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my meaning clear. Although they keep individuality, they permeate the universe. They have
become so great and universal, we sometimes think they go beyond and must lose their
personality; but we have no definite knowledge, and it is generally accepted they do not. It is
difficult to understand or appreciate what this last sphere is, the development is so beyond our
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comprehension. Those in the second sphere do little, except to fit themselves for a broader
and better work. Before reaching this condition they have freed their spirit from the burden of
wrong done in the body, repaid every debt due mankind, dispelled the darkness of the first
sphere. They work with open eyes and clear spiritual vision, and are at peace with all. This
must precede the sphere of study and development. I have classes on purity, beauty, and
patience, and there are classes on every conceivable subject,- music, chemistry, everything.
They are different from those in earth-life, and one has to adopt different ideas. One of our
engineers magnetizes your room each time you hear our voices. It is easier for those who have
advanced to higher life to reach us than for us to reach you; there are not so many barriers.
Yes, we always have places that resemble homes. Thought is not indefinite, and that makes
our homes, and while we keep that thought, our homes are permanent. You ask where is that
home located. I would say to you that all that is space is peopled with spirits."
This lecture gave to us the spheres of progression. As you see, we were told not only their
names, but something of the occupations that are pursued in the higher life. Not much can be
told, I assume, but possibly all that a finite mind can grasp. I believe what I have written, not
only because I know the one who talked, but because it appeals to reason, and is in harmony
with natural law, as I understand it.
True, it is hard to understand where these spheres are, but there are many things quite as
difficult of comprehension. Astronomical instruments have shown that it is ninety-three
millions of miles to the sun, but this really conveys nothing to the mind, because one cannot
comprehend such a distance. We know that light travels at the rate of one hundred and eighty-
six thousand miles a second, but what that rate of speed is we cannot understand, for there is
nothing tangible with which to compare it. Our actual knowledge of electricity, of magnetism,
or even of gravitation is limited, as are all of Nature's laws. Then, is it strange that one finds
difficulty in appreciating what space is and how it is peopled? This thought of ours is even
now free and can pass through space, but it goes with closed eyes, hears no sounds, and feels
no touch. At dissolution, each sense is quickened, and all life that fills space is visible to the
spiritual senses and tangible to spiritual touch and brain. Space must then take form,
substance, and reality, - in a world of thought, boundless and endless.
One in the afterlife gave me a description of the spirit home of a great, splendid mother, built
by the labor of love and ceaseless charity, - in the physical as well as in the spirit plane in
which she now resides, - one who worked long and earnestly to make women understand the
truth so that they might live nearer to the best in nature. Here is the description as it was given
me:
"Before me is the interior of a splendid home, the home made by a spirit, created and builded
by the thoughts, acts, and works of one who, thirty two years ago, lived on the material plane.
The room opening before me seems like pure white marble with lofty ceilings; around the
four sides runs a broad balcony supported by columns gracefully turned; from a point beyond
the centre is a broad stairway curving outward; at its foot, on each side, are niches filled with
beautiful statuary. Going up the stairs now, I find each step a different colour, yet all blending
into one; on all sides of this upper gallery are windows through which come soft rays of light.
Opening off the sides are rooms; and, as I look, a door opens and a beautiful spirit comes out,
taking on, as she enters, the old material condition that she may be recognized.
She has reached maturity in years, and has a face of rare gentleness - the beauty of purity, -
she smiles as we describe her and her home to you. With her is a daughter just reaching
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womanhood; one that never lived the earth-life but was prematurely born. These two, drawn
by the invisible bond of affection, have builded this home and made it rich with love.
"Passing down the corridor now, the mother's arm about the daughter, they approach the other
end of the building and descend a stairway similar to the first, and go out upon a broad
terrace, along walks bordered with flowers, into the garden of happiness. Turning now and [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]