The Psychic Sleep
So He giveth His beloved sleep.
Goddard Beauties, Comet Siding Spring seen next to Mars | National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Centre (GSFC) | NASA, ESA, PSI, JHU/APL, STScI/AURA
And now the psyche* sleeps for a while, for a few hours, days or years. This sleep is not that of unconsciousness—we call it so because it resembles your sleep greatly in this—that the sleeper is unconscious of his actual surroundings, while he moves and lives in fancy in other times and states. The length and character of this sleep depend entirely on the state of the man when he passed over—depend on what he was in his earthly life.
*Google define—the psyche as the human soul, mind, or spirit.
Goddard Beauties, Hubble helps find the smallest known galaxy containing a supermassive black hole | National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Centre (GSFC)
What are the soul experiences during this sleep, and what are the appearance and actions of the sleeper as viewed by us?
His experiences are as manifold, as different the one from the other as he differs in himself, for no two souls are alike, and no two can have exactly the same experience—diversity in unity is the law of our nature.
Diversity in unity is the law of our nature.
To some, there is a reliving of the past life, a taking up of broken threads, and a weaving of them together in a more finished manner—perhaps the failings are now first seen in their true light; the clouds of self-deception caused by self-love, wilful transgression, etc., fade away, and a soul can look back upon his past life with a clear and true vision, and when the soul thus truly sees and knows good and evil, it can but choose the good and refuse the evil. Others imagine that they continue their life, and starting with all the old habits and prejudices they gradually drop the evil and are strengthened in the good.
Goddard Beauties, Hubble paints a spattering of blue | National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Centre (GSFC) | ESA / Hubble, NASA, D. Calzetti (UMass) and the LEGUS Team
Paul said We shall not all sleep and there is much truth in this, for to some it is of such a brief duration that it may be more truly called a change, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.
We now ask—
What is the aspect in which we regard these sleepers, and what is their connection with us?
We look upon them much as you do on very young children—we care for them and guard them in much the same way. There is no sense of unfitness in their ignorance, and we can feel neither surprise when they awake quickly, nor impatience if the state is prolonged, for it is simply that their new powers are not yet adjusted to their new environment. They are not purposely deceived as to their state, but even if we should wish to tell them where and what they were, it would be as incomprehensible to them as deep philosophy to a young child. Then they need food—food which is the counterpart of
yours and they need employment in such ways as most resemble the old duties. In these and other ways, their past life is gently and gradually withdrawn from the prominent place in their mental horizon which it formerly filled, and the new rises, like a new day, upon their clearer vision. In different ways, the call comes to them to awake out of their sleep, arise from the earthly, and walk in the newness of life.
Will you always bear in mind that when we say—such and such things occur, or in this way the soul develops—we do not lay down any hard and fast law as to manner or sequence of development; rather we give you what is most general in our circle and in our experience. But as one flower unfolds and expands differently from another, so is it with the soul.
Goddard Beauties, Hubble shows the Milky Way is destined for a head-on collision | National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Centre (GSFC) | NASA / ESA / Z. Levay and R. van der Marel, STScI; T. Hallas and A. Mellinger
The following history was received at an earlier period and has been inserted here that it may serve as an illustration of the Psyche's experience after the passing—
When I first awoke, I thought I was a girl again, and that the latter part of my earthly life had not yet been lived, but that my memory of it was only a dream, an imagination. Then, in a kind of vision (but I thought it a reality), I continued my life from my girlhood, and in the hour of great temptation—remembering my supposed dream—I withstood. Again the scene changed, and again I took up the thread of life at the same part as before. This time I yielded to temptation, but instead of keeping the birth of my child secret, I brought him up as my own and trained him as well as I could. One day I awoke to the consciousness that I had died, and oh! the rest and peace were great. After some time, I met my sister and began my real life here, but it has been much easier for that vision of life that I had at the first.
I will try to make our life a little clearer for you.
In your world, the will can only produce things when joined to power of some sort. With us, the will can and does create our surroundings.
I mean by this that what we earnestly desire is in a moment evolved and completed, provided that our will is in harmony with the over-will of the Divine. If I will a home, that home stands immediately complete before me. When I met my sister it had been her wish to live alone.
Her life, therefore, was not so complete as it might have been. For my sake, however, she gave up her wanderings, and at a wish our home was ready, and we have dwelt there ever since.
Our life and our home closely resemble the lives and homes of earth, and this resemblance they will keep for some time, but as progress is the law for everyone, and as in their turn these new bodies of ours will seem gross and earthly, so we must cast them off and pass into higher spheres.
Goddard Beauties, Hubble's panoramic view of a turbulent star-making region | National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Centre (GSFC) | NASA / ESA, D. Lennon and E. Sabbi (ESA/STScI), J. Anderson, S. E. de Mink, R. van der Marel, T. Sohn, and N. Walborn (STScI), N. Bastian (Excellence Cluster, Munich), L. Bedin (INAF, Padua), E. Bressert (ESO), P. Crowther (University of Sheffield), A. de Koter (University of Amsterdam), C. Evans (UKATC/STFC, Edinburgh), A. Herrero (IAC, Tenerife), N. Langer (AifA, Bonn), I. Platais (JHU), and H. Sana (University of Amsterdam)
But even here we are far in advance of you. If we really desire to know anything we know it without mistake. If we really desire to do anything for another, we see clearly what to do, and can do it. Only the will is needed, then there is no limit unless it would be hurtful to anyone.
If we need what we had not got for anyone, a wish would produce it, just as the Master could produce the loaves when he had a strong feeling of pity for the poor hungry souls around him.
Goddard Beauties, Hubble spies a UFO | National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Centre (GSFC) | ESA/Hubble & NASA
Our life is portioned out into what answers to your mental and manual employments. We have the outward, and we have the inward; we work and we play; we talk and we think; we meet those that we love, and are parted from them again; we make new friends, and we love more and more the old ones. There is no mistake and no failure, as I say, except our own will fails. In that case, sorrow and repentance have to follow—we try again, and walk on a plain path in which there is no need to stumble.
Since I have been in this new home I have known what peace, love, and joy really are—all three unbroken, and increasing every day.