So much for the borderland, the intermediate condition. The present
Christian dogma has no name for it, unless it be that nebulous limbo
which is occasionally mentioned, and is usually defined as the place
where the souls of the just who died before Christ were detained. The
idea of crossing a space before reaching a permanent state on the other
side is common to many religions, and took the allegorical form of a
river with a ferry-boat among the Romans and Greeks. Continually, one
comes on points which make one realise that far back in the world's
history there has been a true revelation, which has been blurred and
twisted in time. Thus in Dr. Muir's summary of the RIG. VEDA, he
says, epitomising the beliefs of the first Aryan conquerors of India:
"Before, however, the unborn part" (that is, the etheric body) "can
complete its course to the third heaven it has to traverse a vast gulf
of darkness, leaving behind on earth all that is evil, and proceeding
by the paths the fathers trod, the spirit soars to the realms of
eternal light, recovers there his body in a glorified form, and obtains
from God a delectable abode and enters upon a more perfect life, which
is crowned with the fulfilment of all desires, is passed in the
presence of the Gods and employed in the fulfilment of their pleasure."
If we substitute "angels" for "Gods" we must admit that the new
revelation from modern spirit sources has much in common with the
belief of our Aryan fathers.
Such, in very condensed form, is the world which is revealed to us by
these wonderful messages from the beyond. Is it an unreasonable
vision? Is it in any way opposed to just principles? Is it not rather
so reasonable that having got the clue we could now see that, given any
life at all, this is exactly the line upon which we should expect to
move? Nature and evolution are averse from sudden disconnected
developments. If a human being has technical, literary, musical, or
other tendencies, they are an essential part of his character, and to
survive without them would be to lose his identity and to become an
entirely different man. They must therefore survive death if
personality is to be maintained. But it is no use their surviving
unless they can find means of expression, and means of expression seem
to require certain material agents, and also a discriminating audience.
So also the sense of modesty among civilised races has become part of
our very selves, and implies some covering of our forms if personality
is to continue. Our desires and sympathies would prompt us to live
with those we love, which implies something in the nature of a house,
while the human need for mental rest and privacy would predicate the
existence of separate rooms. Thus, merely starting from the basis of
the continuity of personality one might, even without the revelation
from the beyond, have built up some such system by the use of pure
reason and deduction.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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