The spirit Zabdiel, whom the Rev. G. Vale Owen, in the second book in the Life Beyond the Veil collection of four books, communicated with in the 1910’s, explains the concept of goodness and evil. Zabdiel tells us that good and evil are “conditions of attitude”[1] toward God. Your perspective regarding the love of God determines the amount of benefit or harm any action we take which, sooner or later, reflects back on us.

Zabdiel presents a universe full of the Supreme Spirituality’s love and this constant permeates all. When we attempt to block out the radiated love from God, this is when evil persists. Zabdiel illuminates the concept:

 “The very intensity of the Love of God becomes terrible when it meets with an opposing obstacle. The swifter the torrent the greater the surf about the opposing rocks. The greater the heat of the fire the more complete the dissolution of the fuel which is cast into it, and on which it feeds. And although to some such words may seem horrible in the saying of them, yet it is the very intensity of the Love which energizes and flows through the creation of the Father which, meeting opposing and disharmonious obstruction, causes the greater pain.

Even in the earth life you may test and prove this true. For the most bitter of all remorse and repentance is that which follows on the realization of the love borne to us by the one we have wronged.”[2]

Holding back love and God’s will is like attempt to dam an ocean. It may work for a short period, but in time the barrier will fail. Therefore, evil is the absence of love. Where love is allowed there is good, where love is resisted there is evil. Zabdiel analyzes evil:

“Blindness is inability to see. But not only is there such a condition as blindness; there are also people who are blind. Blindness is a negative condition, or less. It is the condition of one who has four senses instead of five. But real it is, nevertheless. Yet it is only when one who is born blind is told of the sense of sight that he begins to feel his lack of it, and the more he understands the lack of it the more his lack is felt. So it is with sin. It is usual here to call those who are in darkness the “undeveloped.” This is not a negative term, which would be “retrogressed.” So of both I say not “loss” but “lack.’ The one born blind has not lost a faculty but lacks it.”[3]

Hence, when a person commits an evil act, it is because of his or her incapability to discern the good, the correct action to take. It is the absence of understanding the presence of love and how that should influence every decision we make.

Most spirits and all people are a balance of good and bad characteristics. There is not a living soul that is composed entirely of evil. We are all a mixture, we travel through life committing acts that we regret. Zabdiel explains why:

“Yet you may say that people do go back and fall from grace. Those who do so are such as those who are partly blind or of imperfect sight – color-blind as to one or more colors. These have never seen perfectly, and their lack is only unknown to them until opportunity offers, and then their imperfection is manifest. For a color-blind person is one whose sight is, in little or more measure, undeveloped. It is only by using his vision that he maintains what vision he has, and if he neglects to do this then he retrogresses. So with the sinner.”[4]

Filling in What is Lacking

We, on earth at this moment in time, are in the process of developing our good sides and removing our base emotions. We are all partially color-blind when it comes to perceiving the Light. We are on earth because we need to train ourselves to fully comprehend the love which envelops us and how to channel that love for our benefit and the benefit of others.

The process whereby we grasp what we have heretofore missed is our trials on earth. Our choices during those trials sets us up for where we will land in the spirit world and our course we must follow in our next life. Zabdiel tells us, “It is only by freewill that that person is held responsible for both good and evil in his heart.”[5]

Through our trials we build up a range of experiences. Like a law library that contains case histories, which are used to guide the verdicts in future cases, we too, deposit what we have learned into our conscience. Hence, our need for multiple lives in multiple cultures. Zabdiel reinforces this point:

“Also let it be remembered that what seems to be good or evil to one man does not of necessity so appear in the eyes of another. Especially is this true of those of different creed and habit of thought and manner of life in community. What, therefore, is possible in the matter of distinction between these two is that the broad and fundamental principles which underlie each should be grasped clearly, and the minor shades of these qualities be entrusted to the future when they will be gradually made more plain.”[6]

The accumulation of knowledge to navigate through the shady maze of moral behavior is not lost upon entry into the physical life. We are given the infinite database of our conscience. Whereas, we may not be aware of searching for the correct answer, the feeling of anxiety in the pit of our stomach or that notion that we just did something wrong is the result of our brain retrieving thousands of years of results and notifying us of the findings.

This is why we have stress. Our conscience sends it signals out to all corners of the body alerting us that we are on the wrong track. The accumulation of these messages weakens our system and throws our internal harmony into disarray. This is why studies have shown that people who are more spiritual and are aware of their moral boundaries are healthier.

Multiple Lives are Required

“For a longer or shorter period sometimes, and often indeed for some thousands of years, as you reckon time on earth, a man may maintain his obduracy. But no man is created who is able to continue so everlastingly. And that is merciful limit which our Father Creator has placed around and in us lest He lose us, or any one of His children, away from Him, and without return for ever.”[7]

Some of us simply do not learn the easy way. One life is not sufficient to fully embed living by the Golden Rule into the foundation of our character. I have been told, by spirits writing through mediums, that I have failed again and again. I was placed in a position of authority and instead of tending to my flock, I used them for my personal gain. I am certain I have maintained my stubbornness for thousands of years, much to my regret.

I am grateful for the overwhelming force of love that is slowly breaking down my walls of selfishness. Only by living through harsh realities was I able to understand that the absence of love, of caring, of compassion sets the stage for great wrongs.

My lack of virtue, caused by my ignorance is gradually being righted. I am a long way off, but now I welcome the journey. I look forward to learning to live amongst my fellow beings with a sense of love and purpose.

The first step is to listen closely to that governor in your head, your conscience. Attempt to follow what feels right. It’s not easy since there are many cases that are still uncertain to most incarnated souls. But, as Zabdiel says, as we experience more lives, our moral compass will expand. Zabdiel leaves us with this message:

“Let us therefore, having looked on this phase of aberration from man’s natural walking with God, now look the other way in the direction in which all things are tending. For truly, evil is but a transitory phase and, whether it pass away from His economy in whole or no, from every individual most surely it will pass away when its opposing force is spent, and he be left free to follow on in the glorious train of those who brighten as they go from glory to further and greater glory.”[8]

As we shed our blemishes and ascend in the spirit hierarchy, we are given more responsibilities. In the spirit realm where faith and thought create reality, power is parceled out to those who have completed the requisite training. This is why we are on this planet, so we may one day complete our training and contribute to earth and other worlds, in helping other souls rise.

I explore some of the trials which you may encounter in my book The Problem is the Solution – 7 Life Complications Sent to Test and Teach You. What you consider to be the low points or the most difficult times of your life is actually the prescribed medicine to thwart the bad characteristics that you needed removing.

Author:

Brian Foster was a reluctant entry to Spiritism. He grew up with a vague sense of God and a higher power, but only through events he could not explain did he discover that there is indeed a world beyond ours, an “other side” as the Druids called it.

Brian works in Information Technology and has a BSCS degree and an MBA. For many this should make him a rational human being and not one who believes in spirits. On the contrary, it is what he believes to be an accumulation of evidence that has, thankfully, brought him to realize that we are part of a bigger plan.

Brian Foster has a blog at www.nwspiritism.com.

Works Cited

Owen, R. G. (2012). The Life Beyond the Veil. Pahrump, NV: Square Circles Publishing.

 

[1] Owen R. G. Life Beyond the Veil, Squares Circles Publishing, p. 152

[2] Owen R. G. Life Beyond the Veil, Squares Circles Publishing, p. 152

[3] Owen R. G. Life Beyond the Veil, Squares Circles Publishing, p. 153

[4] Owen R. G. Life Beyond the Veil, Squares Circles Publishing, p. 153

[5] Owen R. G. Life Beyond the Veil, Squares Circles Publishing, p. 154

[6] Owen R. G. Life Beyond the Veil, Squares Circles Publishing, pp. 154-155

[7] Owen R. G. Life Beyond the Veil, Squares Circles Publishing, p. 155

[8] Owen R. G. Life Beyond the Veil, Squares Circles Publishing, p. 155