How to explain the spiritual world?

Diversity is the mark of labour connected with spirit—

The occupations of spirits vary according to their tastes, capabilities and choice. All are accessible to an equality—no one having the preference. This gives variety and variety gives individuality under the law of diversity, each one choosing for himself.

The more one studies Nature, the better prepared he is in spirit to investigate natural phenomena connected with not only this, but all other worlds.

Science bids the mind investigate and the same privilege lies before the spirit as these worlds bid it welcome to their shores of investigation.

This calls minds of superior desires into action, conscious at every step that they are beholding the works of the great I Am. This class may be termed astronomical investigators of worlds too numerous to mention. This comprises many of the spirit world's best and most intelligent minds.

Instructive Communications from Spirit Life

Do women have the same rights as men?

If women had had any part in framing your laws, do you think that there would not have been more equality of justice administered? I am sure there would.

—Mary Magdalene in Spirit

What does the Bible say about the living dead?

It is as the Living Dead Man said—

We generate our own light here, and so it is always just as bright as we are within [Letters from a Living Dead Man], which naturally varies with each individual, but when several spirit lives unite they make any room gay.

The so-called dead are in reality no more holy than they were before they died.

When anyone on this plane has the gift of being an able transmitter—or a true medium of communication between the two worlds of earth and spirit, they are by that quality a target—or focus for all those who live upon the earth on human magnetism.

Those vampires, for such they become if allowed have the power to draw off all the surplus vitality of one on this plane until that one has no reserve left with which to combat disease should he fall a victim to that.

Worse, these harpies from the spirit side have neither judgment, nor mercy, and they often take not only their victim's surplus, but what he needs to live upon from day to day, reducing him to a physical as well as a mental wreck.

The Living Dead Man's book speaks of a churchly conventional heaven.

Maybe it does exist, but we have not seen it and we have consoled many who were hunting it.

The Living Dead Man was old and wise before he came over here, so he had a right to travel more than we.

His book has made a deep impression on us here.

—Letters from Harry and Helen

What are Spirit names?

Here it is always a matter of personal identity, and not family identity.

There is at least one fixed order of names here, and that is with the names that are of purely spirit world origin—names that are formed or built up in accordance with rules. Each one has a distinct meaning and belongs to no earthly language. Names of that kind are after they have been earned and are only to be obtained through beings of the highest realms.

What is the concept of self reliance?

When you realise what the self is, its power and possibilities, you see that by cultivating the strength of the self, that quality which we know as self-reliance, we do more for ourselves than in any other way.

—Ione in Spirit

What is the creative power of the mind?

Man creates himself—or call it evolution if you like, the word is nothing, and the instrument he uses in creating himself is the mind, for the mind's action, which is thought is the dominant force of his life and he creates himself and his conditions by the quality of his thought.

—Ione in Spirit

Do we have a choice to be happy or not?

Do you know you cannot even conceive of a quality that you do not possess in some degree within yourself, and it rests with you whether you attract to yourself happiness or trouble, ease or disease. Many people go out of their way to look for trouble, and if that is the vibration of light to which they adjust themselves, they can have all they want of it, for it is very easy to find.

—Ione in Spirit

How does magnetism affect your life?

Magnetism increases the life force and there cannot be an enduring physical or mental power unless the magnetism is strong. If you wish to increase your power, purify your quality of life and cultivate your magnetic power—you must think constructively and spiritually, and so raise your vibrations.

—Ione in Spirit

How do we know we are spiritual beings?

We are not creatures of circumstance—our quality is the result of our desires—we are creatures of experience, which responds to our desires, and our own desire is the magnet, which attracts to us what we actually require for our development.

What does God say about choosing a path?

Everyone has to choose a path to follow, so why not a pleasant and instructive one rather than a dim and shady one where God's sweet, pure sunshine cannot enter without dimming its beauty among the unclean things which are ever to be found in such places. This all means that pure thought is of sunlight quality, while evil thought is of a sodden darkness, therefore let the motto be Ever to the Light for now and evermore. Amen!

— Clifford in Spirit

What is equality of power?

The gain of one man through the labour of others establishes a thought power incompatible with the true idea of national equality.

What does it mean to be created in image?

God made man in His image. He made him to be His own companion. God would not want a companion who was unlike Himself, and since He is Omnipotent, Omnipresent and Omniscient, He fills man with his own power and presence and wisdom, always provided that the individual chooses God and says— 

I have my one God-given eternal possession, my Godlike quality of free will—I lay it down voluntarily to do the perfect will of God.

When a man does that, he rises into a far greater degree of Godlikeness or becomes far more fit to be God's companion himself, thus fulfilling his own destiny.

—William James in Spirit

Can we really love our enemies?

Love is higher than knowledge and is the key to all things. Love on our own plane is feeling our brothers' needs. We must first love those we see before we love God whom we have not seen.

Can we ever really love an enemy as one's self?

The quality can be the same—to love your enemy means to be willing to serve him, not to take him into your life, for that is impossible.

—Insight in Spirit

What is the mind body and soul explanation?

I now want to give you a short lesson on mind, body and soul. The mind is like a camera. It photographs the thoughts reflected from the other bodies, and especially those of speech. There are two lenses, which are in the centre of the mind-body, and every word uttered reflects and is imprinted. Now this is a very bad speech to make—I have changed my mind because those words reflect upon the lenses—they cause a confusion and the mind-body has to proceed to change its lenses. This disturbs the working order.

What does 1 Corinthians 8:2 mean?

The man of knowledge speaks little, for the more he knows the less he thinks he knows, which is right.

Why we should use words carefully?

Some people say I was tickled to death. What effect will that produce?

The reason they say that is because it is a lens reflection of a past incarnation. Spoken often, repeated as a form of speech and with each utterance is more plainly imprinted upon the brain. Oh, I was just tickled to death! 

Come to the realisation that words are things to be guarded and spoken only after careful thought, for every word counts to make up the vibration surrounding the aura. Then the phrase I almost died is another bad impression to put into words. Every expression makes it more plain and gives it more power. Its reflection upon the mental sometimes causes a great confusion, often a terrible sickness. Yet we do not trace to that source the trouble which sometimes comes upon us. The phrase I nearly dropped dead is another of the same dangerous class and causes heart failure for the mind controls the heart. The word guess is bad also. It has a decided lack of determination. One must be positive and say I do not have that idea or It is not the most favourable, something similar, but more positive.

Does everyone have an astral body?

Astral bodies are coloured. There are seven important ones—The intelligence body, which is pink. The mind body, which is blue. The sight body, which is yellow. The bodies of the senses, which are green. The vibrating body, which is purple. The protecting body, which is orange. 

These bodies are necessary. 

The intelligence body is in the mind body. 

The sight body reflects upon the outer aura, seeing all things.

The bodies of the senses are within the intelligence body. 

The mind body is the body of the soul. 

The intelligence body is the servant and must be kept beneath the mind body. 

The senses are ruled by the intelligence body, which receives its stamina from the mind. 

The sight body is a helper of the mind, physically and spiritually. 

The essentials of the bodies are—

Understanding—Correcting of the mind—Faith—Courage—Soul force and Spiritual endurance. 

The Message—Lord Kitchener Lives

What is the greatest secret of success?

Study and patience—the secret of success is just that. To accomplish we must have that quality.

What is the root cause of selfishness?

The suppression of selfishness, which is the one great vice of the present age, and to which all other evils are more or less traceable is the first step towards the cultivation of the love element. It is the one thing Christ came into the world to teach and it is the one lesson that needs still to be learned.

What are the characteristics of the human spirit?

It is not your brainpower that stamps you as a spirit, but your character—

In other words, the quality of your soul, whether good or evil is the cultivation of the love element in the soul which requires knowledge as a foundation, for love is only another form of knowledge. We love that which is true and good and pure and surely that implies a knowledge or appreciation of the objects of our love. We may love that which is base but that implies an ignorance of truth.

How does the soul relate to the spirit?

To neglect our body is to impoverish our spirit. 

The spirit body partakes both of the mental and bodily food which we imbibe and it follows that if there is a spiritual counterpart to the physical body, there must be a spiritual counterpart to the food which we eat, and this latter enters the spirit body in the same way that the physical body is fed by the material food. We can imagine that this proves that we are wrong in saying the spirit body is fed by the mind and not by the material body. There is this difference—that whereas the material food we take into our bodies is needed to replace waste of the physical structure, the spiritual counterpart of the body imbibes the food for the purpose of preventing the waste of spiritual matter. Our spiritual body would waste away just as our material body would if we did not replace the waste by the food which the physical organism absorbs and of which the spiritual body receives its counterpart. Thus we see the spiritual body is precisely analogous to the physical body, so long as the two are conjoined. It is only when they become separated by death that the former is able to live independently. 

What is the mind of a man?

The mind is the index to the man, not the body, and if his mind is pure and beautiful, so will the spirit be also, and yet he will not lose his personal identity in the next life since the growth of the spiritual body depends not only on the matter of which the earthly body is composed, but upon the mind also.

What does food for the soul mean spiritually?

When we say that the mind builds up the spirit body, we mean that the mind supplies the food which is required by the soul that dwells in the spirit body. The soul shows its state of development by the condition of the spirit body. The spirit body is at once fed through the material body and clothed by the soul. The soul's condition is seen by higher spirits and the spirit body by the lower or earthly ones. To the latter, the spirit body may appear to be fully developed—whilst to the higher ones, the spirit body may by reason of the soul's non-development appear to be half-starved.

How do you build your spiritual body?

Paupers and criminals have everything to gain by the change from one world to the other. They have nothing to lose and they leave nothing behind to regret—it would be a happy release for most to be free from the necessity of supplying the needs of the body had they not to supply the needs of the spirit instead. Most of them have never given a thought to their spiritual welfare whilst on earth and they have to begin at the bottom of the ladder. Having lost their own material bodies, they use the bodies of others still in the flesh and incite the latter to all kinds of drunkenness and excess, so that they may gratify their own base desires. In our life, the principal aim is to supply the wants of the physical body, which helps to build up the spirit body within. In the spirit world, the principal object is to develop the soul that dwells in the spirit body, for the latter is not the spiritual man any more than our bodies are such.

Did Jesus really walk this earth?

Tell A. I have never gone away, only gone farther in toward something bright which I do not yet understand. It is a good country. No Greek nor Latin here. I have seen no particular Jesus. I do see spiritual forms with wonderful brightness and halo. I see no God either, but I am sure a someone exists to carry us onward. We are not wise enough to make a good law, and somebody does this. I was told that Christs were sent into all earths so as to carry the trail of truth, else it would be buried under inharmonies. You have no idea of the trail of dust and clay and selfishness and pollution a man's mind can give, and I suppose it needs many Christs to keep the way open for light.