Is the spirit-world something or nothing?

My first proposition is this―

The spirit world is something―or it is nothing. 

There is a spirit world―or 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. 

Anything―everything―can 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 growth―or 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 shrubs―even to the tiny mosses and lichens.

All things separate―each 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 upward―nor does it pause until it strikes the spirit-land. 

The animal has a certain amount of intelligence and finds its place according to its attractions―a 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 songs―they 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.

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

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 — 

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. 

Oceanides – A psychical novel, Carlyle Petersilea, Progressive Thinker Publishing House, Chicago, 1915

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 —

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 —

There are mansions, very many mansions in the heavens

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. 

Madam —

Nothing can rob an Ego of its life

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!

Madam —

Can a spiritual being travel more rapidly than light?

Is it possible for spiritual beings to visit such remote, far-away zones as the so-called Milky Way, or stars so far distant that it takes such a long period of time for their light to reach us here? Can a spiritual being travel more rapidly than light?

A spiritual being cannot travel to these far distant spheres. A spiritual body cannot travel faster than light—but within this body is another body, which for want of a better name we shall call the thought body.

Some may think that we here mean the soul, but we do not, for within this thought body dwells the soul. A person on earth, who has not yet laid aside the material body, has a material body, a spiritual body, a thought body, and a soul. The soul is the immortal living principle that has neither beginning nor end, and it clothes itself with these various bodies or substances—the material body, the spiritual body, the thought body—and it expresses itself through these various forms.

The material body cannot leave the material earth, and yet the thought body can transfer itself instantaneously to any part of the globe, as well as to the far-away regions in space. The spiritual body, after leaving the material body, cannot leave the spiritual spheres, but the thought body can go, in a comparatively short time, to any sphere or zone that it is possible to cognise; but when the spirit is freed from the earthly body its powers are increased an hundred fold, and its perceptions and sight become clear and lucid.

If, while in the material body one can weigh and measure the stars and compute their distance, understand them somewhat, and see their light, what may not the soul and thought body be capable of? But we have the power here of freeing ourselves of the spiritual body for quite lengthy periods of time. One might say the spiritual body goes to sleep, or becomes unconscious, while the soul and thought body fly away to other zones.

And this is what we meant when, in a former letter we stated that men of earth travelled from one city to another, from one country to another, and occasionally around the globe; while we, here, travel from one sphere to another, from one planet to another, and occasionally took a turn through the milky way, as we really do; still, we can visit all the planets in our sublimated spiritual body, that is, all belonging to the system of which your earth is one.

After we have taken these delightful journeys we return home, so to speak, enlarged and refreshed, having added to our store of knowledge.

Don't call other men sinners until you cleanse your own soul

Don't call other men sinners until you cleanse your own soul.

There is no such thing as void or nothing

Matter, spirit and germinal points fill all space and all space is ether.

The spiritual world, together with all its spheres, is a vast deal more tangible than the coarser earth

The spiritual world, together with all its spheres, is a vast deal more tangible than the coarser earth.

All souls are united in oneness to their eternal counterparts

All souls are united in oneness to their eternal counterparts.

This general law holds good throughout eternity

An individual holds his individuality throughout eternity, so do nations and races.

The natural law of attraction and adaptability holds nations and tribes together. The Chinese are Chinese still. The Hindoos are Hindoos still. The African is African still, and so on and we are told, by those very far above us in wisdom, that this law holds good throughout eternity. 

Herr Franz (Spirit)

All things translate to spiritual life

It is not we alone who are translated to spiritual life but all the things which surround us on earth.

Spirit nor Soul can ever be evoluted from Matter

Spirit nor Soul can ever be evoluted from Matter. Spirit is Spirit forever. Soul is Soul forever. Matter is matter forever. A thing cannot be evolved from that which does not possess it.

Mr Darwin has told you that races of men, also different species of animals, do not run into each other, and I will here state the reason why they do not. All nations are graded and exist as nations—distinct nations in the germinal state—in the soul-germinal state—and when a nation has reached the development which nature designed for it, it disappears, or dies out; and so on of all species of animal, insect and reptile life—so of all vegetable and floral life. When the earth has no further need of horses they will cease to exist or die out, and so of all other animals; and, as the ages roll on, man himself will also disappear from the earth; but, all these things, together with man, will be simply moved onward and upward into a higher state and condition.

Herr Franz (Spirit)

We degrade our nature if we do not admit a mistake

Remember that when we make a mistake – as we are all liable to do – we degrade our nature if we do not admit it – if we do not make amends and try to retrieve our error.

Thoughts are really things and very tangible ones too

Thoughts are really things and very tangible ones too.

Thoughts are things that can be seen

Thoughts are things that can be seen and enjoyed by all spiritual beings.

Now this is a great truth that many overlook

If angels here simply thought only of their own progress and happiness, never looking back to aid the ones left behind, they would not be worthy of all wisdom or happiness, and consequently would be neither wise nor happy. 

Spirits and angels must work, and work continually, for there are millions of spirits here, low, ignorant, debased and degraded. These must be taught as well as the people of earth. No time for idleness here—no time for selfish enjoyment alone. We must give of our knowledge and happiness almost as fast as we receive it.

Herr Franz (Spirit)