One remedy to offer

If you cannot find your true partner—and society insists that we should make one selection only and abide by it for life—PRAY FOR HELP and if s/he should be with you on earth, a road will be opened up by which you will, in all human probability, find the one who will be suited to make you happy in your present life. It may not be that s/he is your true partner. Such unions are very few and far between but a happy marriage may take place between those who are not perfectly mated. Where two persons are perfect affinities one for the other, so much the better but it very often happens that our true partner is in the spirit world. What then? Are you to remain single—no. There are thousands of men and women in the world who may be admirably adapted to make one another happy—much more so where the partners are not perfectly mated—than ninety-nine man-made marriages out of every hundred. Pray, then, for help and those who require it assuredly get it.

Tempting fortune in the marriage lottery

How can we doubt that a marriage tie, when disapproved of by the inner monitor whom the Creator has Himself placed in our breasts, must certainly be much less inviolable than many interested married people persist in pronouncing it to be?

Wealth is a curse to nine men out of ten

We go on through life building up habits that tend to impede our progress in the life to come. Thus, we may unconsciously cultivate feelings of pride and selfishness, which will have to be surmounted in the next life and we need hardly be reminded how exceedingly difficult it is to subdue feelings and change habits of thought that have been fed by a lifetime of indulgence. It is easier for a camel to enter the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven is an expression that illustrates this familiar truth most forcibly, for it is chiefly, if not altogether, through riches that one is encouraged to form these habits that are his curse in the afterlife. If a man is poor, he has very little outlet for his pride and selfishness. It is true he may form selfish habits and make himself disagreeable to all around him but they are much more independent of him than those who surround the rich are of them. Consequently, in the one case, the delinquent is snubbed and ostracised by his acquaintances; whilst the latter perceives no signs of disapproval. Hence, wealth is a curse to nine men out of ten and, unless a man has had a severe early training—such as will break him off all bad habits of this kind and make him proof against the temptations of wealth, he had better have had a millstone hung round his neck and be thrown into the sea than become the inheritor of a large fortune, if he values his happiness in the spirit world.

What we whisper at home

Could we but see behind the scenes and witness the feelings of those whom we think are far removed from the reach of our thoughts, we would be more careful, not only in what we publish abroad but what we whisper at home.

En Rapport with the Spirit World

All persons are more or less en rapport with the spirit world and their spirit friends know more of the thoughts that are directed against them than they do themselves. For instance, if anyone thinks ill of you, it immediately causes a ray of light to pass from them to you and your spirit friends can tell by the colour of that ray whether the thought is good or evil. This light is not visible to all spirits. It depends on their state of development. All spirits above the earth plane can thus see the thoughts of persons below them, whether in the body or out of the body. They are not affected by the condition of the atmosphere like an electric current, nor is there any necessity for wires as a means of conveying the thought. All thoughts are thus conveyed by a ray of light when persons think of one another. This is only in accordance with the law whereby spirits are able to interpret the thoughts of those who are in a lower plane of spiritual development than themselves. If spirits on their own level, embodied or disembodied, think of them, they are aware of it but thoughts not directed towards themselves, they cannot, in that case, interpret, excepting there be a strong tie of sympathy between them and the thinker. A person in the body may, of course, be spiritually on a higher plane than many disembodied spirits; in which case, the latter are unable to read his thoughts or enjoy his society, though they would, nevertheless, be able to overhear his conversation and spoken words. Hence, if we wish to avoid evil associates from the spirit world, we see how important it is to make spiritual progress and thereby attract higher spirit friends. Thus, as already explained, if a man enters the spirit world, he is at once aware what people think of him, though he is not aware what those same people are thinking of others and, consequently, he cannot find any consolation in the reflection that there are other people who are as ill-thought of as himself. Everyone he meets thinks badly of him because they know him to be a bad man by his personal appearance. His spiritual body and garments pronounce his true character and they think of him accordingly. If he could read the thoughts of his neighbours regarding others, it would take away the sting of their reproaches regarding himself, for the same reason that a man on earth, if abused by the public as an individual, feels it much more than if he were only abused as one of a number of other delinquents.

Will power is sufficient

It is difficult for us to understand how we can benefit another person by our thoughts—but it is so—and if we see a beggar in the street and feel kindly towards him, we do him more good spiritually than if we gave him money. This is because our thoughts are more powerful in the spirit world than our physical acts, that is, we cannot think intently of anybody without doing so in connection with the will. We feel that we would like to do them good or that we would like to see them punished and they are benefitted or injured more or less by it because the will is the great motive power in the spirit world and the means by which all matter and spirit are there controlled.

It is for this reason that persons with firm wills get on the best in the world because more spiritual force is exercised than physical force. Thus, the man who can best resist and is least sensitive to the injurious thoughts of others fights his way most easily to the front—in other words, it is the positive-minded men who get on in the world and make the most noise. If a great man does not have a firm will, he is sure to suffer because he cannot fail to make enemies and his sensitiveness would render him liable to be constantly hurt.

Always do what is naturally right

Doing good is the only way for developing the spirit. We may do good by simply cultivating benevolent feelings towards our neighbours if we cannot aid them actively; just as certainly as we may do harm by entertaining malicious feelings towards them.

Physical Aspect of the Spirit World Continued

As there is no vapour, there is no night in the Spirit World and there is, therefore, nothing to impede the light of the sun, which is at all times present. As to heat from the sun, spirits do not know it in their world at all. They have one invariable temperature and one invariable universally-diffused light. Although there is no night, yet light is excluded by material obstructions and, of course, there is darkness in such places but, since spirits have higher senses, their vision is not affected by the absence of light. The sun, moon, and stars are visible to them and rise and set in the same way. The physical laws which appertain to the spirit world is one which we cannot understand because spirit matter and our matter are so very different in their nature.

Spirits on the earth plane converse by their tongues, the same as we do. Even with us, however, persons intuitively learn to communicate by spiritual means more or less, that is, by mental sympathy. We understand one another better and require less talking in proportion to the amount of mental sympathy which exists between ourselves and our friends; thus, one who has been on such sympathetic terms in earth life with a friend will readily communicate with him in the spirit world without the use of his tongue. If spirits are sufficiently developed to rise above the earth plane, they communicate with one another in this way. The general mass of spirits on the earth plane, unless they come there as visitors from the higher spheres, communicate with one another by word of mouth and gesticulation.

Another peculiarity in the relative powers of the higher and lower spirits is that the higher spirits are not visible to those below them; whilst the former have the power to see all the spirits on the earth plane. The latter, therefore, are ignorant of the others' presence unless it is desired to make them aware of the fact. 

Higher spirits can read the thoughts of the lower ones—each sphere, in fact, comprehending the one below it. The earth plane is not necessarily a higher sphere than our world—it all depends on the degree of development of the spirit, whether embodied or disembodied. If our spiritual development qualifies us to rank with the spirits from the third sphere, our thoughts are not even cognisable to spirits in the Summerland (the second sphere), much less to those on the earth plane. We see, therefore, the importance of keeping our thoughts pure and cultivating our own spiritual development. By this means we raise ourselves higher and higher above the temptation of earthly spirits, who, being unable to comprehend us, are incapable of tempting us and we are less likely to fall. We may be indirectly tempted by low spirits through the agency of bad company but they are less powerful for evil than disembodied spirits who come upon us unawares and may always be with us suggesting evil thoughts and exciting our passions. Spirits who have once progressed above the earth plane never fall.

Since higher spirits can read the thoughts of spirits on the earth plane and hear them speak, besides being obliged to listen to our spoken and unspoken utterances, we can easily imagine that in our crowded thoroughfares and places of resort, the Babel of tongues, intermixed with the other noises that meet the ear and are alike audible to them, make a combination of sounds that is not at all attractive. The sounds from the spirit side of life are often a mixture of oaths, shouts, and uproar, which are painful to listen to, for the disturbances that take place between the unhappy men and women who throng our courts and alleys and minor thoroughfares—unheard by human ear—are at times perfectly demoniacal.

Developing the Spirit Body

In the spirit world on the earth plane, spirits have no police, no laws, no public opinion, no nations and no public institutions of any kind. All is open and free to everyone—in fact, the spirit side of our life resembles life in a city of the dead or a town besieged. Of course, for some, the life they lead there may have attractions that seem at first glance superior to the life they led on earth. 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, as a consequence, they have to begin at the bottom of the ladder. In regard to material pleasures, such as appertain to the material body, they are much better off but, in regard to spiritual possessions, they are paupers indeed. Their great object, therefore, is to associate themselves with persons in the flesh and enjoy over again, by sympathy, the pleasures appertaining to the material body, without its penalties. 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 should be 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.

In our world, we spend the greater part of our time in supplying ourselves with food and other bodily wants but that is not the sole object of life on earth, though it is the primary one, for, if the needs of the body are neglected, the result is that we come into the spirit world with a poorly developed spirit body and this must first be developed in the Spirit World before the soul within can begin to grow; hence, 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. 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.

One may have a diminutive body and a well-developed body if his brain is well-developed  and his physical body may have grown as far as the capacity for its development would permit. It does not follow because one is small and insignificant in our world that his personal appearance as a spirit will correspond, for 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.

We think that the spirit body will not be recognisable by persons who knew only the outward form of the individual on earth and were unacquainted with his mind but this is a mistake, for it is not his brainpower that stamps him as a spirit but his character—in other words, the quality of his soul, whether good or evil. He may be able-minded—that will not help to build up his spirit body; it is the amount of love in his composition, not the amount of mere knowledge he possesses, which helps to form the spirit body—though love should be based on knowledge if it is to be properly directed. When that is the case, knowledge becomes wisdom. We are mistaken, therefore, if we allude to the advantage of intellectual cultivation or the development of the mind as well as the body, for it 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.

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.

Superstition and Bigotry in the Spirit World

There is as much superstition and bigotry on the subjects of Spiritualism and spirit communion amongst spirits, as there is amongst those in the flesh; nor is it to be wondered at when we consider with what prejudices people are sent out of our world into the next world and how little change they experience in their mode of life and surroundings. The spirit world is so material to their senses that they cannot realise the existence of spirit at all, still less that they themselves are spirits.