FROM BIRTH TO BEYOND-2

IT is very hard for me to convey to you what life in our world is really like. You have no knowledge of the infinite richness of the life in the world of spirit. There is no beauty anywhere, no majestic scenery, nothing you have visualised that can compare in its grandeur and in its infinite variety to that which can be seen in our world.

　There can be no more inspiring way in which to begin this chapter which examines in detail life in the Beyond. The following questions and answers give valuable insights into the many facets of the spirit world which, says the guide, "is an example of the perfect operation of the perfect plan. You will find that nothing is left to chance."

　How do people communicate with one another in the after-life?

　When you come to our world you do not have physical bodies. You have their replicas, but you do not have speech. Except in the comparatively lower realms you realise there is a superior method of communication, mind to mind direct, without the necessity of using language which is a very clumsy substitute for thought. Thought is superior to language.

　Similarly you do not consume food or drink because you do not have physical bodies that require to be sustained in this fashion. You do not want protein because no physical growth is required. You have spiritual bodies whose nourishment comes from the conditions where you live.

　There is an eternal sun, no darkness, so you do not require sleep. You are spiritually naked in the sense that nothing can be concealed. You are known for what you are, with pretence, substitution and camouflage being impossible.

　Your level of communication is established only with individuals who are spiritually where you are. It cannot be

higher because you are not ready for anything that is spiritually upward until you evolve. You can descend spiritually because you are superior to those comparatively lower. So your communication is direct. What you think is known, just as equally you know what others think. There is no problem.

　You live in this country and speak its language. When you meet a foreigner who does not speak English you cannot communicate because the language is different. But for thought no language is required, Thought communica-tion is rapid. It presents no difficulties for us.

　I am fed, if that is the right word, when I control this instrument, by others who give me thoughts, pictures, images or symbols that I have learned to translate into your language. It has taken a long time. I have to find the words in the medium's vocabulary, even sometimes those which he has forgotten but exist. When I am not using this instru-ment I have access to all your literature. I can find, if I need it, what your greatest masters have written and choose whatever I think may be suitable when the occasion arises. But when I leave this instrument I do not have to go through the laborious process of translating thought into your words.

　How do you recognise one another?

　Here another sitter commented, "Our sight is physical."

　You do not see with your eyes. neither do you hear with your ears. The perception is done with your mind via your brain. If your brain were not functioning and your mind inactive, every ray of light that touched your eyes would mean nothing to you and every vibration that reached your ears would be meaningless.

　It is the mind which gives comprehension once the brain has acted as receiver. The eye does not have the ability to see. It only has the means of picking up radiations of light. It is like the lens of a camera. It is functioning automatically without awareness of what it is doing. Awareness comes from the mind when the brain has received the impression. If you damage the brain, then you will not see anything through your eyes because comprehension would be absent.

　Next he was asked, "What do you actually see when you recognise somebody?"

　We see human forms; they have heads; they have bodies.

　You said you do not have a body.

　Not a physical body; we have a spiritual body.

　So it is a spirit body you see which you naturally recognise.

　Of course. We are not all the same; we are different in our world.

　The interrogation continued: "You were talking of reading books. Is that in the form of thought?"

　We have duplicates of everything. There are libraries in which we have duplicates of everything that has been written in your world. We look at this literature, study it when necessary and acquire knowledge. We have access to music and to art. We have access to everything that is known in your world.

　Another circle member asked, "At what state of earthly life do you see spirit forms?"

　This depends on the level of awareness on which you are functioning at the time. The difference between your world and ours is that you can meet people at different levels of development. In our world you are restricted to the level which you have attained. The spirit body will be more mature the higher you are evolved. Growth in our world is towards maturity. Thus the old who come here become younger and the young become older because they are maturing.

　Do you recognise the face?

　Of course we have faces.

　"Why do we have faces?" the guide was asked.

　Because individuality is the hallmark of every soul. No two souls can be alike; not even twins are the same spiri-tually. The process of attaining perfection, which in itself is infinite, does not mean you become faceless and formless. You attain a greater individuality, a growing spiritual maturity and an increasing light radiates from your being. As you ascend in this scale you find there are beings with such light that the radiance can almost dazzle you.

　You have heard me say that when I leave your world and return to the inner spheres, I encounter some of the beings who belong to what may be called the hierarchy. These are all individuals. They have not discarded individuality. They have developed to the stage where imperfections are few and flawlessness is part of their being.

　Why do we need bodies when we pass over to your world?

　Because the spirit must have some form through which to manifest, to cohere, to express itself in individual fashion. Spirit, per se, has no individual forms. Spirit is life. But life to be manifested has to assume form whether it be human, animal, vegetable, flower, whatever it may be. Spirit could not be identified or recognised until it manifests in some form.

　Does spirit hold its form for ever?

　Yes.

　I think you said a spirit entity on your side could not contact anybody who is at a greater stage of development. If this is so, is there any special dispensation when you personally meet the illumined ones?

　No, if you will forgive me for saying so, I am merely returning to my natural state. I was asked to serve and I agreed. Naturally, to do so, I had temporarily to forfeit whatever I had. So I have the experience, which is similar to yours, that I am familiar with the polarity to which I frequently refer. I hope I am better for it.

　It is very difficult to convey the totality of spirit life because we are confronted with a barrier of language and dimension. With music, for example, we have octaves of sound which are beyond the capability of any earthly instruments to register. With painting we have colours and beauty that you cannot imagine. There are not those on earth who are able to register or depict them. Even the greatest inspiration received in your world is only an in-finitesimal fragment of what exists.

　It is very difficult, but preparation is made in your sleep. Then you leave the physical body, "die" temporarily and gradually accustom yourselves to the spirit life. Otherwise, when the break with earth finally comes, it could be so difficult that it would take a long time for you to be con-ditioned to the new life. It is all in your subconscious minds what you have learned in your nocturnal excursions to our world. One day it will become your consciousness and thus it will not be so strange for

　The circle's tallest member said: "Could I ask a question about size? Does a six-foot person always remain at that height?"

　Do you have a personal interest in this question? The answer is yes, because the physical body is the counterpart of the spiritual one. Size has no relevance to spiritual development. You can be a physical giant and a spiritual Pygmy.

　Yes, if you are dealing with what one might call astral spheres, that is, comparatively speaking, that part of the

spirit world which is closest to earth. It is populated by people who hardly have any spiritual awareness. They still use language because they think it necessary.

　Of course. Thought has no language. Language is the vehicle for translating thought into words. You must try to realise that in our world thought is the reality and the physical is shadowy.

　If you live in a non-physical world, is it the same for all who dwell in it, or is it one you create by thought? If I were in it, would I see the same or a different world?

　It depends where you were.

　If we were together, would it be a creative world of my mind?

　Not exactly. If you were where I am now, that is, we were on a similar level of being, then you would see what I am seeing and you would experience what I am experienc-ing. As to what that world in which I now live, and which if you were with me would share, is made of is another matter. It is hard to convey in language, which is only an attempt to clothe pictures, ideas and symbols so that you can have some appreciation of the reality behind the language.

　We start by saying that life is spirit. Our world, like yours, exists because of spirit. Spirit is infinite and thus has endless manifestations. What is thought?

　The visitor replied, "Thought is something that is a product of my mind, whatever my mind may be."

　Is it real?

　But when you think you know you are thinking.

　Yes, I think that you can make a thing positive.

　So you are aware you are thinking. But you cannot see, hear, weigh or measure thought. There are no physical means of measurement. Yet thought is responsible for everything you do because it is the precursor to action. Without it there would be no action.

What we think in our world materialises as a spiritual reality and is real to us just as your physical world is real to you. It is a matter of comparison. On our plane of being thought is as real as matter is on your sphere of existence.

　A circle member joined in the discussion by saying: "Indepen-dent of people's thinking, in a physical world there is an objective reality, there are hills that all can see. In the spirit world is there such an objective reality independent of what people are thinking?" To this the visitor added, "We are sitting in this roomーand we are aware of it."

　In addition every individual has the power to create reality for himself by his thoughts. He can build out of the very plastic material of thought what he requires and which will, to use a comparative term, solidify and become real.

　Having said this, could your world be physical?

　It could, depending on how you define the word.

　As my body is, composed of matter. When I die, could it be that my etheric body could also be composed of matter with a higher speed of atomic revolution? Hence I can see it just as we are told we can speed up the atoms.

　These are words. When you say "physical" and "matter," these terms must be defined. In a sense you can say that our world is composed of spiritualised matter, but it is not matter as you understand it. You speak about your physical body, but, as you say, it is composed of atoms.

　Those atoms are composed of subdivisions. They have names for them, protons, electrons and neutrons. All these can be subdivided until you reach the stage where instru-mentation takes you no further. You are aware that the dynamic is not physical. So your matter is physical only in its appearance. Its solidity is deceptive. etheric as your physical body is to you while you are on earth.

　It is all a question of the plane on which you are func-tioning. When you dream that you are in a ship this is real whilst you are asleep. It is only when you wake that you say, "I dreamt," and the ship becomes shadowy. But if your life were an eternal dream then all dream life would be reality. It would be as physical to you in your dream state as earthly life is to you in your waking state.

　How do you know that you are not dreaming now? For all you know you may be part of a concerted dream. For many of us in our world there are millions on earth who are dreaming because they have not awakened to spiritual reality. What it comes back to is the awareness that you are not your body. As I have said, you are not bodies with spirits, you are spirits with bodies. It is a distinction with a very great difference.

　A circle member asked, "Would you add to it that we are not personalities?"

　No, only temporarily whilst you are on earth. A per-sonality is the mask that you wear for your earthly existence. When earthly existence is over the mask is discarded.

　I have a theory that the spirit progresses to perfection by way of manifesting through physical forms of different species ending with man. Is that right? Is it an idea I should pursue, or do you know if I am on the wrong track?

　Do you mean that the individual spirit has been expressed through all forms of life before reaching its apex in man?

　Yes.

　This is not as an individual in the sense that I understand individuality. It is individual, say, when it animates a dog or a cat, but it is not individual in the sense when it animates a flower. The spirit is there wherever life is expressed. Spirit is life and life is spirit. You as spirit have always existed. In your present embodiment you became individualised from the moment of conception.

　The evolution of you as an individual will continue in all forms of being. The higher you evolve the more indivi-dualised you become, but not in the sense of personality as you have it on earth. That is very difficult to understand. The purpose of evolution is to achieve perfection, but its attainment is an infinite process. As you progress and elimi-nate one imperfection you become aware of another that has to be expunged, and so the process goes on for ever.

　What you must try to realise is that there is a very big difference between personality and individuality. Personality

is the extent of individuality expressed through a physical body. It is one of the forms that individuality has of mani-

festing while you are on earth.

　But individuality has many other forms not restricted to the personality shown on earth. It is these other aspects that will continue to be unfolded as you leave earth behind and evolve in higher states of being. The more individualised you become the less of personality there will be. The higher you go in the scale of spiritual values the less form is there such as you understand it when you look at bodies. It is difficult to find words to express all that is involved.

　Our world is composed of people who come from your world. If you did not send us unevolved souls, we would have no trouble from them. You send millions who are unprepared, unfitted and ignorant. It is much more difficult to teach an adult the lessons he should have learnt in school. You are subject to the whole range of spirit influence from the lowest to the highest. But you attract only those at the spiritual stage you have reached. Evil can be attracted only by evil. Saintliness will always attract saintliness. That is how the natural law operates.

　Do not blame us for the existence of millions of souls many of whom are unaware of the fact that they are dead physically and almost dead spiritually. That is the work you have to do in your world, to prepare people for the life that inevitably awaits them when death comes to their physical bodies.

　The world of spirit has no geographical existence. I hear people talk of seven spheres as if we have a map. It is a graduated existence into which one sphere blends and merges into the other all the time. As you cast off imper-fections you evolve to the sphere for which you are spiritually ready. 

　There comes a stage in your development when you are so aware of spiritual truths and do not require a comparison to understand or appreciate them. There is a stage even in earthly evolution when you achieve awareness and knowing-ness that cannot be measured by any intellectual content. That is what you achieve in our world when you do not require comparisons of opposites to find the reality.

　We have had so many instances of planning in the spirit world which shows itself to us. How does that operate? Is there a planner in chief somewhere who co-ordinates these things?

　There are brotherhoods, as we call them, each with a leader. And at the head is the Nazarene who is still concerned with the events in the development of your world. There are what you would describe as conferences. You know that I withdraw to go to the inner spheres when these conferencesーthey are really councilsーare held to check what has happened and to ensure co-ordination.

　There is a master plan and we all play our parts in it. I wish it were possibleーalas it is notーfor you to be made aware of the evolved beings in our world who, because of their evolution, are concerned with the events of your earth. Others are concerned with life in other forms of being, but the aspect on which I am engaged is the one which deals with the people in your world.

   It is a perfect plan because perfection is responsible for its creation, but ensuring it is fulfilled involves so many considerations that it must of necessity be done very slowly. Such questions as your free will, your karma, your destiny and the choice you have made are all involved. 

These require a perfect balance to ensure there will be progress, not necessarily in a straight line because it cannot always follow that direction. You should feel that you are helping to shape some of the infinite processes of creation towards their divine fulfilment in your world.

　We are all highly privileged to participate, in however small a measure, in helping that overall plan in its fulfilment according to its grand design. Because of that I can say you need have no fear of what the morrow will bring forth. 

Whatever the difficulty, the obstacle, the handicap, the opposition, whatever the stupidity, the ignorance and superstition you may encounter, all will be divinely well because truth is on the march and none can prevent it from attaining its goal. So hold your heads high and know that the power which is behind us is greater than any that can be encountered in your world.

　This statement brought questions from circle members. The guide explained that some evolved beings who are part of the hierarchy he mentioned are not necessarily those who were once humans on earth. He could not add anything to what he had said about resuming his status. As to the plan, this was conceived in the past as part of an overall design. He appreciated all this was not easy to grasp. 

　The higher you climb in the scale of spiritual values the more difficult it becomes to explain it in your earthly

language. We are dealing with spiritual contents. Language, only a clumsy means of interpretation, is limited in its definition because it cannot encompass what is outside normal appreciation.

　He was asked, "Are there many higher spheres than those you speak about?"

　Yes.

　Are they continuous?

　Yes, they are infinite. 

　Are they steps going up into the beyond?

　Call them steps if you like.

　Do the beings you mention have the ability to express them-selves?

　They are individuals; they are conscious; they are not automatons; they are radiant; they are the masters, the hier-archy, the representatives of the Great Spirit in our world.

　Were they all humans?

　No. If you read your Bible it mentions angels and archangels.

　Does that mean there were always spirit beings?

　There is no being anywhere who is not spirit.

　No. Your world is one of many in a vast multitude of worlds. It is not compulsory for every being to have inhabited your earth. There is an overall plan, comprehen-sive, all-inclusive in which nothing is excluded and nobody forgotten.

　There are stars beyond the stars that you can see. There are planets beyond the planets, and worlds beyond the worlds that are known to you. The cosmos is so vast that it is infinite.

　With no beginning and end?

　Spirit has no beginning and no end. Spirit always was and will be. Read your Bible. The Nazarene said, "Before Abraham was I am."

　Can we progress eventually to the spheres in which our friends are, and then be with them always?

　If you reach their level of attainment, of course you can. These matters are self-determined. You occupy the sphere, stage or state of being that you have spiritually reached. All those on that level are of similar unfoldment. You get the answer to the question when you have reached their spiritual stage. Progress is always possible because it is eternal, a striving towards perfection.

　What happens when two people love each other and one is spiritually much higher than the other? Would the one less spiritual have to wait before he or she joined the other?

　It is usually the other way round. The one who has the greater attainment will wait because love is involved.

　Would you say something about the process of dying and arriving in the spirit world?

　It is the sloughing off of the physical body as the spirit body gradually emerges. It is never a painful process. There may be some physical reactions when there is illness or disease. If the transition is not a simple one, then the equivalent of your doctors stand by. They help those who love this individual to accomplish his or her birth into our world until the cord connecting spirit and matter severs itself and separation is assured for all time.

ideas that understanding will take a long time, then there is a process of rest equivalent to sleep.

　That continues until it is self-determined that the time for realisation has come. This can be short or long, as measured by your duration of time. It depends upon the individual. Those with knowledge have no such problems. They step out of the world of matter into the world of spirit and adjustment is speedy. When awakening comes it is a moment of supreme joy because it brings recognition of all the loved ones who have been waiting for it to occur.

　Could you tell us what is the span of the etheric body? We have an etheric body when we pass over. How long does it last? 

　How long is a piece of string? You cannot measure this body. It is a spiritual not a physical development. You have many bodies; you can call them astral, etheric and spirit. You manifest in the body which is capable of expressing the state you have reached. When you evolve to another stage, you shed that body like the caterpillar does. You express yourself in the form suitable for your latest development. This is how it works. It is infinite progression.

　What is our true self, not the physical or the astral?

　These are words. All words, being physical, can never convey the totality of that which is beyond language. There are no words that can truly interpret what the spirit is. The spirit is not material; it is not three-dimensional; it is not located geographically anywhere. It does not occupy space as your body does. Spirit is invisible, inaudible and intan-gible so far as your palpable material senses are concerned. Spirit is the reality; spirit is the life force; spirit is the dynamic. Spirit is part of the Great Spirit.

　So you are a triune being. You have a physical body, you have a spirit body and you have a soul. You can change the words around and call it a soul body. It does not matter; you are only trying to find words. 

The soul is the divine spark, that part of the Great Spirit that is within you.

　You are not your body; your body is not you. Your spirit body is the means by which you will express yourself once the physical body has dissolved and been returned to nature.

　The true self is not an exterior, the surface, the shell, but the kernel, the real nut, the heart, the soul, the life, the God that is within you. Spirit, being infinite, has many manifes-tations and gradations. There is a series of bodies of the spirit given various names like astral and etheric, but these are only manifestations of the one spirit. Do not be bothered by semantics. Words are only tools.

　At this stage Silver Birch answered submitted questions. The first were: "How far does the similarity between the physical and etheric bodies extend? What could be the point of gastric juices, an auditory system, or leg muscles in a spirit body? Shall we still have the sense of touch?"

　There would be no point. You have an etheric body which reproduces its physical counterpart, but this does not contain muscles, gastric juices or an auditory system. The etheric counterpart is the intervening envelope for the spirit to manifest and function efficiently through the physical body. When death comes, the etheric has served its primary purpose as the vehicle for the soul to continue its next phase. The etheric is sloughed off and another body replaces it. The processes of refinement require more spiritual vehicles for expression. You can have many bodies.

　If we have many bodies, what happens at death? Do they fall off one by one?

　As you evolve you slough off the different bodies.

　Do you mean to say we go on dying?

　Yes, not spiritually, only as a means of expression.

　After we pass on we slough off the etheric. Is that another death?

　Yes, it is just like getting rid of the physical body when it has served its purpose.

　Of course, but it is a good thing that you do. It means you are progressing.

　Eventually shall we become pure spirit with no body at all?

　I doubt if you achieve that stage, but you get closer to it all the time.

　Surely that is the whole point of spiritual evolution?

　The whole purpose of life itself is evolution, development, growth, attainment. As you evolve, so automatically you discard the body which has served its purpose and assume the one that is fitted for your stage of evolution.

　In a way it is only like on earth where we have several skins. And you have new bodies every seven years. You, the spirit, can never disappear.

　Are there opportunities in the spirit world for service?

　Oh, far more than you face on earth. We have problems such as you cannot possibly realise. We have to deal with millions of souls in many parts of the spiritual universeーsick souls, young souls, forgotten souls, lonely souls, mal-formed souls, ignorant souls. Have we got problems? We have them because you send them to our world.

　Are people in the spirit world limited or is the universe wide open to them? Can they travel? Can they explore?

　Of course they can, if they have earned the right to explore. It is a question of development. There has to be a purpose.

　Replying to another comment Silver Birch said:

　It is very hard for me to convey to you what life in our world is really like. I speak truthfully when I tell you that there is so much to explore on this side. You have no knowledge of the infinite richness of the life in the world of spirit. There is no beauty anywhere, no majestic scenery, nothing you have visualised that can compare in its grandeu and in its infinite variety to that which can be seen in our world.

　Am I right in saying that many individuals in the next world have more or less denied themselves the right to explore by continuing the work they did here? The guide said:

　There are many who were doctors in your world who prefer to use their earthly knowledge plus their added power to help the sick. That is the hall-mark of spiritual un-foldment.

　Here a remark by a circle member caused Silver Birch to say:

　There are laws which regulate everything. You will find that nothing is forgotten or overlooked. I always marvel at the perfection of the natural law and its methods of governing. 

　My sister was mentally deficient due to instruments used at her birth. She was very deformed in every way. How will I recognise her in the next world? Would she have this deformed appearance? Why did she have to live 40 years in this deformed state?

　If we remove the question from its personal aspect and deal with the principle it would be easier. There is no individual in your world who is exempt from the law of compensation or even retribution. Always there is a stage when the spiritual account is balanced, and the two aspects, the debit and the credit, are even. Any deficiencies in your world are compensated in ours.

　Deformity is a physical imperfection. You cannot have a deformed mind or spirit. What you can have is an immature mind and spirit due to the fact that they have not had the opportunities for manifesting because of an undeveloped brain. On passing into our life, such an individual is possibly at the evolution that a child would have attained, but there is no damage to the mind or to the spirit.

　As to why it happens, this is much more difficultーcause and effect, wrong instruments used, mishandling and the

body is affected and the brain made incapable of being the instrument of manifestation and registration that it should. Why should this be so? It may be a karmic condition. I cannot answer a personal question. I can deal only with the principles involved.

　A sitter said, "This person wants to know how will she recognise her sister in the next life."

　Recognition is not so difficult as is supposed. The one who comes to our world is watched over by those who are close to him or her. They will know when the time of passing has come and be able to greet them. A spirit entity can manifest temporarily in any form which will make re-cognition possible. The child who has been in our world for many years, according to physical measurement, can appear temporarily as a child when the mother comes to our life. So that is no problem.

　Can our loved ones see us in either spiritual or physical form, or in both?

　This is a little difficult because it depends on the talent possessed by people in our world. Generally speaking they see your spirit body more than your physical body unless they have a special talent, which is the equivalent of the clairvoyance that mediums exercise. I cannot at this moment see anything physical in this room, but I can see the spirit bodies of those who are present.

　No organisation is necessary because those who love you are with you. They are aware of your passing long before you are. They stand there waiting to help in the transition. Love is the greatest attracting force in the universe. Those who love you cannot be separated from you.

　That happens in the early stages of coming to our world because the spirit has not adjusted itself to the new environ-ment. The lower planes, the astral ones, are in many respects a duplicate of earthly existence. This is a divine provision to enable newly-arrived inhabitants to acclimatise themselves, otherwise it would be too difficult for them.

　So you get people, like the one you mentioned, who still think that life, even in our world, consists of mornings, afternoons and evenings. Because they think like that it happens in this fashion. Our world is one where thought is reality. Until realisation dawns this temporary stage con-tinues. Besides, in such a case the partner will want to help the one left behind and would have no desire to progress any higher spiritually.

　We have gardens, houses, lakes, seas and oceans. They exist because ours is a real world. We do not inhabit a formless creation. We are still human beings, though without physical bodies. But we enjoy the beauties of nature and have a radiance of living that is beyond description because there are no means of conveying it.

　It is natural to live in a home, but the home here is the one you have created by your life on earth. It is natural to have gardens. If you think they require tending, then you do so. Ultimately you learn it is not necessary and that provision has been made for them to receive all the attention necessary for their sustenance. Without such provision, transition from the earth to the world of spirit would create a tremendous shock.

　Spirit life is graduated, with each sphere, plane or expres-sion blending and shading into the next one higher in the evolutionary sense but not in geographical location. As the soul progresses and fits itself for higher states of being, so automatically it occupies those states. All this is an example of the perfect operation of the perfect plan. You will find that nothing is left to chance.

　The sick in spirit when they come here go to hospitals where they receive the necessary attention. The children who are, so to speak, orphans in our world because their parents are in yours, have foster-mothers to care for them. Sometimes they were related to them by ties of blood, but in other cases there is a spiritual kinship which is the attraction. Provision is made for every circumstance because the natural law omits nothing and nobody.

　The whole purpose of earthly life is to provide a variety of experiences that will enable people, at some stage, to become aware of the existence of that which is below the surface. I am sure the operation of natural law is such that this opportunity is afforded to every normal being. Other-wise it must be that the Great Spirit has neglected or removed its power from some individuals, and that is not possible. The very act of a birth of a spirit into your world means that potentially this child has all the awareness that can be expressed, and opportunities are given for it to happen.

困ったことに人間は自分に都合のよいことが都合のよいタイミングで生じてくれることを望みます。しかし私たちはそういう期待にはお応えしかねます。私たちは私たちなりのタイミングがあります。　　

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