Life on earth is extremely diverse. So much so that we are still discovering new life in even the most hostile environments. Deep in the ocean, in pools of boiling sulfur water; places where once we would have never expected life to occur.

Many put this down to the quasi-infinite variability caused by natural selection. Life has a way of modifying itself to multiple environments. According to Spiritism, this is partially true … only that many transformations were given a push or directed by the spirit realm is missing from Darwin’s theory.

But if the spirit world guided the creation of many forms of life, where did their model come from? Where did they derive their inspiration? Was everything just thought up and each planet had completely new life forms designed; custom-made for its atmosphere, gravity, and potential life conditions?

On earth we know that very few ideas are sprung from a completely blank slate. There was always something before; always a preceding object or thought which was modified to create a new branch. Most of what we now see, hear, use on a daily basis, was derived from an earlier precedent. First the horse, then the buggy, next a car, later a self-driving car.

Where did life on earth get its inspiration from? What model was used to create us? The answers to these questions is supplied by Zabdiel. He is a spirit who lives on the tenth level of heaven, he came with a group of spirits to reveal fundamental facts about the real universe we reside in.

Zabdiel is the spirit who sent a stream of communications to the Rev. G. Vale Owen from November 3, 1913 to January 8, 1914. All were published in a book, which was first serialized in the English papers in the 1920’s, The Life Beyond the Veil; which is a series of four books. The messages from Zabdiel are found in book two, titled The Highlands of Heaven.

From Zabdiel’s high vantage point, he lives in the tenth level of heaven, he can see the earth and all of the effort put into our growth by those below him. He is also knowledgeable about the directives from the stages above him. He doesn’t know how many, but he tells us he is very far from knowing how many levels there are above.

From his perch, far up above us, he tells G. Vale Owen, from which we are patterned after:

“I now would tell you somewhat of the inner meaning of what men call the origin of species in animal life. But now, and at once, I would say the term is all too large; for the origin of the different creations in animal life is not found in the realm of matter, but has its genesis in these realms. We have learned here that, when the Universe of systems was moving towards its present form and constitution, those who had charge to watch and work took their counsels from those of higher degree, and on those counsels shaped their own wisdom.”[i]

Zabdiel takes us back to before, or at the very least, the early stages of the Big Bang. When the Divine Laws guiding the physical universe were set in place. High Lords steered the evolution of our universe based upon guidelines established by Higher Lords of Creation. The recommendations were:

“At that time it was seen that in the heavenly spheres there were many diversities both of the forms of life as bodily manifest, and of mind in its working. And it was resolved that the universe was meant to reflect the personalities and types of those who were commissioned to carry out the work of its development. To this conclusion they were divinely guided, for when their plan was completed it was given them by revelation to know that the Divine approval was upon it in general kind; but it was not of absolute perfection. Nevertheless, it received the imprimatur of the All Father Who vouchsafed them freedom to work out His will according to their own capacities and powers.”[ii]

Hence we are reflections of the creatures residing in the spirit world. Far from perfect images; there must be limitations and adjustments for many physical parameters. Nevertheless, our frail form is a simulacrum of the High Lord of our universe. From this outline of a plan, all else was spawned:

“Thus arose the different orders and species of animal and vegetable and mineral life, and also of human type and racial character. And these things being initiated, again the Divine Mind pronounced His general approval or, as our Bible has it, He found it to be ‘very good.’

But high as were those who were chief in this matter of creation, yet they were less than the Only Omnipotent and, as the work of ordering the universe was very great, and wide in extent, the imperfections of their work became magnified as they worked out; so that, to a single mind, and one of low degree, as is that of a man, those imperfections loomed vast and great. For it is not competent to one who is so small and undeveloped to be able to see both good and evil equally, but the evil is the easier seen to him, and the good too high and wonderful for him to grasp its meaning and power.”[iii]

Like a child who is given the choice to share or not, invariably chooses to hoard what they have; we too look longer and more lovingly at what is counterproductive to the good. We determine that the short-term gain of easy dollars by nefarious means to be superior to displaying fairness and a sense of honor. We pick the most beautiful and pleasing partner over the steady and most loving. We buy the expensive car to impress over the efficient and cost-effective automobile.

Feeding our selfishness and senses leads to the longer path to ascension. Taking an extended amount of incarnations to learn the difficult lesson of living by the Golden Rule.

Man’s Place in the Universe

Zabdiel tells us the universe wasn’t created for humankind alone. While, we as physical beings are truly in charge of the earth, we only are appointed caretakers of the planet by the grace of the Supreme Being.

Successive societies on earth use terra firma as a college to learn; the levels of concentric spiritual spheres above us, also function as a training ground for less dense and pure souls to ascend. Zabdiel tells us, “According to the innate power of any being, man or angel, so is his environment proportioned and constituted.”[iv]

As stark as the differences in layout, facilities, and curriculum of a kindergarten to a university; so are the levels from earth to above. Show the range of classes, laboratories, and workload to a kindergartener and they will stare with a complete lack of compression of what is ahead of them. But allow that child to slowly work up the ladder from grade to grade and advancement seems natural. So is it with spiritual ascension. The harder you work the more successful you will be.

Zabdiel tells us our attainment is our choice. God has presented the path, it is up for us to take the first and subsequent steps:

“Let men remember this and keep it in mind, and then they will the better appreciate the dower of free will given to them, a gift which no one of all the heavenly hierarchy may take from him. And they would not if they might; for in so doing their material world would be deteriorated in quality, and the less capable of enabling them in their own advancement.

Now, I fear that some who read what I have written will say that hereby man becomes merely the tool of those of higher grade, to do with him what they will for their own advantage. Not so; and for the reason I have just stated – that he is, and ever must remain, a free-willed being.

But more, the one great power which animates those who serve the Father is Love. These are no mere despots of oppression. Power and oppression are correlatives of earth creation. Here power means an issuing forth of love, and the greater the power the greater the love which is sent forth.”[v]

We are truly blessed to live in a spiritual universe so unlike our present creation. Where our preponderance on grabbing temporary pleasures has created an environment dominated by mean-spirited men and women using the majority of us as pawns to achieve their materialistic goals. But, again, we should be grateful, for if we hadn’t been forced to live in such chaos and filth, we wouldn’t realize the how the absence of good twists everything into a dim and shallow existence.

The fight to raise yourself out of this pit is indeed daunting. Knowing that to tend to good and honesty will be met with numerous obstacles makes even beginning the battle intimidating. Zabdiel supplements our courage with the rewards of ascension to wondrous lands and fortifies our defenses with legions of spirit ready to lend a hand and shine a light on the true path. Zabdiel finishes his message with:

“We see more than you do of the awful travail of those who err from this service, and yet we do not despair, because we see also the more clearly the meaning and purpose of it all. And thus seeing, we know that men will one day rejoice as we do when they too shall, each in his own time, ascend to the higher spheres of service and, from this point of vantage, continue his development. In that day he too will use for his training the material we are using, and of which he is a part and portion, when others have taken his place, and he the place of those now lifting him upward.

‘To him that overcometh,’ said the Christ, ‘will I give to sit with Me in My Throne, even as I overcame, and am set down with my Father in His Throne.’”[vi]

Revelation 3:21 now makes perfect sense. Just as Jesus began as a spirit and had to toil up the ladder to become a great Lord, we must perform the same tasks. One day, millions, billions, or trillions of years from now a spirit residing on earth, laboring to hold on to their values and love for all, will have ascended to the level of our present day Christ and lead another planet full of human-like creatures out of the darkness.

Understand the trials you encounter are there for a reason. Learn from hard knocks and use them to hasten your spiritual health. Read my book The Problem is the Solution – 7 Life Complications Sent to Test and Teach You, to determine what debts you are paying and what lessons you must acquire.

Author:

Brian Foster has a BSCS degree and a MBA. He has worked in R&D for medical device corporations and in IT for large financial institutions. Brian Foster has a blog at www.nwspiritism.com.

Works Cited

Kardec, A. (2010). The Spirits Book. Guildford, UK: White Crow Books.

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

[i] Owen, G. Vale, The Life Beyond the Veil, Square Circles Publishing, p. 192

[ii] Owen, G. Vale, The Life Beyond the Veil, Square Circles Publishing, p. 192

[iii] Owen, G. Vale, The Life Beyond the Veil, Square Circles Publishing, p. 193

[iv] Owen, G. Vale, The Life Beyond the Veil, Square Circles Publishing, p. 194

[v] Owen, G. Vale, The Life Beyond the Veil, Square Circles Publishing, p. 194

[vi] Owen, G. Vale, The Life Beyond the Veil, Square Circles Publishing, p. 195