“Light and darkness are states of the spirit, as you know. When those dwelling in the darkness cry for light, that means that they are become out of touch with their environment. So we send them what help is needed; and that is usually direction by which they find their way – not into regions of light, where they would be in torture, and utterly blinded, but – into a region less dark, and tinctured by just so much of light as they may bear until they outgrow that state and cry in their longing for more.”[1]

Zabdiel, a spirit who lives on the tenth level of heaven, reveals how souls are assisted to slowly rise out of the depths of purgatory (called the abyss in Spiritist literature) in Book Two of the book The Life Beyond the Veil called The Highlands of Heaven. He tells the Rev. G. Vale Owen how spirits rise toward the light.

According to Spiritism, spirits who are in the abyss are there because they have not learned how to let the love of God permeate their beings. They still harbor materialistic bonds to earth and allow the baser emotions of envy, hate, and thirst for revenge rule over them.

When physical death occurs, a soul travels to the region where there are others similar to him or her. Hence, when a mean-spirited person lives amongst like-minded caustic people, the experience gets old fast. It is the Spirituality’s method to let us know if we really enjoy living with people just the same as us. All, at one time or another, discover there is a better way. They begin to understand the need to allow love to enter, and as they change their attitude they also transform their composition.

As spirits rise from the lower levels to each successive stage in heaven, they become lighter, less dense, and brighter. A spirit glows from the reflected love they have absorbed. Zabdiel explains the process of moving from a lower region to a higher sphere:

“When a spirit leaves a dark region for one less dark he experiences an immediate sense of relief and comfort by comparison with his former state. For now his environment is on harmony with his own inner state of development. But as he continues to develop in aspiration after good, he gradually becomes out of harmony with his surroundings, and then, in ratio to his progress, so his discomfort increases until it becomes not less than agony. Then in his helplessness, and approaching near to despair, have come to that pass when his own endeavors can go no further, he cries for help to those who are able to give it in God’s Name, and they enable him one stage onward nearer to the region where dimness, rather than darkness, reigns. And so he at last comes to the place where light is seen to be light; and his onward way is henceforth not through pain and anguish, but from joy to greater joy, and hence to glory and glory greater still.”[2]

Zabdiel explained the process, but he also desires for us to understand that life with others who are also dark and cruel is not meant as a punishment, but as an object lesson. A direct method to allow the soul in question to form her or his own opinion as to the correct course of action. Zabdiel tells us more:

“But do not mistake my words of their meaning. This is no vengeance of an angry God, my ward and friend. God is our Father, and He is Love. All this sorrow is of necessity, and is ordered by those laws which govern the sowing, and the reaping of that which is sown. Even here, in my own place, where many things both wonderful and lovely we have learned, yet not yet have we attained to plumb and sound this mystery to its lowest depth. We do understand, as we were unable when in the earth life, that it is of love that these things are ordained. I say we are able to understand where formerly we were able but to say we trusted and believed. Yet little more of this awful mystery do we know; and are content to wait until it is made more plain to us. For we know enough to believe that all is wise and good; as those in those in dark hells will know one day. And this is our comfort that they will and must be drawn onward and upward into this great and beautiful universe of light, and that then they will confess, not only that what is is just, but that it is of love and wisdom too, and be content.”[3]

We are told, that like children being disciplined, we rebel against authority, but as we grow older we understand what our parents were trying to teach us. Older still, we comprehend the reason and the method used. The lessons given to us are given in love. Affording us a path to improve is a sign of the love that God has for us. Our trying our best is a sign that we return the love of God.

The first place is to learn what the basic tenets of Spiritism are and how your life is planned so you can improve. You can begin by reading The Spirits Book, by Allan Kardec, or you can read my book, about how the trials we are presented on earth help to prepare us for the path upward, The Problem is the Solution – 7 Life Complications Sent to Test and Teach You.

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.

 

 

[1] Owen, G. Vale, The Life Beyond the Veil, Square Circles Publishing, p. 189

[2] Owen, G. Vale, The Life Beyond the Veil, Square Circles Publishing, pp. 189-190

[3] Owen, G. Vale, The Life Beyond the Veil, Square Circles Publishing, p. 190