If they had been wise they would have sought to learn the lesson of patience in the earlier years of their lives, but by the goodness of the Great Power often a longer span is given unto some souls so that they may learn more complete lessons and bring their treasures of experience into the spirit realm with them. Therefore, often what appears to be an unjust or bitter experience is a blessing which will not be revealed until their life journey is completed.

 Do we carry our earth memories entirely with us into the spirit world?

 Those who have lived wisely in the earthly experience, as they relinquish the etheric body go through what we call the Halls of Forgetfulness - the halls where old memories are cleansed away. So, before you become fully involved in your spiritual body you are taken through a place of cleansing in which the memory of your disease, or the memory of your inhibitions, might be slowly washed away, that you can become a free and a happy spirit in the places of the spirit. That is why, sometimes, your dear ones of the spirit may try to return to give to you a message of their love, and you may feel confused because they do not always remember their age, or their illness, or their suffering, or whatever troubled them in the earthly life, and you will not know that they have been through the Halls of Forgetfulness, which are to eradicate some part of that painfulness.

 Can you tell us about the homes we may inhabit when we leave our physical bodies?

 This is difficult to answer, for the homes of the spirit are many and diverse, and each one is designed to fulfil the needs of the individual. Because your thoughts and your feelings are creative, often, without your awareness, you are creating the very home in which you will dwell, after you leave your mortal body.

 When I wander on journeys of discovery through the many planes of spirit existence, I see the differing kinds of homes into which the loved ones go. Here and there, there will be a large building, surrounded by beautiful gardens filled with peace. In this place there are to be seen those men or those women who once spent their life within the walls of a monastery, or within the walls of a convent. They loved the chapels and the gardens in which the years of their lives passed gently away in  service and in prayer and in contemplation. So these beings, coming to the closure of their mortal life, go to the semblance of the place they have created in the regions of the spirit (the semblance of a monastery or a convent) where they will continue to lead their lives in love, in unity, in prayerfulness for those who are still in the earthly world, or who belong to the order which was once the joy of their life; or they pray and love souls such as yourselves, who are linked to them by ties of love and recollection. But they call this place their ‘home�?because it is the reflection of the place and the home they loved when they were in the mortal world.

 Then again, wandering through the many places of discovery, I behold sometimes a little dwelling place, shining with a pearly-white radiance, with windows which gleam and shine; around this little dwelling there are many blooming flowers and blossoms, and small paths that twist and turn within a familiar garden. In such a small dwelling there is a man and a woman living quietly together, in the peace of the spirit life, in this replica of the little home that they once had when they were in the earthly world, sometimes known as a ‘cottage�? It is small, but shining and beautiful, with a pearly-radiance that is the symbol of the love they built into their home during their devotion to each other, and the love they had for their simple home and garden in the earthly life.

 You may say - “Why should they have so humble a place if they led lives of simple beauty and love and kindliness; why do they not have a shining large dwelling?�?They do not have it, beloved ones, because they do not want it; they have what they love and they have what they have created.

 Will you tell us a little about family relationships in the world of the spirit?

 If real love has held together a family in the earthly life and that reality of love continues into the life of the spirit, then the family will continue as a group through many experiences and many spheres of the spirit life. But if the family on the earthly side has only been held together by a common interest in the possession of property, or by the common bond of a similar name, or simply by the bond of duty, then when death dissolves those bonds they may no longer hold together as a family circle  . . . Many persons in the earthly life remain in a relationship that is not necessarily real love but one which is compounded of loyalty and duty and sometimes necessity; although there may be tolerance and understanding in that relationship, if there is not love then it will not continue here into the life of the spirit.

 What joy there is for those who are conjoined together again in this unity, this wonderful renewal of love, for these will find a dwelling in the great open spiritual fields, often remaining together for long periods of time, simply exchanging thought and affection. Even as in the mortal life lovers will sit silently holding hands and looking one to the other for long periods of time, so in the life of the spirit those who are bonded by love may often remain seated together in a closeness of unity and an exchange of lovingness for what may seem to you in the earthly worlds as months, sometimes years, before eventually they decide to move on into other spheres of spirit activity, in which they may serve and grow or learn of other things and of other places.

 After a season in this Summerland, there may come the experience of reunion with other spirits who have not necessarily belonged to the family in this earthly life, but who have known each other in other places and in other experiences. Sometimes these spirits become known as guides and helpers, and some are spirits who have loved that one in another life experience, in centuries which have long gone by. So gradually there may be established a new, loving group which can be known as a family group, but not necessarily a family group according to your earthly understanding.

 When we think of our loved ones in spirit we sometimes wonder what work they are doing? Can you enlighten us about this?

 Many labours are undertaken within the places of the spirit, but you must not expect your loved ones always to continue in the same work which they undertook in the earthly existence. The work which they may do in spirit will be that which has been the secret and unsatisfied desire of the soul. One who may have wished to sing, but instead cooked and laboured for the family, when freed from the body will sing within the heavenly choirs. One who desired to create music with the fingers and then discovered that the hands were crippled by disease or stiffened by labour, will come to the ‘music places�?in spirit and will play (if they so wish) upon an instrument as large as the largest organ ever visualised, or may play upon instruments of gold with silver strings, so that their music goes forth like the sound of silver bells. Those who wished to heal will indeed continue to create life and harmony wherever it should be needed. Those who, in the inner searching of the soul, desired only to find their god (seeking through readings of many books, the praying of many prayers, and the study of many philosophies) will seek once more in love for unity with the great Creator of the nights and the days . . . and shall find the answer to their questions.

 Can you tell us what happens to young people who pass to spirit before they reach maturity?

 The young spiritual soul, when separated from the mortal and physical body, is taken by teachers and loving spirits into the regions of light and into the gardens of peace, that therein development and unfoldment may be completed in the care of wise and loving spirits. Groups of spirit children are trained to come into earth's atmosphere from time to time to blend their influence with the influence of earth's dweller. As they do this, so are they able to shed and share some of the love within the emotional body amongst earth's people; and they become aware of the heaviness, the weariness and the loneliness experienced by earth's dwellers.

 They come, too, when you are seated in your times of meditation, or in your little groups seeking to quicken and develop your psychic and spiritual powers. For as you sit thus, often a person sinks into stagnation and sleepiness, instead of peace. But when the groups of children circle round such a group, then they impart movement, a quickening vibration, power and joy to the people seated in such a place; as they dance, move and sing, their vibration often emits a little sparkling dust of radiant light which may be seen to the clairvoyant eye by some still in the earthly body. When the children return into their spirit schools they will be full of questions, asking: “Why are the earthly dwellers encloaked in grey? Why is the atmosphere of the earthly world so heavy: Why are my parents who love me well so filled with tears? What is the purpose of the earthly existence?�?The teachers who love and teach them will try by symbol and by truth to give to their enquiring minds the answers that they seek. For as these children learn the truths and understand the lessons, so in the fullness of time they may be enabled to give to some developing medium a part of their knowledge and their truth.

 These children are not only conjoined in unity unto their parents or unto the circles of mediums seeking development, but often they may be brought unto the beds of those who are sick, who are weary with pain. In each of your great hospitals there are wise and lovely spirits - women who in their earthly existence served as nursing nuns or nursing sisters and who still continue their ministry of love in these places of illness. When they may need it these lovely souls will send forth a request unto the spirit children that they may come into these places, to share their joy with the children who in their bodies are weary with pain or sickness of the body.

 And, sometimes, these spirit children will minister unto the aged and lonely, conjoining themselves in unity with an ageing man or woman so that their love may lighten the burden of loneliness in the heart, and this old one, waiting quietly for the call to spirit, will be comforted, whenever that call may come.

 What is the effect on the spirit of burial of the body in the earth?

 Quite often the spirit may linger in the region of the burial place. It would be good if your people should know this, so that as you walk through these grey burial places you may sometimes broadcast light and peace and love through your thoughts unto any who may be held there in that area. In places such as France and other lands, there are burial vaults created wherein all members of the family are placed. In such places, if the spirit is an ignorant one, it may retain its linkage to the body and be held within the vicinity of this vault for some considerable time. If this is so, then communication will not be possible between such departed spirits and those who may wish to contact them, unless they can draw the spirits away from their place of rest by establishing a psychic contact.

 Here in your own land, as the bodies are laid to rest in these burial places, so there has become established groups of spirits whose task it is to watch over these areas and try to reach the spirits of those who have died, as the coffins are committed into the earth.

 Remember that you who have knowledge of these things can send out light unto the spirits of those whom you know have died in the lonely places of the earth, or whose bodies were hastily laid to rest in the bosom of the earth itself. As you send out your thoughts and prayers to them, speed them on their way in peace.

 So will there be an increase in earth's cleanliness, for some of the illness of your people today comes about because they are influenced by the spirits of the departed, who are still attached to the little homes in which they lived, or to the possessions which once they used. These flats or rooms in which many of you live - people move in and out, but very seldom do earth people think to purify the atmosphere, or to charge the place with light, so that any spirit that may be hovering there may not affect the new dwellers, as they move into these little dwelling places.

 Is cremation a good thing?

 If the life is lived without a true understanding of spiritual truths, with an undue concentration upon the satisfaction of the desires of the body, and with a degree of greed in which it tries to attract toward the body the wealth of the world, then it becomes like a magnetic centre to which all these things are attracted, and at the time of death does not suddenly cease. So it is good that such a body should be submitted to the cleansing element of fire, for fire will cleanse all these appetites and will destroy all that has related to the purely physical body and to the purely physical plane. Then may the soul be freed from its ties with the mortal world and be enabled to move into the life of the spirit, unencumbered by the weight of the old desires.

I would also say to you that for those of you who are concerned with the proper disposal of the body of those whom you have loved, it is good to remember that the spirit of the beloveds may hover near to the body for a little season of time, and therefore you should allow a period of three or four days and nights before you bring the body to the purification by fire, otherwise, the departing spirit may not know sufficiently that death has intervened and has freed it from the bodyself. Many do not know they have died until they hear the familiar words of your service of burial and your farewell words unto their soul. So when one whom you love is dying you should speak to the departing spirit in your prayerful thoughts or with your own words, saying: “Depart in peace, look toward the light, look to see your guide or your mother or father. Go in peace and know that we love you�? In your thought and in your love lift them unto the thoughts of the Great Light which is dawning in the after-death state.

 Some Christians subscribe to the belief that when one dies, one remains in the grave until the day of resurrection - is this true?

 This is sometimes true. If the individual dies holding within the inner consciousness the thought ‘this is the end, now I must rest and sleep until I am awakened�? then that consciousness will remain in the vicinity of the burying place.

 So we have groups of ministering spirits who, from time to time, will visit places of this nature and they will bring sometimes a musician, or may even influence an earthly musician to go to that place to blow or play upon their trumpet, to create sound which the sleeping one may hear, and will think ‘this is the great call�?and will go toward the sound; they can then be led higher by the ministering ones into the places of greater light and knowledge.

 Heaven (or paradise), hell, and the day of judgment: are these things really true, or are they only mythology?

 There is a certain degree of myth, and there is a degree of truth in such beliefs. There is the place known as heaven, which we call the Summerland, or the places of peace. There are also the grey spheres into which some souls go at the time of their death, because they are still loaded with their own unsatisfied desires. There is also a time when, after the death of the physical body, the soul goes through a time of review in which it may see the happenings of the mortal existence and will see its successes and the failures, but it is not judged by any judge, it is judged by its own feeling of failure or by its own feeling of happiness and joy. The only judgment that may be experienced may sometimes be in a feeling of shame in the thought that other minds in the spirit are able to see the particular result of the experiences, or the failures in the mortal life.

 Those who have served as mediums, as co-operators with spirits and the healers, do they fare better when they pass to the spirit existence?

 It is true that those who have blended their consciousness with that of spirits of light and of wisdom, when they come to the time of dying, are (as it were) drawn up by gold chains of spirit love and by silver chains of spirit inspiration, because the ‘guide�?who has inspired the medium during the years of earthly serving is always on a higher plane, and so he (or she) ‘goes before�?and lifts the medium into a higher state of understanding. Death for the Spiritualist takes place in knowledge, but death for the non-Spiritualist takes place sometimes with faith, sometimes with hope, but it does not take place with the light of knowledge. Knowledge sheds a clear and a beautiful radiance, by means of which the newly-born spirit, who leaves the body through death, can tread safely and securely through all the different aspects of experience and through all the different regions of knowledge.

 You can help them by realising that what they mostly need is your recognition and light, for those who end their lives in what is termed “suicide�?do so because of some great shadow of fear and loneliness. It is a greyness in the soul and, therefore, as the body dies and the soul is freed, often it will find itself in a place that is grey and cold, where they may feel very alone and sometimes afraid. As they are still nearer to the earth plane than to the spirit plane, a person wishing to help should speak the name of the departed one, sending prayers of love and encouragement, saying: “Look for the light! Look for the light!�?The soul will receive your thought and begin to look for the light in the plane wherein they find themselves. Always there will be nearby a ministering spirit who radiates light, and as they look toward that spirit then that ministering one may come to give aid or comfort to the one in the state of lonely greyness.

 Some commit suicide because they have been oppressed by oppressors, or reach starvation because there is an insufficiency of nourishment, some simply see no reason for continuing to live, and some do this deed because they are unable to continue to face the difficulties of the mortal world, or because they are ashamed of something they have committed. Those who calmly, quietly and prayerfully decide that they can no longer continue with a disease, or a starving or an ageing body, may commit this suicide, but because the physical body has already been lightened of its energies through their illness or starvation or agedness, then they can rise rather rapidly because the ethereal bodies are not so heavy.

 There are always exceptions and many reasons why earth's people come to the termination of their mortal experiences, and we wish that you would not send out to them thoughts of despair and horror, but rather lift them on prayers of light and thoughts of encouragement.

 *This theme has also been discussed in The Wisdom of Ramadahn.

 What retribution is there for the instigators of the last war and the tyrants who killed so many people in gas chambers - and what was the reason these people had to die?

 The reason they had to die was because there was a great massing together of the great laws of cause and effect. But those who brought about the deaths of those many people will - when they come to their own time of death - inevitably have to face the vision of what they did and the results of their deeds in the lives of those who followed after. Therefore, they are those who are running and running through the lower spheres, seeking to escape the realisation of that which they did.

 But there are some who obeyed orders, because if they did not obey, then their families would be destroyed; therefore, for the love of their families they obeyed the laws of the land of that time, and committed those deeds. So, for them some part of the law of love will be operating and there will not be, as you would term it, a total retribution for them, because the circumstances by means of which these deeds were done were also part of the great karma of their time.

 Many have asked about the soul known as Hitler. This soul retreated into the very dark shadows, but he had a mother who loved him, and his mother spirit does not cease to love her son, no matter what he may have done. So that mother undertakes a ministry of love and from time to time will go, with the aid of other spirits, into the place of shadows and try to show him some manner in which he may heal the many wrongs which occurred during his life's experience. As with him, so is it for many others.

 In your mortal world there is no soul who is not loved by at least one spirit, and even if such a soul refused to admit the presence of such a one because he is so involved with his own shame, still we have our own ways of penetrating through the shadows. Unto some we would take a simple animal soul, from whom the person has experienced some devotion at some time, and when that animal comes close, then often we see the lightening in recollection by the one who is enclosed in his darkness, and a reaching out to the comfort and the companionship which the animal may bring him. Then, slowly, the ministering spirits may be enabled to approach him or her, and draw them upward through giving service, or through love, or understanding, into the places of goodness and of light.

 What happens to someone who is an agnostic and does not believe in religion or an afterlife - where would he go?

 His condition, beloved one, would depend on the manner of life in which such a one lived on earth. If that one lived with the thought of enriching and beautifying the world by giving goodness and companionship and love to those who surrounded him, or to beautifying some part of the planet, then this would be regarded as a symbol of worship, for he would be expressing from within himself some part of his inner creativity. But if a man had no thought or belief beyond himself, and created simply a shell of inner selfishness or self-concern, then on leaving the mortal body he would come into the first plane of spirit existence, where he might remain for what in your earth term is a considerable time, contained within his own shell, until realising his loneliness and isolation, he endeavoured to come out of that, to try to reach others who might surround him.

 But I would say to you, progress in the regions of the spirit is not founded upon belief, but it is conditioned by what the belief brings forth in the soul of the person. Therefore, if your belief, or your religion, brings forth from within you an appreciation of the beauty of your planet, and engenders within you a compassion for the persons who are around you, and increases love within your heart, then your religion, or your belief, is good.

 Is the fear of death lessening in the world?

 Within the minds of those who are aged in years, who dwell within their lonely place, no longer able to meet with minds or listen to the communications through the mediums, we see that these souls wait quietly without fear to the time when the body shall dissolve, and their spirit shall be free, and they may come with joy into the great new life of the spirit. It is not good that men and women should leave the body with the cloak of fear drawn close around them, for when they do so, often they become immersed within the shadowed places near to the earth, and we cannot easily draw them out into the great high places of light and of joy. So we would say to you, go on spreading your silent influence wherever you may go. Wage your war upon man's fear of death. To those who are coming to the end of the journey and who are afraid, say: “Fear not, death is not a door that leads to darkness, it is a door that leads to freedom and to light�?

 There are children who are born, live for a Little while, and then suddenly die for no particular reason. Can you pleas give some explanation of this?

 They may come for a little while and be unable to maintain their hold upon the physical body, either because of some fault within the etheric body, or sometimes because of changes that are taking place in the atmosphere of the earth itself. There are changes that are being brought about by the usage of very subtle instruments in your earth. You are sending forth radiations of sound through your broadcasting machines, radiations through the creation of your picture machines (television), and even radiations through your food preparation machines. All of them combined together are altering the actual ethereal structure of the world, and sometimes- this may weaken the etheric body of a child or an infant, and then you will have this which you call a sudden death.

 When I visit my child's grave does her soul know that I am there?

 She will not know that you are at the grave, beloved one, but she will know if your loving prayer and thought goes forth to her. The soul does not remain with the body which is within the grave, but moves on into the regions of the spirit and will often be with you in your home, instead of when you visit the grave. From time to time in your home environment, you may see what is like a little spark of light, flashing through your vision occasionally - is this not so? (That is true!) This spark of light is the soul light of your child coming to visit you, and so when you behold it you may send your love and special prayer to that infant and renew the contact.

 Are thalidomide children, who have been born without arms and legs, given a whole spirit body and made normal again?

 Certainly, but apart from the importance to your mind of limbs, that spirit gains strength through the wish to master and use the imperfect body; it gains patience since it cannot do all that it would wish to do. Therefore, try to learn to look at such a person with the eye of understanding, saying to yourself. ‘This is a soul who is undergoing a difficult life experience, but what richness it will gain at the end of its journey�?

 In the case of abortions do the children have special nurseries to go to, because often they do not have loved ones?

 Most assuredly; if the soul has conjoined itself to the body of the potential mother and then has been rejected, that soul is taken into a home in the spirit world and loved by those who, during their earthly life, had great love and compassion for infant and child souls. Having touched the earthly atmosphere the soul is, as it were, anchored into that atmosphere and then it will grow and develop in the ethereal world near to your earth.

 What age would it be when it stopped growing?

 We do not have age, beloved one, but you may think of a child growing to maturity, and you may think of the very aged becoming younger until they gain the age of maturity.

 There are many things which occur here in the life of the Spirit that is for the healing of earth's children. There are the flowery fields of the spirit, the great open meadows wherein grow all the semblance of the tiny blossoms that make your earth so beautiful. These meadows of healing are those places into which we will take the child souls who, because they have been hurt and ill-treated by earth's dwellers, are too frightened to open themselves to the love of the serving spirits. So we lift them gently and take them unto these meadows of peace, and set them down there so that they may for a season rest and be still. Like all earth's children, after a little time they will look around and see some tiny blossom growing near, will reach out their hand to touch it, and finding that it does not hurt, they will then look and see other blossoms in the meadows of healing. Slowly the child soul will rise to its feet and move amongst all these blooming flowers and gather to themselves the perfume, the healing and the peace, and eventually be ready and unafraid to meet the ministry of the ministering spirits.

 So, if you in your sadness know of a child soul who has come to the end of life through the cruelty of man or woman, send out your thoughts, saying to that little one - “Look for the blooms, go to the flowery meadows�? Eventually your thought will reach that little one and they will indeed go unto the meadows of healing and of beauty.

 Again: if a child in the earth life had love and desire for some creature, for some dog, cat or horse, or lion, then in the fullness of time this wish may be granted, for in the great open lands of the spirit the creatures do not harm or hurt each other (they dwell in peace and have a time of joy); if the child so wishes, an animal will come in gentleness and in trust so that the child may have what you would call in your earthly language, a pet or beloved creature, within its care - this, too, will add to its joy and strengthen it in healing and in its growth.

 So, in all ways and in all things, the children are cared for, and loved; and children are sought by those who are the ministers of light, who go into the places of shadows to find the lost, the lonely and the tearful, to lift them into the places of peace.

 At what stage of death is the silver cord broken?

 The cord breaks when the etheric body finally separates from the physical body, for the cord which ties the ethereal atoms of the ethereal world to the physical body is the last to be dissolved. There are some occasions of sudden death when the higher part of the soul body may be separated and the etheric body may still remain enmeshed in the physical being. But when there is natural death, with a gradual withdrawal of, firstly, the spiritual body and then the etheric body, that is when the cord dissolves.

 Is the silver cord sometimes severed by a spirit surgeon, in the same way as the umbilical cord on earth is cut?

 Only on rare occasions, and it is not always silver because silver has a gleaming light, and the cord which ties the two bodies together may be grey or white, depending on the illness or the condition of the dying body. But there may be some occasions when the etheric body is tied very firmly to the physical, and when the spirit is unable to relinquish or withdraw, then we send out a call to one who, when on earth, was skilled in surgery, so that he may sever the cord and release the soul from its attachment to its physical counterpart.

 Whereabouts in the human body is the life-cord of the soul attached?

 It is attached to a little cell, not exactly in the cavities of the heart but just behind the cavities of the heart. But with those who have reached a high degree of enlightenment there is also a cord that is at the base of the human brain, and so there may be two cords, depending on the degree of development of the individual.

 Is there a pre-planned time for the passing of a spirit?

 There is a certain pattern of experience for each soul, but there is not necessarily a pre-determined length of time. In the things of the soul, what is important is the learning of the lessons of experience, instead of the time which may be taken in doing so. So some can grasp or develop a quality of the soul in a period of twenty years, which may take another soul a period of seventy years before they come to the same understanding.

 What happens when there is a tragic catastrophe, involving a large number of people passing suddenly? Were these people not meant to go at that time?

 They were not all intended to die at that special time. The life of an individual is like a chain and, as in all chains, there are certain links that are weaker, and times when the chain is stronger. In a life's experience there may come a time when there is a weakened link causing that individual to come very close to an accident, to illness, or to some happening that brings about a breaking of the chain. If we are able to, we of the spirit will sometimes try to bring a warning to earth's beloveds, saying that extra protection, extra healing, is needed at a certain time in the life experience. Then that individual may come very close to an ending of the life, or may just evade it, either through treatment for an illness or by responding to the warning. If they can by-pass that weakened time then their life may continue for a considerable period.

 It is true to say that, whenever there are these tragic happenings, there are always some who avoid or emerge from them, because the link in the chain of life was strengthened through the loving prayers of a true lover of such a one, or sometimes by the influence of a spirit who was able to draw near sufficiently to warn or to guide that one. But in your earthly world many, many people are indifferent to the warnings which are given, and are so involved in the pursuits of their own pleasures that they are unresponsive when we try to reach them through dream or vision.