life or intelligence.

Spiritualists, I, Madam, caution you – Do not drift into such materialistic nonsense. Return, my beloved, into true spiritual Spiritualism. It would be far better and even nearer the truth, if you were to believe as you formerly did, that God in person breathed the breath of life into man. But Professor Petersilea has already informed you—as I read in the mind of the medium—that all spiritual, or soul germs, are inhaled, or enter matter through the breathing process; or by the flower attracting and holding the germs of its own kind or species, which afterward bear seed, and seed is merely a living germ embedded deeply in matter, and the germs are all and wholly within the air or ether; it is simply the process by which germ life and matter meet and blend, or the spiritual intelligence buries or clothes itself, and in my last letter I told you of the emanations arising from the earth, which is merely the developed life and intelligence arising again into the air or ether. It really seems to me now, that such a great truth cannot but strike home to every reasoning mind. Besides, no earth whatever has life upon it of any kind that has not an atmosphere. You say the moon has no life upon it because it has no atmosphere; and you are right. Life does not reside within the bulk of its matter, or material substance, but if it had an atmosphere life would soon find lodgment there; be sure of that.

Now, someone says – But it is surrounded by ether. Very true; but ether must convey life to matter through the atmospheric principle, through that principle by which life must be sustained and exist within matter. Even in the spiritual realm we have a refined and rare atmosphere entirely distinct from ether.

If you, as Spiritualists, drift back into materiality our fifty years of labour will be lost to you. Science never yet gave you the great truths of Spiritualism. Science might delve a thousand years—aye, even more—and not be any nearer the truth. Fact is, it is just as likely to burrow downward—even more likely—than to rise upward into the heavens of spirituality. It is like a blind mole digging away at matter without a ray of light to illumine its pathway, with the mind forever looking downward instead of upward, and it is folly to say that life commences and originates within a cell of matter, and the two cells meeting, and so forth. It does not. I, Madam , a spirit, tell you so and I tell you the truth, whether you accept it or not.

Sperm is formed in the blood, or takes on its first material clothing in the blood, and the invisible spermatozoas or germs are in the air and ether, and are taken in with the breath, clothed with matter in the blood, are then injected into an egg or ovum, which is simply food and clothing for it to develop in. Now when science begins here it will come out all right and very little burrowing will have to be done, for it will be working in the light of a great spiritual truth, and a truth that science never did nor never will give you without this light. They tell you that fish can be produced without milt, by certain chemicals, but they cannot keep fish alive, or the eggs of fish, without water; and as milt is invisible in the water, or we may call it spermatozoa, can any one say that it may not be in the water instead of in the chemicals? Whatever they may try to prove to the contrary, old Mother Nature will work her mill—the mill of life—just as she does at present, ten thousand years from now, the great new discovery of creating life to the contrary.

Most people are afraid to write against a great, scientific discovery, as they term it, but I, a spirit, am not afraid to write against it, for it is not true, and it is one of my duties as a spirit messenger to write against that which is not true and to write that which I know to be true.

Then one hears so much about differentiation, whatever that may mean, but the way it is put it is perfectly meaningless. A million or more, or many millions of entirely different forms of life all being produced from the word differentiation. Can unmeaningness go any farther? Or two cells starting exactly alike differentiating into a number of millions of different forms. 0, consistency, what a jewel thou art! But here is the truth; accept it or not, as you please.

The germs of all things that exist in nature, exist in the atmosphere, each distinct as to its kind and species, and they have existed from all eternity and were different, from the beginning. Yet we as spirits cannot conceive of a beginning. Germinal life is co-existent with spirit and matter. 

Yours truly, MADAM

Germinal life is co-existent with spirit and matter

The germs of all things that exist in nature, exist in the atmosphere, each distinct as to its kind and species, and they have existed from all eternity and were different, from the beginning. Yet we as spirits cannot conceive of a beginning. Germinal life is co-existent with spirit and matter. 

Madam —

The Startling Truth

A Series of Letters from the Spirit of a Well-known Lady  

Letter Number Eleven

I am about to write something in this letter that may not meet the views of most Spiritualists, and I doubt very much if any will believe me. Nevertheless, I shall write nothing but the truth.

Any truth when first given to those of earth from the spheres is met in an antagonistic spirit, but if we ceased to give of our knowledge to the earthly world on that account no progress would be made there.

The startling truth I have to give is this — 

No spiritual being ever yet returned to earth in its real, tangible, spiritual body. I mean its sublimated material body—the body that it at length takes on after being here quite a length of time. Do not start at this assertion and say that I am a falsifier, or that I contradict myself, as I have already told you that Lady — and I went back to earth and dwelt in a sequestered home in Russia. But Lady — and I had not yet taken on our sublimated material spiritual bodies; we were yet simply spirits without density and were not yet grown or covered by tangible bodies. That was still in store for us. To the spirits in the spheres we yet appeared pale, fluttering, weak and vapourish; fluctuating, undecided, for we as new-born spirits were in this condition. A spirit appears precisely like what it is. No one on earth expects a new-born babe to be like a large, solid man or woman; it is small, soft and tender. I do not mean that our bodies were small, they were exact counterparts of what our earthly bodies had been, minus decrepitude and age, but they were not yet firm, condensed and beautiful as they were at length destined to be.

And now you ask me – What kind of a spirit body is it, then, that returns to earth? and I reply – A soul can clothe itself in various bodies, or rather it has various bodies. It has a thought body, an astral body, a spiritual, vapourish body, and a sublimated material spiritual body; and it is this last body that never returns to earth. While you are on earth in the fleshly form you have all these bodies, but are not yet conscious of them; still, the world is getting there very fast. You talk of telepathy. Well, that is the action of the thought body. You talk of etherealisation. Well, that is the astral body—when it is genuine. You talk of an intangible, impalpable spiritual presence. Well, that is the thin, vapourish body, and this sometimes takes on from those sitting in a circle a materialised body—and it is just here that I shall prove to you the truth of what I say.

If an impalpable spiritual body can for a short time clothe itself with material substance on earth, can it not form and wear a body within the spheres, of sublimated material substance?

Whatever you may think, such is the fact. But this body cannot, and does not return to earth. It must
remain, necessarily, beyond the attraction of gravitation, else it would be injured; for it is dense enough to receive injury were it to strike the hard, revolving earth.

My friends, the thought body returns, the astral body returns, and the vapourish spiritual body returns; but not the real, sublimated material spiritual body. The soul desires to return to earth. It leaves its dense body here in the spheres and goes forth clothed in its thought, astral and vapourish bodies, or rather it is covered by these bodies. The astral corresponds to the ether, the vapourish to the vapour, and the thought body to the thought, while the exquisite, sublimated material spiritual body is at rest here like one of earth who is sleeping. For instance – I, Madam, am here with this sensitive now, controlling to write; but, before coming here for that purpose, I said in my mind or with my thought body – I am now going down to earth to write a message to the people, consequently I went and laid myself down, as one does who goes to sleep on earth, and my sublimated material body is asleep, or unconscious, while I am doing this. I sent forth my thought, it took with it my astral body and my vapourish, spiritual body, but the other body it must leave behind, then when I return I shall awake, or, rather, my various bodies will once more be joined together and I shall arise and go about my business in the spheres.

I hope I have made this clear to the most obtuse mind. I have tried to at least.

Now if earthly emanations condense here in the spheres, as they certainly do, and we have animals, vegetation, water, land and homes, you must see that our bodies must correspond, and that if we could take these bodies with us to earth, of course we could take—as those of earth do when they journey—many other things besides. So by this you perceive that I have told you a great truth. How glad I am that so great and good a man as the Rev. Heber Newton has told his people, that in the heavenly world there are homes and employments similar to those of earth, for he has voiced a great, grand, eternal truth.

Yes, friends, we have all these things here in the spheres. If we only understood the Christians better, and they understood us better, we should scarcely disagree in anything. Professor Franz Petersilea tried to tell you of some of these halls, homes, institutions of learning, and so forth, and his heart is grieved and sore because he has been met by many in such a spirit of intolerance, the same spirit that you Spiritualists accuse the Christians of. We advise to pluck the beam from your own eyes before looking for the mote in your brother's eyes.

Those great and good men, Rev. Heber Newton, and Rev. Minot Savage, are more tolerant, by far, than the most so-called Spiritualists. It seems that most Spiritualists cannot and will not accept any truth beyond that which they think they already know, yet they are continually talking of progression. If they will not accept any new truth which may be given, where is the progress, pray? Now there is just one point more that I wish to touch upon, and it is this – Franz Petersilea tried to tell how we build our homes in the spheres, and immediately there arose the cry – Insane spirits! for it is nothing but insanity for a spirit to build his home within his mind and then reside within it as the insane of earth imagine they have what they have not.

If anything can be more material and obtuse than that, I should like to know it. And yet these same people will tell you of shining spiritual cities, and houses not made with hands, eternal and in the heavens. O consistency, thou art a jewel when found!

How do these intolerant, fault-finding ones think our houses and. cities are built? Do they suppose they are built of brick, stone and mortar, or wood—that the workmen use plane, saw and trowel, ladders and derricks, together with all the paraphernalia that is made use of on earth? Do they think we burn brick, mix lime and cement, cut down trees, have planing and saw mills, make shingles, and so forth? If they do, then I reply, We do not.

How, then, do they build these homes and shining cities? They build them within the mind. Thoughts are things and go forth from the mind, and from the desire of the mind, or, rather, the force or will-power exercised they are clothed with sublimated material and become real. Do you call a man of earth insane because he first builds his house in his mind and then clothes it with brick, stone, and mortar or wood, glass, and so forth? But the house must be planned, or built in the mind first, or there can be no house. Throw brick, lime and mortar together promiscuously, and see if it will build itself. No, friends; all things, except natural things, must first exist in the mind or thought, to be clothed upon by material or spiritual substance, as the case may be. It is only an obtuse and intolerant spirit that can think or talk otherwise.

Rev. Heber Newton also referred to the employments of heaven, saying that they were similar to those of earth; and a greater truth was never uttered, for they are, indeed. There is not a trade, art or employment of earth that we do not have here, with this difference – we do not work with the hands, but with the mind, the thought, the spirit, and these thoughts take on tangible shape and are clothed with sublimated or spiritual substance, and you of earth must perceive this great truth.

How can we cut down a spiritual tree, or kill a spiritual animal, or burn brick and so forth? Spiritual life of any kind cannot be taken. If it could, the life of a spiritual man could be taken. Nothing can rob an Ego of its life. It may be robbed of material substance, but not of its identity or life. Life is life forever and aye!

Now the more perfect and beautiful our thoughts the more beautiful our houses or homes; the more perfect we are, the more perfect our surroundings; and thus it is. How sublime, beautiful and true – A house not made with hands, eternal and in the heavens.

No; our houses are not made with hands and they are eternal and in the heavens. Also – In my father's house are many mansions. There are mansions, very many mansions in the heavens, or, as you now call it—the Spiritual Spheres—which is all one and the same thing. The heavens are the spheres. A rose is a rose call it by whatever name one will. Heavens or spheres. Call them by which ever name one may choose.

A few words more and I am done with this letter. If the sound of a voice, or any other sound, goes on forever in the ether, how about the life or spirit of anything whatever? Will the bark of a dog go on forever in the ether, and the spirit that causes the dog to bark become extinct? Will the neigh of a horse go on forever, and the spirit, or living principle of the horse, become extinct? Think more deeply, oh, ye sapient sages, or a woman will outwit you, and that will never do, at least you think she never can. But I have to tell you that the coarser atmosphere of earth does not carry the sound of your voice beyond its own atmosphere, the finer ether holds the sound and carries it onward forever – I will not call it vibration, for people get terribly mixed on that word, but you may call it that or anything else you please.

So the finer ether holds the life, or spirit, of all things and carries it onward forever and forever. Spirits of animals seldom or never return to earth. Not having as much intelligence or mind as man, they do not wish, will or desire, consequently do not often return, but, sometimes do. A dog very much attached to his master may remain near him for a long time after leaving the material body, so may a horse, and occasionally some other pet animal or bird, but these are merely exceptions to the rule. Ethereal sounds are not heard by mortal ears, but the ethereal, or spiritual ear hears all the sounds that the ethereal air, or ether, brings to it. The mortal sight cannot see the spheres or the angels, it can only see what is within the dense earthly atmosphere, but the ethereal, or spiritual eye can see all things that exist within the ether. It is simply a difference of atmospheres, that is all. One is dense, almost opaque; the other sparkling and bright.

Yours truly,

MADAM