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Sometimes it is drawn by magnetic attraction to relatives of the spirit

whose clothing it was, and at spiritualistic seances these shells

generally impersonate the departed spirit and deceive its relatives. As

the panorama of the past life is etched into the shells they have a memory

of incidents in connection with these relatives, which facilitates the

deception. But as the intelligence has fled, they are of course unable to

give any true counsel, and that accounts for the inane, goody-goody

nonsense of which these things deliver themselves.



When passing from the first to the second heaven, the spirit experiences

the condition known and described previously as "The Great Silence," where

it stands utterly alone conscious only of its divinity. When that silence

is broken there floats in upon the spirit celestial harmonies of the

world of tone where the second heaven is located. It seems then to lave

in an ocean of sound and to experience a joy beyond all description and

words, as it nears its heavenly home--for this is the first of the truly

spiritual realms from which the spirit has been exiled during its earth

life and the subsequent post-mortem existence. In the Desire World its

work was corrective, but in the World of Thought the human spirit

becomes one with the nature forces and its creative activity begins.



Under the law of causation we reap exactly what we sow, and it would be

wrong to place one spirit in an environment where there is a scarcity of

the necessities of life, where a scorching sun burns the crop and millions

die from famine, or where the raging flood sweeps away primitive

habitations not built to withstand its ravages, and to bring another

spirit to birth in a land of plenty, with a fertile soil which yields a

maximum of increase with a minimum of labor, where the earth is rich in

minerals that may be used in industry to facilitate transportation of

products of the soil from one point to another. If we were thus placed

without action or acquiescence upon our part, there would be no justice,

but as our post-mortem existence in purgatory and the first heaven is

based upon our moral attitude in this life so our activities in the second

heaven are determined by our mental aspirations and they produce our

future physical environment, for in the second heaven, the spirit becomes

part of the nature forces which work upon the earth and change its

climate, flora and fauna. A spirit of an indolent nature, who indulges in

day dreams and metaphysical speculations here, is not transformed by

death respecting its mental attitude any more than regarding its moral

propensities. It will dream away time in heaven, glorying in its sights

and sounds. Thus it will neglect to work upon its future country and

return to a barren and arid land. Spirits, on the other hand, whose

material aspirations lead them to desire so-called solid comforts of

hearth and home, who aim to promote great industries and whose mind is

concerned in trade and commerce, will build in heaven a land that will

suit their purpose: fertile, immineralized, with navigable rivers and

sheltered harbors. They will return in time to enjoy upon earth the fruits

of their labors in the second heaven, as they reap the result of their

life upon earth in purgatory and the first heaven.