|
EARTHBOUND
THERE were few nights during the years of scientific investigation that I did not talk with earthbound spirit people, usually with several, and I have learned much of their condition.
"What creates the earthbound condition?" is the first question properly asked. I answer, as I have been answered thousands of times:
"The lives they led, and the conditions they created for themselves, for as a man sows so shall he reap."
The laws of nature, the laws under which we live, are not only fixed and definite, but eternally just.
Thoughts are things, and every moment as they emanate from each individual something is added to his character. It is enriched or impoverished, and if no light emanates from it one is held at his dissolution within the lower planes that circle this globe. The selfish character, like the miser in the "Chimes of Normandy,"
140
the cruel, the immoral and wanton, the thief, the murderer,—is it not just that they be herded together until they have lived over each wrong act, lived it aright and made compensation, thus qualifying themselves for association with a finer group? The justice that meets human souls at the frontier is complete. They enter into a condition which is of their own creation. They find such light as they radiate, and no more. There is no escape in 'the after life from the consequences of things done and performed in this. In this plane, so close about the earth that in reality it is a part of it, the wicked, the malicious and base, and all those who have acquired no spiritual development, are held. This plane has various stages. Some are in total darkness, some in half light; all in all, it is at most a twilight zone between the spiritual and physical worlds. Here old appetites, thoughts and desires hold sway as before. In this zone a great mass of undeveloped people of the same general character, with a desire for spirituality no greater than when living in the physical body, remain. Their condition is much worse than in this world, for there is not the opportunity for reformation that there
141
was before. There the great law of attraction holds together those of a similar character, so that these live in mental poverty until they have a desire for better things. Then the way is shown and they work slowly out by their own efforts, but the labor is long and the path dim that leads to the zones of happiness and peace. Bruno said:
"Whatever good a man has to his credit, whether it be much or little, is the seed from which he grows eternally."
In my talks with earthbound spirit people I never found two exactly alike, any more than they can be found alike here. That change did not alter or improve them. This is evidently Hell, so much talked of and feared.
I recall so many earthbound that have told of the horror of their condition, that it is with difficulty I choose specific individuals, for I had speech with: such a great number. It is like seeing the paintings in the principal galleries of Europe. There are many, but some stand out prominently. This is the story told by one:
142
"I was not a good man among men. I was selfish, cruel, took human life, and was, as I now know, killed while committing a crime. When I awoke it was very dark, and, not knowing what had happened, I called in anger, but my companions did not come. My voice echoed back to me again and again, and I began to think I was in a cave. I arose and groped about in the darkness, but I could not find the walls, though I walked for hours. I did not feel hunger or thirst, and days and months passed, while I was ever searching for the walls that threw back the echo of my call. Can you imagine the sensation that you would have, to be lost in an open forest with the sun in the sky, to say nothing of being lost in darkness? My sensations and suffering beggar description.
"After a very long time I saw a light, and as it approached I saw that it shone or radiated from the form of a man. 'My brother,' the man said, 'you are in spiritual darkness; how can I help you?' He came and, putting forth his hands, would have touched me, but I was speechless and rushed away in fear. Thereafter when I saw a light I would hide, fearing I would be arrested, for at that time I did not know I had left my physical body. I became desperate, and the next time a light approached I waited. Coming to me, a man from whose body light radiated, as before, said, 'What do you wish?' I replied, 'I want to get out of this prison.' 'You are not in prison; you are dead.' I cursed him for making such fool statements, and he was gone.
143
"Again I was alone in darkness. How long this continued I know not, for, there being no day, I could not count time. Again there came one to me and again I demanded that I be released from my prison. He calmly and kindly replied, 'You are not in prison; you are a spirit.' That seemed to me the height of absurdity, for I was very much alive; but I listened and he told me 'that I had made the change' and brought another, an artist, who drew pictures of my youth and the faces of my boyhood friends, and, one by one sketched those acts and deeds and wrongs that I had done. Then the light faded and they were gone and I was left alone to think.
"When I had fully come to appreciate my condition and to regret the wrong done and the suffering caused by me, there came a desire to do what I could to make reparation. Then came other spirit people to encourage me and suggest what I must do to obtain spiritual growth and with it, the light. Not one offered to take my burden, or to undo the wrong that I had done; that was for me; they only pointed out the way. I was told there were none to forgive me, except the injured; no savior but himself.
144
"Step by step I went forward; hour by hour I made reparation and lived again each wrong and lived it right; and day by day, as you count time, I undid my wrong and added to the right. The way was long, the labor intense, but in it I found a happiness I had never known before. For I was building my character; the atom of good was striving for its spirituality. Now that is all behind me, and I live in the glorious and effulgent light of the spirit world, laboring among congenial souls. I was seared by the fire of selfishness and wrong. I paid, and paid to the last farthing, the penalty. Now I am at peace with all. the spirit world, as it is with me.
"I send this message back to the world of men: 'There is not in the universe a method by which 'any one can escape the penalty of wrong.' Had I known this fact, I would have lived among you honestly and been fair with my fellow men. I did not know it, and I have paid in full, as all will pay in full, for ignorance will not excuse.
"It has been a privilege to tell through you of my experience in the earthbound zone of the spirit world. If one man will hesitate when contemplating a single selfish or wrong act, and turn from it because of better understanding, it will reflect upon me and better my condition."
145
The following statement as to earthbound conditions is from another spirit:
"The belts or zones that lie close around your earth are designed for the habitation of undeveloped spirits when out of the body; as they outgrow the passions of earth and become more refined, they pass to another or higher zone. Many remain in the first or earth zone for years.
"We of the higher zones try to teach them that they must forgive and forget the wrongs of earth and in that work advance out of the earthbound condition, but many turn a deaf ear to our suggestions and try to revenge the wrong done to them when on earth; all this is intensely human, and this zone, so. like the physical, is very real.
"Those who have progressed, those who in the beginning passed directly through this belt, because of their spirituality, would never come back into that atmosphere, were it not for their love for and desire to help humanity:'
In explanation of this condition another spirit said:
"Many on leaving the mortal body are still in earthly conditions, found on the grosser spiritual side you
146
call the lower sphere, where the spiritual senses are not yet awakened to susceptibility of spiritual discernment."
Edward Randall
__________________
Everything under the sun is in tune,but the sun is eclipsed by the moon.
|
Linear Mode
