by Margaret Vivian

Question: You often say that we are just the same after passing over. Does this mean that they are angry, jealous, stupid and greedy people on your side?

Answer: It would be dull indeed if everybody were made on the same pattern. We all have our own characteristics, otherwise we should not be individuals, but merely animated dummies out of the same mold. As you grow older on the earth, you usually become more level-headed and less apt to lose your temper. In a similar way we progress over here. Let us take some of the common causes of quarrels on your side. Political views are often the source of bitter disputes. They do not exist in the same sense in the Summerland.

Money is a great cause of quarrels between the earth folk. It does not exist here. Jealousy may persist for a very short time, but we soon see things in a clearer perspective and understand that we have no cause to be jealous. As to the grosser crimes of violence, they too, persist, but the souls that you call criminal are not sufficiently evolved to be here at all. They must reincarnate. When you take away money and lust, you do away with the main causes of ill temper, greed and jealousy. There is no need to be greedy when you can have all you want by exercising a little thought. Remove finance from your world, and all war would cease.

I have known people dispute when they first arrive, usually about religious matters. Those who were ardent Roman Catholics on your side still seek to convert others to their creed, and are annoyed when they are unsuccessful. They do not always fail, however. Some people are attracted by the religious ceremonial and become Roman or Anglican Catholics. In time, of course, these outward trappings lose their charm, and I do not know of any advanced soul who belongs to any religious sect.

Mental disease does not of course exist, but there is still a great variation in intellectual power. Some cannot take in new teaching as readily as others, and the pig-headed may for some considerable time adhere to their former views. I know one man who had been here longer than I have, and who still insists that he has not died. He did not believe in survival, and he refuses to give up his error. Here, again, as in so many wide-spread doctrines, there is a substratum of truth regarding the beneficent effect of a ‘belief in the hereafter,’ although the word ‘belief’ or ‘faith’ has been misused. Faith does not imply blind credulity, but must be based on reliable evidence obtained by persistent search. But the man I mentioned works hard for others and is happy with his family, and in time he will probably realize the truth. Otherwise he will have to reincarnate.

Q. Do they dread reincarnation?

A. No, because those who must reincarnate are like fish out of water over here, and it is for their happiness that they should return to earth.

Q. You say you are happy. Do those in the Summerland ever feel miserable when they watch their friends on earth in great trouble?

A. The most difficult thing to make you understand is the exhilaration we feel when we have passed over. Our bodies can never feel tired, but we sometimes need rest mentally when we have been working hard. We can feel sorrow when we have failed to help less developed souls, but we know that in the end they will evolve, and, as there is all eternity before them, what is the hurry? There is a man here who is paying a visit to his friend, who was allowed to have him on trial. He is not really happy because the earth pull is too strong, and when he gives way to it, he finds himself among your fogs (denser vibrations) and cannot even make himself understood. He was a betting man, and that is one of the few things we cannot do here.

What could we bet with, since we have no money? What could he do with the money even if he had its counterpart? It is usually money that pulls such people towards the earth. It has become a confirmed habit to heap up more and more money, and without this interest, his life is tasteless. When he returns in a new incarnation, he will have to live in poverty so as to eradicate the money passion. As for alcoholics, it is the same in a minor degree, though there are cases where it is more an illness, and where the craving disappears after a long sleep.

That is how the earth lives purify the soul; one by one the failings are eradicated, and as was have all passed through the undeveloped stage, there is nothing to boast about when we have reached higher levels. As to our ultimate destiny, I know no more than you do, and I need not repeat that I am only a very short step ahead of you.

Q. Can you work miracles, as described in the New Testament?

A. No, we are not supernatural beings, able to perform miracles such as giving sight to the blind, or enabling a paralyzed man to walk. We are, as I have very often told you, only a short way ahead of you, and it is silly to pray to us for material benefits, as some do. I can no more work a miracle just because I am discarnate, than you can. Occasionally, I can foresee the future, and this is perhaps what has given rise to the idea that we can change the course of nature. We use natural laws in coming to you, and that does not mean that we can solve all your problems and cure all your diseases.

The miraculous cures in the Bible were brought about by a high spirit who gave up his high estate in order to help the world. There is a great change in the appearance of the individual as he progresses, and it is a fact that if a spirit from a high sphere were to show himself without first assuming a cloak, you and I might be temporarily blinded by his radiance. We ordinary folk are quite incapable of procuring money for you, or healing your wounds either mental or physical. It is sad sometimes to hear men and women praying earnestly to us to find them money, employment or what not.

Q. What is the “double”?

A. The double is a different thing from the spirit. It is a kind of astral replica of the individual, but the real person is not there. It is a kind of shell that can be seen, but cannot speak, or see, or hear. It arises in several ways, e.g. it can be produced by intense thought or dramatic action. When a man is dying, he may strongly wish to see some person. In some cases he may be able to appear himself, but sometimes he cannot accomplish this, although the power of his desire sends a double that can be recognized. It is not necessary to be clairvoyant in order to see the double. Anybody can do so, and it is what is popularly known as a ghost. It is a rare phenomenon.

When I was on your side, I once saw a form of a friend who had been killed. I woke and saw him standing beside my bed. He tried to speak, but could not hold the form, and he went away, leaving the double behind for a moment or two. The double is the cause of hauntings. It is not the dead man who haunts the house, but merely his double, generally when some fearful thing has happened such as murder or suicide. It gradually fades as time goes on and may disappear when the cause has gone. That is why, sometimes, when a will is found, or a body buried, the haunting ceases. It is not the victim himself, but a thought-form held together by the power of desire. It is not easy to explain, but I think you have grasped the idea. It is only on rare occasions that all the necessary factors are present, and that is why haunting is so rare, otherwise there would be ghosts everywhere, since there are many crimes and disasters. If, for instance, every hospital patient were to haunt the room in which he died, nobody could go on living there.

There are occasions when we can appear for a moment, in times of great stress. It is not a case of mere shell or thought-form; the actual individual, by a tremendous effort, bridges the gulf for a short time, usually at the moment of death. There are many such stories told on your side, and if collected, they would fill a volume for strong evidence of survival after death. I will tell you one that struck me as interesting.

It was one of those people who make pledges with their friends that whichever dies first will appear to the other to prove that he has survived. The man who passed on – whom we will call Andrew – was killed during a flight from Italy to Africa. The plane fell into the sea and was never found, but Andrew recalled his promise during the interval when a drowning man reviews his past, and he succeeded in visiting the friend Joan. It was a kind of spectre that met the horrified woman, as she was getting out of bed in the early morning. Andrew was dripping wet, and where he stood, a pool of sea water stained the carpet, and the mark is still to be seen. He tried to kiss her, but she was so horrified at the sight of this white, haggard, dripping form, that she screamed and so broke up the conditions that had enabled Andrew to show himself. Joan was found half-fainting on the floor, and she insisted that Andrew was dead, although at that time no news of any disaster had come through. It was a case of an intense effort enabling a twin soul to reach the one left behind, and it was successful. More often the one who is dying appears in a dream so vivid that the dreamer recalls on waking. Such pledges are rather rash, for in the vast majority of cases they cannot be fulfilled, and the one left behind is convinced that the friend has perished.

Q. Is there any truth in the story of the bone taken from an Egyptian tomb that is said to bring disaster to the owner?

A. The explanation is quite simple. The bone forms a link with its former owner, an Egyptian, who by this means is sometimes able to show himself and make physical contact with those who are in possession of the relic. The spectre, as the newspapers call him, manifests his presence by breaking things and by other poltergeist phenomena, and will continue to do so until the bone is restored to the tomb from which it was stolen. In olden days the Egyptians laid great store by their physical bodies, and even supplied their mummies with food and other things, imagining that by so doing they provided the spirit with the necessities of life. To prevent thieves from pillaging the tombs, as they would doubtless have done, the priests laid very powerful magical spells on the contents of the tombs, especially those of royal personages, and the power that has been shut up all these years in the sealed tombs is often still effective when outsiders of any nationality rob the tombs.

The spirit who shows himself is not necessarily the person to whom the bone belonged. In the case you have in mind, it is a man who was greatly devoted to the king whose bone it was, and he is determined to obtain its restoration to the royal tomb. People are apt to laugh at magic, but it is a very real thing, whether black or white, and many disasters, including sudden death, have come to those who have systematically plundered the tombs. Every psychic manifestation however, by its cumulative effect, helps to spiritualize the earth, but I should certainly not advise you to become the owner of any such dangerous object. Now do you understand it better? The guardian of the tomb is merely carrying out his self-appointed duty of guarding his master’s property.

The Egyptians, as you know, laid great stress on the preservation of the physical body, and although this belief is based on ignorance of the fact that the worn-out body is of no further use to the spirit, it makes no difference to the powerful forces, some very destructive, that were deliberately shut up in the tombs. Many of the tombs are, of course, harmless, and many of the scarabs and little stone figures have no power to harm their present owners, especially where the Egyptian owner was an enlightened person, and no voodoo was put on his tomb. The fact that these manifestations have taken place will make people think and ask questions, as you have done, and so gain knowledge of spiritual facts.

Q. What happens to criminals on your side? Is there any truth in the theory of a final judgment day?

A. I will try to explain how we deal with criminals over here. Those whom we regard as the worst criminals are those who have had an opportunity of knowing the truth, but have refused to listen. They have not necessarily broken the laws of the world, but they have committed what Christ called “the sin against the Holy Ghost.” You, for instance, have learned that the spirit is not the physical body, and if you refuse to do your best to spread the truth and lived a life of selfishness, you would be punished far more severely than those who know nothing about it. As I have often told you, we meet everyone who comes over, and sooner or later, the soul makes a kind of balance-sheet showing his credits and debits, the former being the sum total of his good deeds and the latter the knowledge that was his.

Judgment is not quite the right word, since it implies the existence of a judge, whereas the decision is purely automatic, the result of the working of the natural law. Just as you get a blister on your hand if you burn it, so if you have done or left undone certain things, you automatically find yourself in a certain sphere. There is a fair assessment of your credits, and I cannot hope to make you realize the bitter regrets of those who look back and see how they have misused their opportunities.

All must progress, and nobody can grasp the conditions that lie ahead. I cannot yet appreciate the conditions of the sphere beyond the Summerland, but nobody ever wishes to return to any lower existence, just as you would not care to revert to the life of an amoeba. The amoeba is happy in its life because it cannot know of anything better, and even if you could make it understand what a much better time a frog has, it would doubtless prefer its own state, and might fear the transition just as you fear death. It is a difficult thing to explain, but some of those who seem to be least fitted for eternal life when judged by earthly standards, are the better able to adjust themselves to that life. By eternal life I mean the stage where reincarnation is no longer necessary.

Q. Is there any truth in the teaching of Christian Science?

A. The Christian Scientists have got hold of a partial truth when they emphasize the power of thought, for over here anything can be achieved by this means. I have known people recently arrived who remained lame or blind for a time, because they could not realize that their physical disabilities no longer existed. It takes time and patience to remedy the results of wrong-thinking on your side, and that is why we have hospitals and doctors. There is often the argument between doctor and patient, because some are so self opinionated that they will not believe that they have lost their physical ailments. There is a man here now who is blind, seeing nothing of his surroundings, merely because he does not believe what the doctors tell him. He was born blind, and he merely replies that he has tried the faith healing stunt before, and found it useless. In time he will recover his sight, because when on your side, he came over here during sleep, and was then able to see. The memory of these visits will gradually return to him and he will see as well as anybody.

From a relative who has passed…

We find it hard to make you grasp even a small fraction of the beauties and happiness of our life here. The details you cannot grasp, but it should suffice when I tell you that we are happy, and would never willingly return to earth. When I leave you, we shall go together to the temple where we worship God. You see, we still feel that divine worship helps us, and so do many others over here. The music is wonderful, and here again, we cannot explain to you the difference between your earth music and that of the heavenly hosts. Then we shall rest awhile in our garden, where the flowers are a constant delight. We have other occupations, such as teaching some of the people who have just arrived; H. is specially interested in these poor creatures coming over in large numbers from Spain. We have learned the language so that we can speak fluently to them, for when they arrive, naturally they do not understand our methods of communication by thought-transference.

The higher spheres are just as mysterious to us as ours is to you, and the Masters who come to help us tell us that the glories to come will make this life seem pale and dead by comparison. When I came over H. met me and explained that our previous religious ideas were erroneous, that life in the Summerland is far better than imagined on earth, that there is no sudden change into either saint or a devil, and that we have a long way to progress before we see God. He also explained that we had been too narrow in our views, and that it is wrong to suppose that those who hold views different from ours will not be ‘saved,’ and that even sin is merely part of evolution. You know, we used to look askance at the very word ‘evolution,’ regarding it as something anti-Christian. B., too, came and talked, and at first it was a great shock to me to learn that all I had been taught was incorrect.

One of the important differences between your world and ours is that here, nobody can be ill or injured, and that fear is unknown. On your side, fear is an important factor in your life, and even the most courageous feel fear; fear of illness, fear of losing the beloved by death, fear of losing one’s money and so forth. Over here, there is nothing to fear. Death no longer exists as a dread angel lying in wait for all, and even when we see our earth friends in trouble, we have no fear or sorrow, because we realize that the earth life is very short, and that soon you will all be over here.

That is what I want to emphasize; the joy of being here with no fear, or sorrow, or ill health. Newcomers are often perplexed because they do not understand that they have cast off their bodies. When we look forward, we know that there is nothing to fear in passing to a yet higher sphere, though that may not be for a very long time, as you count years. As far as I know, none that were on the earth with us have yet passed on to the next sphere. We sometimes see visitors from the next plane, who come to help their friends, and who sometimes lecture on the life beyond. The hour of your coming is known to us, but we are not allowed to tell you, as it might make you frightened. But remember that death is not a thing to dread, and that when you have arrived over here, all your troubles will be ended, and you will be able to help your friends the better for having known something about the life to come.

We were ignorant, and you are fortunate in having come into contact with spiritual things. Spiritualism never came our way, and as for your writing, we should have thought you were out of your mind! As we grow in spiritual experience, so we discard our earthly desires, and as we no longer need certain organs, so they slowly atrophy. I have all my teeth, and as to digestive organs, as far as I know, they are still there. But we neither perspire nor excrete in the same way, our food being different, and less material as we progress. We eat fruits and salad, but no meat or anything that would involve slaughter. In time, I am told, all nourishment comes from the atmosphere, and when we feel tired, we rest and inhale.

At first we have the earth habit of going to bed, but here again, as we use our new powers, so we need less rest. There is always plenty to do. You ask whether we need to wash. We certainly need no soap, as there is nothing here to produce dust or dirt, but we often bathe, because some streams possess certain powers, and we derive fresh energy in this way. Then, too, we often bathe in certain light rays, something like your U.V. rays, but far more powerful. At first we wear clothes like those on earth, but gradually, as we become used to the new life, we prefer something simpler.

You say that ‘robes’ sound clumsy. That is only because you do not understand, and I find it hard to explain. They might seem clumsy to you, but here one’s clothing seems to be a part of oneself, and the color varies according to one’s progress. You ask why nakedness should be indecent. The mere fact of being without clothing is not wrong, and with you, the idea has arisen merely because it might rouse certain evil passions. At first these passions may continue in the case of some people, but there is no sin over here, because we realize that for every infringement of the laws of nature, a penalty will have to be paid.

Excerpt from The Doorway