LETTERS FROM THE AFTERLIFE

by Elsa Barker

I am about to say something which may shock certain persons; but those who are too fond of their own ideas, without being willing to grant others their ideas in turn, should not seek to open the jealously guarded doors which separate the land of the so-called living from the land of the certainly not dead. This is the statement which I have to make: that there are many gods, and that the One God is the sum total of all of them. All gods exist in God. Do what you like with that statement, dear world, for truth is more vital than anybody’s dream, even yours or mine. Have I seen God? I have seen Him who has been called the Son of God, and you may remember that He said that whoever had seen the Son had seen the Father.

At no time is the sympathetic power between men and spirits so strong as when men are laboring under some intense emotion, be it love or hate, or anger, or any other excitement. For then the fiery element in man is most active, and spirits are attracted by fire.

Have you not often seen a child enjoying himself with unseen playfellows? You would call them imaginary playfellows. Perhaps they were, perhaps they were not imaginary. To imagine may be to create, or it may be to attract things already created.

Never weep—unless you must, to restore lost equilibrium. The weeping spirits, however, are rather harmless because they are weak. Sometimes a storm of tears, when it is past, clears the soul’s atmosphere; but while the weeping is in progress, the atmosphere is thick with weeping spirits. One could almost hear the drip of their tears through the veil of ether—if the sobbing earthly one did not make so much noise with his grief. “Laugh and the world laughs with you,” may be true enough; but when you weep, you do not weep alone.

You see the point I wish to make. The “deceitful spirits,” of which the frequenters of séance rooms so often make complaint, are these astral actors, who may even come to take a certain pride in the cleverness of their art. Be not too sure that the spirit who claims to be your deceased grandfather is that estimable old man himself. He may be merely an actor playing a part, for his own entertainment and yours. How is one to tell, you ask? One cannot always tell. I should say, however, that the surest test of all would be the deep and unemotional conviction that the veritable entity was in one’s presence. There is an instinct in the human heart which will never deceive us, if we without fear or bias will yield ourselves to its decision. How often in worldly matters have we all acted against this inner monitor, and been deceived and led astray!

If you have an instinctive feeling that a certain invisible—or even visible—entity is not what it claims to be, it is better to discontinue the conference. If it is the real person, and if he has anything vital to say, he will come again and again;

for the so-called dead are often very desirous to communicate with the living.

Men and women do not cease to be human merely

by crossing the frontier of what you call the invisible world. In fact, the human characteristics are often exaggerated, because the restraints are fewer.

So, even

after I am gone, do not shut the door too tight, in case I should want to come again, for I might have something immensely important to say.

Do not forget the dead, unless they are strong enough to be happy without your remembrance; but do not lean too heavily upon them.

the ordinary soul is very sensitive to the call of those it loved on earth.

Did you ever smell suddenly a sweet perfume

which you could not account for? If so, perhaps some one who loved you was scattering invisible flowers. Love is stronger than death.

The surest way to escape that painful period of transition is to go into the hereafter with a full faith in immortality, a full faith in the power of the soul to create its own conditions.

The love of Christ is always present in the world, because there are always hearts that keep it alight. If the idea of Christ as a redeemer should ever grow faint

in the world, He would probably go back there and relight the flame in human hearts; but whatever the writers of statistics may say, that idea was never more real than at present.

Forget, if you can, the sins you have committed in the flesh. You cannot escape the effects of those causes; but you can avoid strengthening the tie with sin, you can avoid going back to earth self-hypnotized with the idea that you are a sinner.

Will to progress after death, and you will progress; will to learn, and you will learn; will to return to earth after a time to take up a special work, and you will return and take up that work Karma is an iron law, yes; but you are the creator of karma.

Do not, while still on earth, invoke the spirits of the dead. They may be busy elsewhere, and you may be strong enough to call them away from their own business to attend to yours unwillingly.

Do not be too egotistically insistent, even with the so-called dead. If your need is great, the souls who love you may feel it and come to you of their own accord. This is often illustrated in the earth life, among those whose psychic pores are open.

Habits formed in the flesh have a tendency to continue after the flesh is laid aside. That is a reason why one should keep as free as possible from physical habits.