NEUOFFENBARUNG31 May 1852
[JS.01_52.05.31,01] For a great many people whose heads and hearts are otherwise in the right place, if their faith is not especially strong, the momentous question still remains: is there another life after this brief earthly one, what form does it take, and will a person recognise himself as the one he was here? Further, will he retain his present consciousness and full recollection of all his earthly circumstances? Or will consciousness and recollection be more like those in a dream, in which the dreamer knows himself to be the same person he is in waking life on earth and is clearly conscious of his own identity, but is always in quite new circumstances? In a dream, almost all the outward conditions of this life cease to exist, apart from a few things deeply fixed in the mind, such as close relatives or familiar places that one has seen very often, spoken of vividly and inhabited as one's home. Even these almost always appear in unfamiliar circumstances and forms. And in the great beyond, under such spiritual conditions, which might closely resemble a vivid dream, is there a reunion in which people know one another well?
[JS.01_52.05.31,02] And I, the Lord, say in answer to this wide-ranging question: yes, one way or the other! It depends on how fully a person has lived this earthly life of trial in accordance with My order, which I have revealed to all people.
[JS.01_52.05.31,03] Whoever has already attained the true and full rebirth of his spirit here, as anyone readily can, and lives here in that fully reborn state, sees the world of spirits and all its conditions as clearly as he sees the material world, including the corresponding influence the former exerts on the latter. Laying aside his body, which in any case is incapable of living consciousness or any recollection, cannot possibly bring about any change in his thinking, willing, remembering or most vivid inward and outward awareness.
[JS.01_52.05.31,04] For if life, with all that acts upon it and all its effects, has already passed wholly into the spirit on this side, that spirit remains for ever in the highest and purest self-awareness, eternally above all matter. It brings matter into a seemingly external existence only as a thought fixed for a definite time or an idea held in place. To anyone who thinks with any clarity, it should therefore be plain enough to grasp, particularly since a thousand instances from the lives of somnambulists, seers and prophets are available for consideration, that the purely spiritual life beyond must be much brighter and more clearly conscious of itself and of all other inward and outward events, states and conditions of life. It must be so in proportion as the spirit for ever stands above all matter, which, as shown, is simply a fixed expression of its thoughts and ideas, while the spirit is itself light, life, power and the fullest consciousness in itself.
[JS.01_52.05.31,05] Since all who live according to My order, and not just one, pass into the same most perfect life, the question whether they will meet again is idle. If people can recognise one another and meet again in this imperfect life of the chrysalis, as they can neither deny nor doubt, how much more will they have that capacity in the most perfect, purely spiritual life, where their whole being is the imperishable expression and fundamental principle of all life and of all its conditions and events! Even in this world, through the body, the soul recognises people it knows and is related to by means of the spirit within it. It can make friends with others and come to be wholly akin to them, and always knows them again as such by their appearance and character. If soul and spirit can do this through all the thousand prison walls of the body, which is dead in itself, how much more will the soul be able to do so in its completely free state! This has already been observed only too often in many somnambulists who, with their eyes tightly shut, quickly and remarkably well recognised not only their surroundings, often down to the innermost ground of life, but also people in distant lands about whom they were asked, with all their circumstances and affairs. And yet the soul of even the clearest-sighted somnambulist is far from being as free as even a more imperfect soul is once its body has fallen away.
[JS.01_52.05.31,06] Imperfect souls darken more and more all too soon after being freed from the body, and the cause lies in their evil will. Such souls then see nothing more of the world. This is very necessary, for if they could see it, they would do considerable harm to the world, and especially to those they counted as enemies. Such souls, or rather spirits, then see only what develops out of their imagination, like a dream world of the lowest kind. They often remain in such a world of imagination for hundreds of years. They do not see the souls that keep arriving, even if these were their closest relatives on earth and see them at once. They see only their enduring world of imagination. The angels can therefore reach them with instruction only through correspondences, which they are able to introduce into the world imagined by such blind souls.
[JS.01_52.05.31,07] If they accept instruction and thereby amend their will, their imagined world gradually disappears. They come more and more into true light and the sight of all that exists, and so meet their relatives and friends again. They soon recognise them as such and take real joy in them.
[JS.01_52.05.31,08] But if they do not amend themselves, they remain for ages upon ages in their ever-worsening dream world. There can then be no question of a joyful reunion or of recognising one another. A person engrossed in material things, in a very material dream, cannot remember anything of his outward circumstances and conditions of life, and sees only what his imagination puts before him as if it were solid. A darkened soul in the world beyond is even less able to remember or recognise anything within the sphere of its dreams. There it is never active, but always subject to suffering, and therefore cannot free itself by its own means for a time that, measured by this earth, is almost eternal.
[JS.01_52.05.31,09] Anyone who is not at least half reborn in the spirit here comes more or less into the state described above in the world beyond. He can help himself there as little as the embryo in the womb, whose stirrings and movements depend on the mother's necessary outward condition. Yet such souls are in a peculiar situation, somewhat different from that of the embryo in the womb. To put it in terms people can understand, the embryo in the womb, as a creature taking shape anew, is wholly passive, whereas the darkened soul is of itself active and suffering at the same time. Because it will not cease to be active, it cannot become inactive and thus cease to suffer.
[JS.01_52.05.31,10] How does this come about?
[JS.01_52.05.31,11] Suppose someone in this world has done very little, or more often nothing at all, to bring to life and develop what his soul carries hidden in its heart. He has devoted everything to the outward intellect and used it to follow carefully calculated paths to acquire worldly treasures, of whatever kind or name, so that by means of them he might obtain the finest pleasures and gratifications, agreeable in every possible way. When such a person's soul arrives in the world beyond, its divine chamber of light is tightly barricaded and shut. The light of the earthly intellect is really only a combination of outward, material images of light visible to the soul on the many millions of surfaces of the little plates of the brain. From these the soul is always making calculations in the manner of foolish astrologers, and then feels compelled by something like the power of the grossest superstition to act accordingly. This light stays behind in the world anyway, like the picture gallery of a collector when he dies. The result is that such a soul must arrive in the world of spirits in utter darkness. It retains nothing but consciousness, or the expression of life, and only so much recollection of its earthly conditions and affairs as is recorded in corresponding forms in the soul's brain chamber, which corresponds to the bodily brain. The ever-sensitive soul feels these forms and becomes aware of them even if, owing to its darkness, it cannot see them clearly.
[JS.01_52.05.31,12] It should be easy to understand, and even to feel vividly, how soon such a state becomes unbearable to a soul accustomed to all the pleasures of life. Such a soul soon falls into great fear and anxiety and finally into great vexation and anger, through which a kind of glow develops within it.
[JS.01_52.05.31,13] Wherever anyone sees intense activity even in the material world held under judgement, such as a violent storm, a strong sea breaking on the shore, great friction between two objects of the same or different kinds, two hard bodies pressing powerfully on one another, and the like, he will also notice, especially at night, the production of fire or light, or at least a glimmer. Natural philosophers call this by the general but not always appropriate name of electricity. At bottom, in full truth, it is nothing but an agitation of the spirits of nature, held more or less firmly captive in all matter, which can be agitated all the sooner and more readily the more firmly they are held. Where they are held more loosely, as in air, water, clay and all kinds of other fluids and soft substances, correspondingly more vigorous movement or activity is needed. The spirits of nature, unable to escape it quickly enough, are then agitated, and their very rapid vibration within the light, highly transparent envelope that holds them captive becomes visible as light or a glow.
[JS.01_52.05.31,14] Anyone with a little power of observation can readily see and recognise from thousands of phenomena in the natural world that this agitation of the spirits of nature consists in vibration. Whenever a person or even an animal is greatly stirred in mind by anything, a trembling can be seen, arising solely from the agitation of the spirits of nature held captive in flesh and blood. A string on a musical instrument vibrates when it is struck or jolted, because the spirits held captive in the matter of the string are agitated by the blow or jolt. The flame of every light, which is simply an act in which the spirits of nature held captive in matter are set free, consists in a continually visible vibration arising from the activity of the spirits as they are freed. There are thousands upon thousands of similar phenomena in which the same process can be observed.
[JS.01_52.05.31,15] It has been said that, through the loss of its worldly light and all the pleasures that spring from it, the soul falls first into great fear and anxiety and finally into great vexation and anger, whereby a kind of glow is produced within it. This glow arises in the soul's being, by correspondence, in exactly the same way as in the natural world.
[JS.01_52.05.31,16] Fear is the first stirring of the innumerable constituent powers of soul and spirit present in each individual soul. As all these powers begin to tremble ever more violently, the space allotted to their form soon becomes too narrow. Since the outward form in which these countless powers are united in one life soon becomes too narrow, and cannot and must not be enlarged so readily, the result is necessarily an ever stronger thrusting and pressing in every direction. In the concrete whole, or rather in the one life, this makes itself felt as anxiety.
[JS.01_52.05.31,17] If the thrusting and pressing persist and grow more violent, a spiritual fermentation arises, which is called vexation. Just as in nature the result of an increasingly violent fermentation is full ignition, so the final result of the great fermentation of the soul's constituent powers is full ignition, and this is called anger. From such anger comes the appearance of the glow, which, growing more and more intense, passes at last into a full blaze. This is the most evil manifestation of life, called rage, and in the strictest sense it is hell.
[JS.01_52.05.31,18] When a departed soul thus falls into the glow described, it begins to see very faintly the spiritual marks present in its brain and soon recognises much that is merely evil and little that is good in its being. In this twilight it often takes a gnat for an elephant and an elephant for a gnat. From such perceptions there develop in the soul all kinds of airy, transparent and, one might say, formless forms, like the castles in the air of a young man in love on earth. With a very vivid imagination these often become distinctly visible for a few moments, but at the slightest disturbance of mind dissolve into nothing.
[JS.01_52.05.31,19] In this way the soul can bring nothing into lasting reality. The momentary images, distorted rather than well ordered, only provoke and excite it more and more, until even the innermost part begins to feel ‘shocks to the heart’. This brings that innermost part into activity of a completely opposite kind.
[JS.01_52.05.31,20] Through this activity of its primal spirit from God the wild activity of the soul is calmed, so that in the end the soul falls into a kind of sleep within itself and rests. In this rest, more closely united with its primal spirit from Me, it enters a dream proper. Because it feels quite at ease in that state, it stays there. The early investigators of the soul and of life called this state the sleep of the soul.
[JS.01_52.05.31,21] The primal spirit, now working in the heart of the soul against its desires, creates more and more images for it. Some always contain what appeals to the soul's self-loving disposition and its craving for rule and pleasure. But as soon as the soul tries greedily to seize them in its dream, which it naturally takes for reality, they either come to nothing or recede and flee away. The soul is also presented with what is good for it. If it takes hold of this and uses it for its true good, it remains, and a solid and lasting world for the soul thus begins to develop out of the dream.
[JS.01_52.05.31,22] The more the soul takes hold of what its primal spirit offers it, the more it becomes united with it. It thus enters imperceptibly into its primal spirit and with it into the primal light and all the truth from it. It soon recognises itself again fully, along with all its acquaintances and relatives, and is then usually led by them to Me Myself. There, according to the measure of its perfection and union with its spirit, it receives ever more light and wisdom and the full capacity to look into the natural worlds and work beneficially in them. In this case, that reunion in many ways is an entirely natural consequence of spiritual perfection needs no further proof.
[JS.01_52.05.31,23] But what happens afterwards to those souls whose desire in the dream life beyond for the images and appearances their selfish and pleasure-seeking disposition craves cannot be driven out by the good appearances? What happens, I ask, to such a soul when it falls into greater and greater rage because it cannot reach and hold on to the objects of pleasure conjured up before it? Is there a reunion in this case too? No, I say, here there is no reunion!
[JS.01_52.05.31,24] Such a soul's own spirit then becomes its most unrelenting judge. In the end it allows the soul to reach the things and objects shown to it and take pleasure in them after its wicked inclination. But such pleasure always causes the soul the greatest, most burning pain and plunges it back into utter darkness for a long time.
[JS.01_52.05.31,25] The spirit then allows a soul so darkened, in its greatest rage, which burns through it and thus gives it an evil light by which to perceive its own kind outside itself, actually to come together with souls of its own kind.
[JS.01_52.05.31,26] Alliances and bands then form at once among those who begin to share their rage with one another. They entrench themselves against the enemies they encounter in ways most disagreeable to them in their dream life, which such souls take for reality. Burning with vengeance, they resolve to do all they can to kill themselves sooner than submit to any further divine order, however slight.
[JS.01_52.05.31,27] They often remain a long time within such defences, for which they draw the material from their imagination, in so far as they are capable of imagining anything by the glow of their rage. They only grow more vexed, angry and enraged. Then they break through their own defences and go in hordes to look for the enemy, since none has tried to break in and give them a chance to cool their vengeance on him. But their search is in vain. They only meet other hordes of their own kind looking for the enemy. They soon make common cause and all search for the enemy with great haste, but naturally never find one.
[JS.01_52.05.31,28] Once several thousand of these miserable souls are gathered, the mass looks to the eyes of pure spirits in the world of spirits rather like the glow in the air on earth when a house burns down in a valley somewhere. They choose the one who glows most brightly, whom they take for the bravest and wisest, as their leader. He leads them across ground that usually also corresponds to the imagination of such souls, either a dark sandy steppe or a boundless plain on which nothing but dry moss is to be seen. After a long wandering over such ground in great hunger and thirst, they usually find nothing but perhaps another such wandering horde under a leader who glows strongly. Then either they attack one another in a fury of vengeance, tearing and maiming one another, or they unite under two leaders. This at once causes constant friction, since each leader wants to be first, and in a short time it nevertheless brings about war between the two hordes.
[JS.01_52.05.31,29] When these most unhappy souls have virtually torn one another to little pieces in such wars, all in appearance only, of course, they come to a measure of rest again. Their spirit then shows them once more, as in a clearer dream, how futile, fruitless and vain their blindly foolish efforts were, and shows them the better way to turn back.
[JS.01_52.05.31,30] Sometimes a few accept such guidance and turn back. Most, however, become quite mad after such a vision and fall back into the state of soul alone, without spirit, which then becomes far worse than it was at first. Such states are already hell, from which a way out is hard to find! Anyone who does not take the narrow path through his own heart will never find his way and can remain in such a hell for numbers of earthly years on the order of 10¹⁸ and 10⁶⁰.
[JS.01_52.05.31,31] It has now been shown how the life of the soul in the world beyond takes two sharply opposed main directions and conditions, either upwards or downwards. All this is intended to depict only the two broad outlines, as stated, the sharpest opposition, rather than every phenomenon in the world of spirits.
[JS.01_52.05.31,32] Between these two principal states there are countless appearances that need not be depicted here, for they have been shown more than sufficiently in the works ‘The Spiritual Sun’, ‘Earth and Moon’ and ‘Scenes from the World of Spirits’, and in part in various other communications and testimonies from nature. But all the appearances described there, of whatever kind, rest on the main principle now shown, and the fundamental paths, upwards or downwards, are in themselves the same.
[JS.01_52.05.31,33] The true reunion itself comes only in the kingdom of God, that is, in heaven. Heaven fills all infinity as regards space and is therefore present everywhere, but a person can reach it only through his heart.
[JS.01_52.05.31,34] There are nevertheless many people now in the world so engrossed in material things that they have not the least idea of the spiritual conditions of things. They read of ‘spirits of nature’ here and do not understand what they are or what they consist in. A very brief explanation of nature shall therefore follow.
[JS.01_52.05.31,35] The whole creation, material as well as purely spiritual, is simply an idea from the heart or life of the Godhead itself, held in place by the almighty will of the Godhead. Since it comes from God, it is spiritual at its deepest foundation. If the whole so-called material creation were released from being continually held in place, as God could very easily do, it would again take its place in the mind of God as one great, wholly spiritual thought, visible only to the Godhead. Then there would be an end to bringing countless beings into free, independent existence.
[JS.01_52.05.31,36] But God wills unceasingly and for ever that His great thoughts and ideas should continually be brought into the freest independent existence. For this to be possible, all divine thoughts and ideas must stand fixed and unalterable for the sake of His plans and purposes. God therefore took the only effective way:
[JS.01_52.05.31,37] The countless thoughts and ideas must, as it were, be made progressively freer in every kind of minute spiritual particle. Yet they must long be attracted and held by some principal idea of God, which appears as a celestial body suspended and fixed in the endless space of thoughts and ideas. Gradually, according to their affinity, they come together more and more and pass into ever greater beings, up to the human being.
[JS.01_52.05.31,38] The particles set more and more free from the overall principal idea, the celestial body, and those still held in it are called ‘spirits of nature’ up to the human stage. These freer spirits of nature, or forces of nature as worldly scholars call them, are already active in themselves in the air, water or softer earth. There they entice the spirits still held firmly captive out into freedom, unite with them and envelop themselves in the less free spirits, forming all sorts of living forms: first plants, from these little animals, and larger and larger animals, up to the human being. There, as the soul and also, in their coarser and less free part, as its body, they are sufficiently ripe for completely free independence. Only then are they taken up again by God's primal being itself and put through a proper course of training and exercise, though at first still as if from outside, for the ensuing purely spiritual, everlasting state.
[JS.01_52.05.31,39] Those who consent to undergo such training and willingly enter the order in which alone their eternally independent and freest state of life is possible will also come to the great reunion with Him from whom they came. They will see how, from where and through whose power, wisdom and unchanging perseverance they have come from actual non-existence into the fullest, freest and most independent existence and understanding.
[JS.01_52.05.31,40] At the same time, because they are of one and the same being with their primal ground, they will in the same way, to their great joy, bring new creations into being out of wisdom that is now their very own, yet wholly like divine wisdom. Thus in full accord with My order they will be creators of their very own heavens, and will come to see all their thoughts and ideas again as realised.
[JS.01_52.05.31,41] And all this will then be a great, everlasting reunion made real in the boundless fullness of all that a divine spirit holds inexhaustibly within itself for ever. Only then is the great reunion complete!
[JS.01_52.05.31,42] I think that whoever has eyes to see and ears to hear will be able to draw from this, to his eternal benefit, an indescribable wealth towards full knowledge of the spiritual life.
[JS.01_52.05.31,43] But whoever reads it merely from a kind of curiosity and subjects it to the file of his worldly intellect will one day fare exactly as described here. For My mercy cannot and must never extend beyond the bounds of My unchangeable order, which has now been shown from its very foundations. This order is in and of itself My eternal mercy.
[JS.01_52.05.31,44] Whoever oversteps the bounds of this order will have only himself to blame for an exceedingly long and most unhappy state in the world beyond. Each person must shape himself if he is to be what he ought to be. If someone will not take this trouble, he must remain in the eternally necessary judgement until he begins to reshape himself, which would cost the soul a hard struggle!
[JS.01_52.05.31,45] Let each of you beware, then, of selfishly striving for earthly goods, wealth, splendour and standing. Let each be generous in charity, as far as his means allow, towards his poorer brothers and sisters. Then the struggle with darkness will be easy for him. Amen.
[JS.01_52.05.31,46] This the Lord of all life says to you all. Amen. Amen. Amen.