Toward the Light

An unpublished version of the Commentary to Ardor’s Account, by Harry Eric Prior, amalgamated from the three English Toward the Light translations of 1950, 1975 and 1979. Syntax has been improved and redundancies eliminated, resulting in 2,424 fewer words than the official 1979 translation of the Commentary. Editing notes available on request. <hprior1@tampabay.rr.com>

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Commentary to Ardor's Account

40,127 WORDS

Seek and you shall find!

Wisdom of Jesus Son of Sirach

1:1 “All wisdom cometh from the Lord, and is with him for ever.” 1:5  “The word of God most high is the fountain of wisdom; and her ways are everlasting commandments.” —From the Book of Sirach, or Ecclesiasticus (a book in the Old Testament Apoccrypa)

1

Light and Darkness, in a transcendental sense, are abstractions to mankind, but to God and to all spiritual beings they are realities—mighty, magnetically acting forces.

From eternity, primal Light and primal Darkness each possessed two opposite poles that reposed in a state of complete latency. Although Light existed only as a core of faint luminance surrounded everywhere by Darkness, the radiations of the two primal forces were of exactly equal strength.

Between¹ the two primal forces, on the boundary between Light and Darkness, rested Thought and Will. Although themselves in a state of latency, they were throughout eternity equally exposed to the influence of the radiations from Light and Darkness.

After eternities of absolute inactivity, a change occurred in the equipoise of the primal state in that Thought and Will reacted with a slight agitation to the radiations of Darkness. This agitation was the first indication of a transition of Thought and Will from absolute inactivity to an awakening activity, since the vibration that took place brought the primal state out of its equipoise.

Gradually, through eons, Thought and Will moved further and further away from the radiations of Darkness and in toward the Light, whose radiations assisted them with a steadily increasing attraction that drew them toward the poles of the Light. Each time that Thought and Will followed the attraction of the Light, the Light gained in strength and in volume. After untold eons of continued attraction, the Thought and the Will reached the poles of the Light, which, at the moment of contact, were aroused from their state of latency. Simultaneously, the Thought and the Will awoke to a fully conscious and willed activity and unfolded a mutual attraction that, through untold eons, gradually drew each closer to the other. As the distance between them lessened, the Light gained yet more in strength, in volume and in radiation.

Attracted and guided by the Will, the Thought strove onward, but in each advance lay a temptation for the Thought to cease the struggle before the Darkness was completely overcome. Under the attraction of the omnipotent Will, however, the Thought struggled forward without cease toward the ever approaching Will, and thereby gained constantly in strength and in brightness, until after further eternities—with the meeting and harmonious union of Thought and Will—the Light wrested itself free from Darkness, raised itself victoriously out of it and above it, so that the Light surrounded and enveloped the Darkness which then slowly contracted, condensing into a dark core in the sea of Light.

By the perfect and harmonious merging of Thought (the female principle) and Will (the male principle) with one another, God arose as a personal Being, as the center of all that is.

This picture of the inert state and the struggle of Light, Darkness, Thought and Will must be understood in an abstract sense and not interpreted in terms of factual, earthly concepts of space, measure and time, nor in terms of known forms of radiation, inertia and motion. No further explanation can be given regarding the presence through eternity of primal Light, of primal Darkness, and of Thought and Will, for it would, at this time, be beyond human comprehension. Only this can be said: that Light, Darkness, Thought and Will were not created, but have existed eternally—a mystery beyond solving or comprehending by human thought at present.

A scientist on the earthly scene could no more lecture a young child meaningfully on philosophy than could a transcendental being advance a detailed explanation of eternal existence in hope of human understanding at this time. But when man has reached greater spiritual maturity, possibly one of God’s emissaries will undertake in an earthly life to explain the riddle of eternity and the mystery of the uncreated.

Had Thought and Will not succeeded in uniting, and had the combined strength of both not triumphed so that the divine Being could arise, then the energy and brightness of the Light would—at the moment Thought and Will were no longer able to attract and hold each other—once more have begun to diminish, while Darkness would have gained in strength and in radiating power until slowly but inevitably it would have absorbed the Light. Forced by Darkness, Thought and Will would then have drawn forth the latent poles of Darkness. These activated poles would then—through untold eternities—have slowly attracted each other until, at the moment of their merging, a being would have arisen who would in every respect have been the direct opposite of God.

But since the poles of the Light, now fused with Thought and Will, continued without cease to approach each other, the Light gained greater and greater dominance over Darkness, and with the emerging of God the possibility was forever eliminated that the poles of Darkness would evolve into a being the opposite of God in thought and action.

Primal Darkness (that is, chaos, or disorder and confusion) thus lacks its own guiding Will and creative Thought. It acts at random and has become destructible as a result of the victory of the Light. The Light, on the other hand, is governed by divine Thought and Will.

By Thought (that is, logos) an infinite diversity of changeable forms of energy and life are radiated. Above Thought stands the Will, as the highest concentration of the Light (the supreme, fructifying and life-giving energy), because as long as a thought of creating or of taking action remains only thought, it has but the possibility of coming to life—has the potential. However, the moment the fructifying Will acts, Thought unites with Will and changes from a state of becoming to a state of being; it becomes actual. But the Will is nothing without Thought as a constant basis for its activity.

Thought thus is the primary abstract female concept: intuitive, formative and creative; and Will the primary abstract male concept: fructifying, productive and dominant.

The twelve Helpers, or Servants, who emerged from the Light simultaneously with the personified Divinity, were emanated by God through the power of Thought-Will.

These twelve Helpers were in God’s Thought from the very moment that Thought and Will fused with the poles of the Light. As thoughts within the Divine Thought—united with it, yet independently conscious—they too experienced the struggle out of Darkness and therefore knew its dreadful power.

Since the Helpers emerged by the Will of God, He stands above them as the only perfect One, alone possessed of the full knowledge of life’s eternal energy.

The moment He emerged as a personal Being, God, by His Will, drew the Light into an eternal and unbreakable circulation and let it flow through His flaming Self. Simultaneously, He drew Darkness in under the circulatory waves of the Light in order thus to purge it.

Light as well as the Darkness consists of extremely fine particles that existed in a state of absolute inactivity for as long as primal Darkness and primal Light were at rest and in equipoise. But when the thought arose in God to eliminate the Darkness, the realization of this made it necessary for Him to bring the ether (that is, the Light, and the Darkness enclosed by the Light) into a vibrating, circulatory wave-motion. By strength of His Thought and Will, God thus brought the particles both of Darkness and of the Light into a rotating motion about one another. The larger or smaller the particles, the slower or speedier their vibrations or oscillations. Also, as determined by God, the smaller the particles,² the stronger and greater their ability of mutual attraction, cohesion and adhesion.

Since the particles of Darkness—the smallest even—are larger than the largest particles of the Light, the vibrations of Darkness became slower than those of the Light, causing Darkness to precipitate in the streams of the Light during the great, purifying circulation through God’s flaming Being, which is why the purification and elimination of Darkness—by absorption into the Light—advances so inconceivably slowly. Only God knows when the power of Darkness will be destroyed by its total absorption into the Light.

And only God knows why Thought and Will, after eternities of exactly equal influence from the radiations of primal Light and primal Darkness, were drawn toward the Light in victory.

Within His all-encompassing Thought, God embraces time and space in a limited and in an unlimited sense alike. Since space (that is, the universe) is unlimited to the human mind and therefore has no identifiable stable center, God must be regarded as the center of all existence, of all creation. Wherever God, by strength of His Will, may be present as a personal—a limited—Being, He yet remains, by virtue of His unlimited Thought, for all time and at all places the center of creation, so that the eternal circulation of the Light is never broken.

The eternities that passed before the emanation of God are known only to Him; all other spiritual beings regard His emergence as a personal Being at the beginning of time. However, for the sake of accuracy it should be noted that time, as a term for the progression of events, began with the first faint attraction of Thought and Will toward the poles of the Light; in other words, with the transition from inactivity to struggle.

When time began, being became existence. Time, in the transcendental as well as in the earthly sense, is an expression of the progression of events. Spiritual beings measure time in terms of time-periods, not in earthly years.

When spiritual beings communicate with humans in messages concerning time, they normally make use of earthly terms.

 Time, once begun by the Will of God, will never cease to be.

The terms Light and Darkness, describing the two primal forces, were chosen because these forces do in fact exist in the same relationship and contrast to each other as do earthly daylight and the darkness of the night, so familiar to humans on Earth. And, as the earthly night and day display numerous transitions from dusk to deep darkness and from dawn to bright sunlight, so do the two primal forces display a wealth of transitions and degrees of strength; however, these cannot be more accurately clarified or defined here. But in order to achieve at least a partial understanding of the primal forces, one should imagine both Darkness and the Light divided into three main categories, according to the size of the particles as follows:

1) material, or molecular Darkness (small particles); 2) astral Darkness (smaller particles); 3) spiritual Darkness (smaller particles yet).

1) Astral-material Light (very fine particles); 2) ethereal-astral Light (still finer particles); 3) ethereal Light (much finer particles yet).

The size of the particles is thus constantly decreasing. In relation to God’s Kingdom or to God, the scale of ethereal-material, spiritual and spiritual-ethereal Light is used. However, it should be remembered that all these designations, whether they relate to Darkness or to the Light, must be regarded only as a means of identification.

It is impossible to describe God’s Kingdom (landscapes, dwellings and so forth) or life as lived there, since all this is so inconceivably far beyond human comprehension, and because no earthly tongue possesses words that can even come close to describing these things.

2

While God's first children were only in His Thought, as yet uncreated, He considered all that might affect them. He knew that, sooner or later, they must of necessity be confronted with Darkness in order to learn to bring their thoughts under the absolute control of their wills, so that each, of their own free will, could restrain or halt the selfish desires of their thoughts.

The wish to multiply arose not in God until after His emergence. Thus, in contrast to the twelve Helpers, God’s children existed not in His Thought until His appearance as a personal Being. They had not consciously participated in the struggle out of Darkness and consequently could have no knowledge of its power. And were God not at some point to confront them directly with Darkness, they could never become contributing, only receiving beings and would forever be as dependent, protected children rather than personalities of independent thought and action—and the gulf between them and God would have become immeasurable.

In His omniscience, God saw that there were several possibilities from which His yet uncreated children could choose. All might overcome Darkness and thereby rise infinitely high; all might meet with downfall and thereby create for themselves a temporary existence in sin and in suffering; or many or perhaps only a few might hold steady—or fall. 

When He had so considered, God knew also that from the moment of the creation of His children, He, in His omniscience, would know beforehand every course of action that each might choose to take.

And so, to be equally just to all of His children, God chose to limit His omniscience before He created them, that they could remain free and independent in all circumstances, influenced not in the least by His prescience.

Had God not limited His knowledge, those of His children who might later succumb to Darkness could rightfully have reproached Him, that, possessing full knowledge of their choice, He had created some to be defeated and others to be victorious. God would not then be what He is, a just and loving Father.

In order to give to each one a sovereign free will, God therefore, by power of His Will, limited His omniscience so that He would have no knowledge of the future choices³  His children would make.

 Hence: in complete justice, God created His many children, gave to them all an equal inner nature, an equal intelligence, an equal capacity for spiritual growth, and equal power to act of their own accord.  

God created them two and two, a male being and a female being, destined forever to complete and complement one another.

As a result of the harmonizing union of divine Thought and divine Will that culminated in the emergence of God and His twelve Helpers, both He and His Helpers embody a male as well as a female principle within their nature. But God created His children as man and as woman so as to maintain eternally the dualistic attraction. Each individually embodies both Thought and Will. However, Will predominates in the male being, and Thought predominates in the female.

In thought and emotion the life of the female being, compared with that of the male, is richer, more intensive and more intuitive; but in the structure of her thought her reasoning is less stringent than his, since she possesses to only a small extent the capacity of the male power of will to draw forth, retain, and fructify the ever-changing images of thought. (This holds true also for the spiritual individuality of mankind,)

The Thought and the Will of God and of each of His Helpers, are balanced—they are of equal strength. But God’s Thought and Will are, of course, infinitely greater than those of His Helpers.

The emotional lives of the dual personalities resemble one another, their thought and their will supplement each the other.

Life partnership in the earthly sense does not exist for these male and female beings, though through thought and will they may be united from time to time in a higher sense.

Under the tutelage of God’s Helpers they all advanced far in the development of thought and will, in their knowledge of the creative power of thought and will. But they attained not to an understanding of the everlasting energy of the life-principle. For this reason they were able only to create, or rather to fashion, lifeless objects by the power of thought and will and from the radiations of the Light (for example, constructing their dwellings and fashioning objects, artistic ornamentation, and the like. Similarly, they could create mental images in the likeness of living beings, but such phantoms were only of an ephemeral nature).

The fact that God’s children developed in different ways, though all created with equal potential, is due to the distinctive, individual and enigmatic (the hidden) nature of the free will.

 The free will, a gift from God to each of His children, is a reflection of His own Will—an abstraction whose innermost and essential nature is known but to God.

Endowed with this free will, some of God’s children pursued a more intellectual development of thought, tried to investigate the cosmic laws and to perfect their knowledge of the endless abstractions of thought, whilst others devoted themselves more to the world of beauty and emotion—to the arts of color, form, of music and poetry and so on.

Thus: although equally endowed from the beginning, God’s children have through the exercise of the free will become essentially different, they have become individualities.

3

When for eons God’s children had led a life of beauty, glory and joy in their Father’s Kingdom, He saw that they had advanced far enough in their understanding of the mastery of will over thought, and in their understanding of the need to limit the covetousness of the thought according to the ability of the will to make fruitful the thought and carry it into action, that there was a possibility for them all to emerge victoriously from a confrontation with Darkness, He then chose for them a difficult task—that of leading spiritually immature beings forward to full equality with themselves.

The beings God thought to create, He would fashion from the weaker and more material radiations of the Light and in part from His own divine Self.

Through higher or lower frequencies of vibration, both Darkness and the Light can manifest either ethereally or materially to a higher or lesser degree, and can do so both in the transcendental and in the purely earthly sense. In Light as well as in Darkness there exist, as said earlier, extremely fine particles, and the smaller the particles the higher their vibration and the greater their capacity for cohesion and adhesion.

Propagation and death were not intended for these beings. Once created through God’s Thought and Will, they should continue to live in ever-progressing development. This development should not only take place spiritually but also physically, since their bodies through spiritual progress should at the same time gain in radiance and beauty as the various stages on the road to God’s Kingdom were attained. All sin, all impure thoughts would of course be entirely unknown to these children of the Light; for sin, as well as propagation and death exist only in Darkness and in all that it produces. But once having attained to a certain degree of maturity they should be confronted with Darkness in the same way as God’s first children, that they might learn to overcome its power.

God, His Helpers and the first children would make themselves known to the new beings through revelation. All guidance should take place by the help of thought, that is to say, through inspiration and intuition.

To carry out this intention, God first had to provide dwelling places for the beings He had thought to create. Since these beings would be spiritually much weaker than the firstborn of God, they would not be able to sustain an existence in the radiant Light of God’s own Kingdom until through a long process of maturing they became capable of maintaining their individuality, so that on their entry into their Father’s Home they would not risk merging again with their paternal source.

For this reason, God conceived and developed the plan for the four stellar systems or galaxies.

By the power of His Will, God formed the mother suns, causing the ether—the Light and the Darkness precipitated in it—to rotate around four centers of force, borne and held by and in His Thought.

Since the Darkness which is precipitated in the ether has a lower vibrational frequency than the Light, the rotation around the centers of force caused it to collect as a core. This core was surrounded by the Light, which spread outward in vibrations of ever-increasing frequency until there was formed about each center a well-defined globe consisting of a darker core⁴ surrounded by a corona of Light. The outermost layer of this corona, formed by the more rapid and more ethereal-astral vibrations of the Light, is not visible to earthly eyes whereas the radiations from the precipitated Darkness,⁵ together with the emissions from the more rapid molecular vibrations of Darkness, can be detected and reflected by the human eye.⁵

The radiations and the concentration of the Light thus increase with rising vibrations. But only in God’s Kingdom does the Light unfold its greatest energy of concentration and radiation. The particles there are very much finer than in all the other forms of the Light. Spiritual beings are able to see the cores of Darkness of the globes, as well as the brighter, more radiant corona of the Light. Only one of the mother globes will at some time become visible from the Earth.

The mother globes contain all the elementary substances and all possibilities for life⁶—seeds from which God by the strength of His Thought and Will can call forth life. And since the four galaxies, directly or indirectly, stem from the mother globes, this applies also to all suns (that is, stars) and planets within these galaxies, with the exceptions due to the incursions of Darkness⁷ on the globes in the Earth’s galaxy. 

To understand somewhat the orbital paths of the mother globes, one can visualize the universe as a picture projected onto paper.

God’s Kingdom, an enormous sun formed from the high ethereal-material vibrations of the Light, is the Central Sun and supports and maintains the four galaxies.

The mother suns are positioned in pairs directly across from each other, on either side of the Central Sun; when the Central Sun and the four mother suns are all in opposition, an imaginary line passes through the centers of the four suns and the Central Sun.

The mother suns are of exactly equal weight. Each turns on its own axis.

The distance between each pair of mother suns (measured from the center of each sun) is equal to the radius of the Central Sun (God’s Kingdom). The mutual orbit of the pairs around the Central Sun describes a perfect circle, whose radius equals seven times the radius of the Central Sun. The circumference of this great circle passes through the midpoint of the distance between each pair of mother suns. The successive orbits described by the mother suns thus lie halfway outside and halfway inside the circumference of the great circle.

The mother suns balance each other, pair for pair, by equal attraction and by equal repulsion. The distance once established will therefore always remain constant.

The individual movement of each sun following its partner around the Central Sun describes an open circular orbit (a spiral orbit) so that the midpoint of the distance between each sun within a pair moves along the circumference of the great circle.

The pairs turn in opposite directions.

If a diagram shows the pair of mother suns (a-b) to the left of the Central Sun and the other pair (c-d) to the right, and with all the five suns in opposition so that a and c lie nearest to, and b and d farthest from, the Central Sun, and assuming that this position is the starting point for the orbits of the mother suns then a and c will turn away from and b and d toward the Central Sun. The spiral-orbit of the one pair (a-b) thus turns from the left side of the Central Sun to the right side, and the other pair (c-d) at the right turns to the left side. After about three million years the pair (a-b) will occupy the place of the pair (c-d) on the right side of the Central Sun and vice versa for (c-d). The complete revolution of both pairs along their common orbit round the Central Sun takes two eons, or about six million years.

Once established, the speed of rotation of both pairs will remain constant since they all counterbalance one another at any given moment. The equilibrium between these pairs, with God’s Kingdom as the center, will therefore never be disturbed.

A galaxy (a “Milky Way”), shaped as an elliptical ring, moves along with and rotates around each mother sun. Each galaxy was directly or indirectly spun off or ejected by eruption from its mother sun. (The globes and suns that originated directly with the mother sun have then again, through spinoffs or eruptions, subdivided into smaller globes—and so on).

Centrifugal force has caused the globes of the galaxies to deviate from a circular to an elliptical orbit round their mother sun at one focal point and an immaterial center of force (invisible to the human eye) at the other focal point.

If the orbit of a globe is to describe a perfect circle around its sun, the following three factors must be of exactly equal strength: the speed of axial rotation of the globe, its forward thrust through space and the combined forces of spin-off and attraction that interact at the time of the formation of the daughter globe. If the formation of a new globe comes about through an ejection produced by inner explosive eruptions in the mother sun, the force of ejection will usually to a varying degree exceed the force of a normal spin-off process (drop spin-off). The globes that come into being through eruption-ejections therefore move in a more or less elliptical orbit. If the orbit does become elliptical, then an immaterial center of force will automatically arise in juxtaposition to the material sun. Depending on the form of the orbit, this immaterial center of force will be nearer to or farther from the material sun.

The irregular orbit of a globe can also be caused by attraction from other suns.

Similar conditions prevail in the numerous solar systems inside the four galaxies. Because of the centrifugal force, the suns and the planets⁸ have similarly deviated from the circular orbit to a greater or lesser elliptical orbit around their center sun at one focus and a center of force,⁹ equally invisible to the human eye, at the other focus.

If one visualizes each of the four galaxies in the shape of an ellipsoid, then one axis will equal 1/7 of the radius of the open circle (the spiral-circle), described by the mother suns in their orbits; the second (the longest) axis will equal 1/28 of the arc length of that same spiral-circle, and the third axis will equal 3/7 of the longest axis.

Since the size of the second axis, that is, 1/28 of the arc length of the spiral-circle, cannot be given exactly in terms of human calculations, then neither can the third axis (3/7 of the second, the longest axis) show exactly the indicated size of 3/7.

The combined volume of the four mother suns and their galaxies represent 1/7000^th the volume of the Central Sun, God’s Kingdom.

The number of globes is limited at any given moment—the opposite would be in conflict with the law of balance—but over time their number will become unlimited. New globes will come into being repeatedly while older globes disappear, dissolved into their component parts. But as long as the four mother-sun galaxies by the power of God’s Will orbit in space, the combined weight will always balance with zero. Therefore, the number of globes in existence is limited, whereas the potential number is unlimited.

All suns, even the most distant nebulae, observable from the Earth, belong to the same galaxy, whose mother sun—one of the four—will some day be visible from the Earth, though probably not until the instruments of observation have undergone some changes and improvements. At that time the mother sun will be visible low in the southwestern sky.

The solar and planetary system to which the earth belongs is in the inner part of the elliptical ring of the galaxy (the “Milky Way”), and is moving towards the immaterial center of force.¹⁰

4

Eons were to pass while the universe was formed, before the time came when God chose the Earth to be the first dwelling place for the uncreated beings as yet in His Thought.

When God informed His children of the difficult task He would give them—to lead immature beings forward to greater spiritual ripeness—He actually confronted them all with Darkness the moment He said: “In the fullness of time shall I choose from among you some. . .”

God revealed not to whom or to how many He would entrust this task. He left it undecided so as to observe how His children would react to the possibility that some might be chosen over others. Since God at the creation of His children had limited His foreknowledge of their future choice between good and evil, He could know nothing of the impression His words would have on anyone individually until all had carefully considered the proposed task. When He had disclosed to them the new-formed world that was slowly ripening to life as the Light irradiated and fructified it, he allowed them time to themselves so that all might become familiar with the contemplated work.

In Ardor’s Account, the children of God are referred to as the “Eldest” and the “Youngest”. However, these designations serve merely to distinguish between them, since all were created at the same time—that is, they emerged simultaneously as visible individualities. But there was a passage of time between their creation and their visible appearance, since God created one after the other in His Thought. Thus, not until His Thought had created the last one did they all—by the power of His Will—simultaneously emerge as visible beings.

Those of God’s children called the Eldest had primarily displayed an interest in abstractions of thought and in the cosmic laws, while the Youngest were those who had applied themselves more to the arts of color, form and tone, and so forth.

The Eldest soon came to assume that they must be the best qualified to lead immature beings, and God then knew that lust for power—a result of the influence of Darkness—had begun to awaken in them and that their power of will was not strong enough to limit or to contain their desirous thoughts. And God cautioned them, but they heeded not the warning and remained in the world of Light that lay around the Earth and irradiated the globe, whereupon Darkness began gradually (but imperceptibly to the Eldest) to break forth and separate itself from the circulation of the Light.

Over time, Darkness gained ever greater influence over the Eldest in whom it found expression as self-righteousness, impatience and lust for power.

When, through the Eldest’s disregard of God’s warning, Darkness began to separate from the Light, it commenced also its work of destruction on the Earth itself, millions of years before this became known to the Eldest. Slowly—inconceivably slowly—the Earth’s core of Darkness¹¹ absorbed the in-flowing Darkness, and slowly—inconceivably slowly—the Earth was transformed over the course of millions of years from a world of Light to a world of Darkness.

The Darkness that took the Earth into its possession and transformed it was of the astral and the molecular forms. Astral Darkness, a lower form of spiritual Darkness, consists of smaller particles with somewhat greater capacity for cohesion and adhesion than the molecular Darkness.

When God saw the first signs of the destruction of His work, He knew His eldest children would meet with downfall; but although the Eldest in their impatience and lust for power were themselves intent on creating living beings, God would not abandon them and He warned them once again—though with the same negative result. Each time that the Eldest ignored God’s warning, Darkness gained ever greater power over them so that at last, when they were fully agreed to attempt the creation of beings from the Darkness, they had departed so far from God and from the influence of the Light that their will for the good had been completely broken.

Through the combined strength of the determined thoughts and wills of the Eldest, large amounts of the precipitated Darkness were drawn forth from the concealing waves—or streams—of the Light and completed the destruction long since begun; and since the Eldest in their powerlessness were incapable of stemming the onrush of Darkness,¹² they had to stand by as helpless and bewildered spectators to the dreadful catastrophe that overwhelmed their beautiful world. In their horror at what had happened, they forgot for a long time the very cause of the destruction: their resolve to create living beings themselves, and therefore they all devoted themselves to vain attempts once more to come into contact with the Light; but despite their many exertions they did not succeed and were therefore incapable of restoring or recreating the world of Light that Darkness had destroyed. Since they had all voluntarily allied themselves with Darkness, they became completely bound by its magnetic power; and in the same way that the Light streams through God, Darkness streamed through the Eldest. In this way, through the thought and will for evil of the Eldest, the poles of Darkness were awakened from their latent state—even though the Eldest themselves understood not the cause of this.

Having thus of their own free will been brought under the binding influence of Darkness, the Eldest could not be redeemed before they had fully repented of their sinful actions. Had God forcibly¹³ interrupted the stream of Darkness, they would have immediately lost all possibility of ever returning to their Father. Such action would have doomed them to an everlasting and irrevocable state of spiritual ruin that could never be reconciled with God’s paternal love. The Darkness that streamed through them would have to be neutralized by the free will for the Light of the Eldest themselves, before the Light could once more absorb it.

Neutral Darkness—in this case the neutral spiritual Darkness produced by the highest vibrations of Darkness—is a form of Darkness that in one way or another has become depolarized. This depolarization can occur, for example, when the spiritual sufferings of an individual evoke grief and thereby remorse over sinful thoughts or sinful actions.

The spiritual Darkness that influenced the Eldest— and is identical to the Darkness that afflicts humanity—can be depolarized in two ways:¹⁴

1) Through the base, sinful or criminal act that is committed at the moment the corresponding thought is realized through the individual’s will for evil. The action results from the meeting of thought and will and with this result, or action, Darkness is depolarized, losing for a time its capacity for attraction. But this depolarization takes place only in the one particular “grain” of Darkness that impels the individual to action. A moment later a new wave of Darkness may influence the same person to the same thought and action, or to commit another act of Darkness.

2) Through the individual’s grief over the impure or sinful thoughts, thought and will lose their reciprocal power of attraction toward evil since there now occurs a first movement towards the Light, whereby Darkness is depolarized. The evil thought and the evil will are eliminated through remorse, since the Light gains full victory over Darkness¹⁵ with the remorse of the individual.

In order possibly to evoke sorrow and remorse sooner among the Eldest, God promised His youngest children to call to their fallen brothers and sisters; for if the sound of God’s voice could awaken memories in the thoughts of the Eldest, and if these memories could in turn awaken grief over that which had been lost through their arbitrary actions, then remorse would soon follow and break the stream of Darkness, enabling the Light to carry them back to the glorious world of their Father’s Home.

The Youngest sought not the counsel of their Father until several million years after the Darkness had begun disengaging itself. They had gradually become accustomed to the idea that their older brothers and sisters would be the ones chosen, and since the Eldest so often visited the new, radiant world of Light around the Earth, unaccompanied by the Youngest and without informing them of their excursions, the Youngest had grown accustomed to the prolonged absence of their brothers and sisters. But as time passed and the Eldest failed to return, the Youngest grew apprehensive and sought the counsel of God’s Helpers who then informed them of what had happened. And their grief was boundless.

Despite their continuous interrelationship with God, He had said nothing to the Youngest about the fall of the others. In His infinite love, He wished them not to know of the sorrow and painful separation until they themselves inquired about their absent brothers and sisters. 

Through the millions of years that passed while the Eldest attempted in vain to purge Darkness from, and to recreate their kingdom, Darkness flowed ever closer about the Earth, united itself with the Earth’s core of Darkness and brought to life some of the seeds of life¹⁶ that God had given. These seeds—both those intended to become animal forms and those intended to become plant forms—would not have been subject to death and decay had they been called forth under the direct radiance of the Light. For it had been God’s intention that they should retain their original forms for the joy and the benefit of the beings of the Light that He had thought to create. Once the Earth had served its purpose as the first dwelling place for these beings, the animal and plant kingdoms would then by the power of God’s Will be dissolved again and absorbed by the Light.

However, since it was Darkness that made the latent seeds fruitful and vitalized them, nothing developed as God in His Thought had planned at the beginning. Everything became grotesque, hideous and without meaning; and because of the low capacity of Darkness for cohesion, adhesion¹⁷ and regeneration, all animal and plant forms became subject to a limited life span of longer or shorter duration.

When the many attempts at reconstructing their kingdom had failed to give the Eldest any positive result, they decided to descend to the earthly sphere to investigate the destruction that had occurred there.

Besides the monstrous beasts mentioned in Ardor’s Account there were also certain micro-organisms, such as decay-causing bacteria. But most of the disease-causing spores came into existence after this time, called forth by Darkness and often planned and created by the Eldest. Numerous species have thus appeared, degenerated or become extinct, while new ones have come into existence. And this will continue through countless ages, but in decreasing measure as Darkness is eliminated. Nevertheless, some individual micro-organisms, such as the aforementioned decay-causing bacteria, or similar varieties, will exist as long as there is life on Earth.

In the millions of years that passed since the time Darkness began spreading over the Earth, there gradually developed the numerous forms of plant and animal life in existence when the Eldest discovered the destruction that had taken place on the globe. The development progressed very slowly through many and diverse stages, from single-celled¹⁸ to multi-celled,¹⁸ to more and more complex organisms and forms. And as Darkness concentrated further on and about the globe the gruesome, gigantic and fantastic animal figures appeared.

Some of these creatures that appalled the Eldest with their horrifying appearance, became progenitors of many of the later animal species; though some of these later animal forms developed through the continued vitalization of the still dormant seeds of life by Darkness. This evolution also progressed slowly from the primitive to the higher organisms. The material effect of Darkness on the Earth did not subside until the connection between the Light and the Earth that had been interrupted by the fall of the Eldest was re-established.¹⁹

Until the globe was once again drawn in under the circulation of Light, the animals mated at random. Innumerable species resulted from these cross-breedings. Not until later, as the Light gradually gained more orderly influence, did conditions meet the requirements for better-regulated reproduction of the prevailing species, thus in many ways improving and ennobling both the animal and the plant kingdoms.

The molecular vibrations of Darkness (the vibrations of its largest particles), which then produced—and still produce — the earthly forms and figures visible to the human eye, are stabilized and held together by the somewhat faster vibrations of the astral Darkness.

Were the molecules of Darkness not astrally stabilized,²⁰ they would easily loosen and split apart because of their lower frequency. Therefore, all earthly forms of plant and animal, all organic and inorganic matter and all that is issued from or made thereof have an astral counterpart, invisible to the human eye, consisting of the faster vibrations of astral Darkness—smaller particles, that is, with greater capacity for cohesion and adhesion.²¹ These counterparts are so closely interwoven with the earthly substance that even for observers from the transcendental world it can be difficult to determine where one ends and the other begins.

The frequencies of astral Darkness lie about midway between the highest and the lowest frequencies of Darkness. Spiritual Darkness has the highest frequency and is the form that influences the thought and the will to sin. In his account, Ardor makes no distinction between spiritual and astral Darkness.

When the earthly creatures and forms are attacked by disease—that is, accumulations of Darkness, microbes, malnutrition, heat, drought, cold, and the like—the connection between the astral counterparts and the earthly molecular formations is loosened, since the frequency of vibration of the molecules is reduced. If such diseases and conditions are not remedied (by resuming normal functioning through a strengthening of the slackened connection), the living organism dies away, becomes lifeless. The astral counterparts of the soft substances of the expired bodies and plants will disengage, and after a shorter or a longer time they are absorbed by Darkness, only to be transformed into or to reappear in other forms.

By the separation of the astral counterparts and their earthly forms, the molecular vibrations of Darkness again become considerably reduced, so that the molecules entirely lose their resistance to attack by micro-organisms. The soft substances of the expired bodies and the withered plants will then decompose unless artificially preserved by drying, freezing or by chemical means, and are absorbed into the ground and the atmospheric layers. Later they are transformed again, partly into earthly and partly into astral forms.

The counterparts of the more solid substances of the expired bodies and plants such as bones, horns, teeth, bark and wood²² are not released until these substances in one way or another are destroyed by natural decay, attack by fungus, fire or the like; but the connection between these counterparts and the earthly forms continues to be loose, that is, the somewhat lower frequencies are maintained. As these counterparts are gradually released, they are also absorbed by the astral Darkness.²³

Even though the former Light-world of the Eldest had been completely saturated by the influx of Darkness, the Eldest were yet able to distinguish and differentiate in the Darkness because of their divine origin, just as all the structures in their ruined realm were real and tangible to them, whereas everything on Earth produced by the molecular oscillations of Darkness appeared to them as hazy and unreal forms of life.

When the Eldest on their journeying across the Earth had seen that the plant and animal life of Darkness was perishable, they realized that they were not able to create immortal beings in their own likeness. Even so, they were still determined to make the attempt. However, their efforts invariably failed until they agreed upon taking the animals for a model,²⁴ especially in matters of propagation and nourishment.

For about two million years—a long time by human perception—the Eldest worked at shaping their thoughts in the astral as well as in the earthly material.²⁵ At length they succeeded in creating the first individual beings of the human race capable of surviving—animal-like creatures. But since many were involved in this work, and since their sense of beauty and form had been confused and distorted by the influence of Darkness and was no longer on a level with the capability of each individual’s will, a number of much differing types were brought forth—all only slightly above the animals.

Thus: the human race descended not through various evolutionary stages from the animals, but evolved from created beings.

The manner in which the Eldest accomplished this act of creation will never be divulged to mankind.

5

When the Eldest decided to create intelligent beings, convinced of the impossibility of leading the beasts bred on Earth through the vitalizing influence of Darkness, it was rather with the intention that these, their own creatures, should assist them in the struggle against the gigantic monsters. Thus it was neither pure selfishness nor pure lust for power that motivated the Eldest during their attempts at creation. The spiritual counterparts of the first human beings were for this reason endowed with a faint element of spiritual life through that element of the Light that was in the thought that had formed the basis for their creation. Once given, this faint life-spark of spiritual Light could not be taken back, and it therefore had to be passed on from the first-created human beings to the progeny that they bore and bred. As new human bodies are formed during pregnancies, the astral counterparts are formed concurrently. They are given a faint element of spiritual life through the stream of Light that is carried by the waves of Darkness that constantly emanate from the Eldest, and is transferred from them to human beings who are infused by it. This heritage is thus given and received from generation to generation, and it will continue for as long as the Eldest are bound²⁶ to the human race by the Darkness that circulates through them.

Since this spiritual life-element of the Light stemmed not directly from God but was given by beings acting against His Will, it had not sufficient strength to impart conscious, independent thought and will to the creatures of the Eldest—neither in the earthly nor in the transcendental world. The “human shadows”²⁷—the astral counterparts—were therefore condemned in advance, after the cessation of earthly life, to exist for eternity without ever gaining conscious knowledge or understanding of their own existence or of the existence of their fellow creatures.

Some of the original human races have in the apes left visible traces suggestive of the primitive stage of development in which they remained for many millennia, before Light came to the Earth and ennobled mankind.

Through the many first ages, humans remained—bodily as well as spiritually—at about the same level as the animals, and since Darkness had reigned practically everywhere on Earth at the time of their creation, they also became related by blood to all the mammals then existing. Through mating of humans with various animal species²⁸ the first forms of the ape came into existence.

Since no element of the Light was present in the act underlying the genesis of the apes, and which took place only to satisfy the human mating instinct, the astral counterparts of these creatures received none of the spiritual element of Light of their human ancestors. And so, the apes, like all other animals, are endowed not with spiritual life. After death, the astral counterparts of the apes are absorbed and pass into other forms in the same manner as are all other astral counterparts.

Through the inter-breeding of the early apes and their own and their offspring’s cross-breeding—partly with humans and partly with other mammals —there gradually developed the profusion of ape species now found spread over the Earth, and of which certain species are more or less directly descended from humans. Other species have through countless cross-breeding departed much from their human ancestors.

The regulating influence of Light and its ability to segregate the Darkness has removed human beings as well as most mammals far from their former common blood relationship. As is well known, however, some such relationship can still be shown between human beings and the so-called anthropoid apes, just as a similar relationship can be shown to exist between certain mammals that superficially appear to be unrelated. However, these traces of a common blood relationship will gradually disappear completely.

The low standing of original man is shown by the fact that even the most primitive races of today would be incapable of producing survivable offspring through sexual intercourse with animals.

When somewhat over a million years had passed since the creation of the first human beings, God called a second time upon the Eldest in hope of awakening remorse among them. Some of the Eldest had long grieved over the dreadful existence endured by their creatures on Earth, and in despair over what had happened they had come to understand the full extent of their evil conduct.

Their grief over their transgression was so profound that the moment they heard God’s calling voice their first request for help was for their hapless creatures, before they thought of obtaining any betterment of their own miserable existence.

When God saw the depth of their grief and remorse, He, in His infinite love and compassion, forgave them all that they had sinned against Him and promised at the same time to make their imperfect creatures His own children. Through the power of His Will, God then fulfilled His promise, partly by sending a stream of His own divine Being to each human creature—to the “shadows” as well as to those who lived on Earth—and partly by adopting these newly-formed human spirits into His Thought, and thus imparting eternal life to the entire human race. And from that moment, the divine stream has flowed through all in an unbreakable cycle and is imparted to every new human being at the time of conception.²⁹

When God informed His youngest children of His adoption of the creatures of the Eldest and asked if they would help lead these wretched beings out of Darkness, all fell silent. They shrank before the enormous task they would have to take on if real help were to be afforded. And although they knew no one would exert pressure upon them, even should they give up before the work was completed, they dared not immediately accede to their Father’s request.

The thought of helping humanity according to God’s wish awoke first in the female dual of the eldest of the Youngest. And the instant she conceived compassion for mankind, this thought was seized upon by the male dual and with his will he turned her thought to action and came forward with the offer to support and to lead mankind. Through this voluntary act he gave life to the thought of his dual, thereby also assuming responsibility for its further execution.

Had the eldest of the Youngest not heeded the thought of his female helpmate, her thought would never have come to life—to action—since the male power to act, the will,  was required for the realization of such an overwhelming task, for which reason he may rightfully be called the leader and savior of mankind.

From one of his incarnations, his last one, the eldest of the Youngest is known to human beings by the name Jesus of Nazareth—Christ.

As a reward for his voluntary offer, God not only placed in his hands the leadership of mankind but recognized him also as foremost among the Youngest—male as well as female.

The eldest of the Youngest’s dual has contributed her help in various ways through repeated incarnations, as have all of her younger brothers and sisters.

At the downfall of the Eldest—When God had confronted His children with Darkness—the thought that God’s choice must fall upon them arose first among the female Eldest; but through the will of the male, the female thought of lust for power brought all of them to downfall. The thought of creating living beings also first arose within the Elder’s female dual, but it was brought into action by his will. The Elder consequently became the foremost among the Eldest and rightfully bears the responsibility for the creation of the human race.

Thus a female thought of lust for power brought sin and downfall, and a female thought of compassion brought the necessary help for restoration.

6

When God had promised His remorseful children that He would take their spiritually and bodily malformed creatures into His care, and when all the Youngest had promised to help lead these out of Darkness, He then created habitats and dwellings, both for the Youngest and for the spirits of human beings, where they could abide whenever not incarnate on Earth.

Had the Youngest permanently dwelt in God’s Kingdom during the time they led mankind, it would have become quite difficult for them to subject themselves to the earthly order of time.

From the astral-material and the ethereal-astral Light that generates the material forms in the transcendental world, God fashioned six habitats, or spheres, which together with the kingdom created previously but ravaged by Darkness—that is, “Hell”— constituted seven worlds of astral Light that surrounded the earthly globe.

In order that all—the Youngest as well as the spirits of human beings—could have access to the Earth in future without having to pass through the Darkness of the ruined kingdom, God opened a pathway through the habitat of the Eldest by the power of His Will. He extended this pathway through all the spheres to the outermost and let it be pervaded by the Light. This provided a pathway, a passage of Light, directly to the Earth, so that all^{30 30} might readily journey back and forth.

The transcendental dwelling places are as visible and material to spiritual beings as everything on Earth is to humans. The higher the spirits advance in their struggle out of Darkness, the more rapid will be the ether-vibrations that produce the material from which these, their limited worlds, are formed. The more distant are the dwelling places from the Earth, the brighter, the more splendid, the more harmonious everything becomes—dwellings and nature alike, such as seas, rivers, lakes, lands, flowers, etc. As long as the spirit stays in the sphere it has reached by purification through its reincarnations—that is, earthly rebirths—its body moves about just as one moves about on Earth, that is, by walking, running, etc. However, the movements of the released spirit are quicker and easier, just as the thought is more lucid and more precise than when the spirit is bound to the heavy earthly body that imposes so many restrictions upon it.

Methods of transportation in the spheres are similar to those on Earth, but better, faster and more comfortable. All innovations and improvements that over time have been brought to humanity have first been tested in the spheres, before they have become a reality on Earth.

When the Youngest associate with inhabitants of the various Spheres and of the Earth and desire not to avail themselves of the Passage of Light, they exert the energy of their thought and will to transport their spirit-body by the ether that extends everywhere by virtue of the fourth dimension.

A further explanation of the fourth dimension cannot be given, because man as yet lacks the basis for an understanding of this concept.

The higher spheres are invisible to the inhabitants of the lower ones. The lower spheres are partly invisible to the inhabitants of the higher, and even the Youngest have only a moderately clear view of them, when, borne by the vibrations of the ether, they move from sphere to sphere, or from place to place within the different spheres.

The inhabitants of the lower spheres cannot on their own, either by thought and will or by the Passage of Light, ascend to worlds above their own sphere. They can descend only to the Earth³¹ or to the lower spheres in between, and only through the Passage of Light. However, within their home-sphere and the sphere of the Earth, they are able to move about by thought and will, but to a limited extent. They are thus unable to penetrate strong concentrations of Light or ethereal Light-radiations.

God’s Servants and the Youngest can move about everywhere by the power of their thought and will and therefore do not always use the Passage of Light. If they desire, they can even make their way through the Earth’s numerous accumulations of Darkness.

In the course of time, God has created a variety of animal figures for the enjoyment of human spirits, birds, horses, dogs, cats, etc.—so that they should not miss the purely earthly surroundings too much. However, these are not astral counterparts of earthly animals, but rather thought-forms not possessed of everlasting life. When the spheres have served their purpose as temporary habitations for the spirits, these animal figures, only temporarily contained in and by the Thought of God and therefore having no eternal life, will disappear. By the Will of God they are returned to the matter from which He fashioned them, dissolving and reverting to their original state—the Light-ether. But as long as the spheres exist, human spirits will always be able to find represented there the animals they most cherished during life on Earth. And since God creates these animal figures to conform exactly to their earthly prototypes, all will be able to find their favorite horse, dog, cat, bird, and so on.

In accounts that departed humans have conveyed to those on Earth about life in the spheres, it has often been said that the animals are endowed with everlasting life. This actually refers to the aforementioned thought-forms. However, there is some justification for such erroneous assertions by deceased relatives and friends since even the more advanced human spirits find it difficult to realize that these animals—apparently as alive as they themselves—are but endowed with temporary life. In a few instances where such messages have apparently been given by higher spirits, this erroneous information about the eternal life of animals must be ascribed to the Elder, who implanted these false thoughts while the communicating spirit was in contact with a medium. This has occurred quite often and cannot really be held against the mediums, since the Elder would of course avail himself of every opportunity to falsify any information given by the spirits of the Light.

But these and other false assertions could in time have been put right if the mediums or the séance leaders had on each occasion analyzed the various passages of every message and demanded verification that all was in exact agreement with the facts; for where the truth was demanded in the name of God, the Elder would have had to yield.

Through the eldest of the Youngest, God gives broad outlines for the human lives on Earth ³² and also determines their durations, all in accordance with that which can be allotted each individual on the basis of that person’s thoughts, actions and progress in the preceding incarnation, as well as all not yet atoned for from previous earthly lives. Before entering upon a fresh incarnation, the spirit is told how the forthcoming earthly life shall be lived, what demands will be made upon the spirit, and which deeds require atonement. Not until the spirit has pondered carefully what is to come, has understood why the new incarnation must take the exact form specified and has assented to same, will the incarnation proceed at the place and in the surroundings best suited to that particular purpose.

But since everything must come about voluntarily, and as the human spirits—especially the undeveloped ones—understand not always immediately the purpose of a new incarnation and therefore often refuse to undertake same, they must remain in their dwellings with no possibility of further progress open to them until they come to acknowledge and comprehend the advantages of a further incarnation. Once they so acknowledge, they can continue the temporarily interrupted journey toward the Paternal Home.

However, it is not left entirely to humans themselves to overcome all earthly difficulties. In order to render effective help, guardian spirits³³ watch over them and try to influence their thoughts—that is, “stir their conscience”—so as to guide each individual into the ways of life given by God. But since humans are also endowed with a free will, just as are the Eldest and the Youngest, and since they seldom heed fully the admonitions of their conscience, incarnations often depart sadly from what was intended; and as individuals frequently take their own lives instead of awaiting the time and manner of death appointed by God, they often create much needless suffering for themselves.

One who commits suicide in a state of delirium (an unpremeditated action, that is) will be reincarnated immediately after an account of the earthly life just ended has been given. These immediate reincarnations, without time for rest and learning, are given by God partly as a continuation of the abruptly terminated life, and partly so that the individual can move beyond the spiritual sufferings recently endured on Earth. Even if the new incarnation should be of short duration, the spirit will be able to look back upon the mental or physical anguish of the previous earthly life with greater calm when it is again released. (Regarding premeditated suicide, see Speech of Christ, page 114). 

A guardian spirit normally oversees many human individuals, sometimes several hundred, and is in direct thought-communication with all. The older the human spirit, the clearer and the more emphatically sounds the voice of conscience to the individual. The younger the human spirit, the denser the Darkness about it in human form, causing the voice of conscience to sound fainter and vaguer. Many people often hear two voices, the other constantly opposing the admonitions of the conscience to follow the ways of the Light and of truth. At present^{, 34} this argumentative voice is that of the individual’s own selfish and undeveloped spirit, giving its own opinions on the questions or situations under consideration; but clearly nothing is gained when man overrides the conscience and yields to the desire to do evil.

When at death the spirit is freed once more from its earthly body, the guardian spirit brings it in a state resembling sleep³⁵ to the sphere and the dwelling that it departed upon its incarnation.

On reawakening, the spirit must meditate closely upon the earthly life just ended, must review all its thoughts and all actions—evil as well as good—and account for all the occasions when, in the human state, it opposed its conscience. God Himself poses those questions to which He requires more detailed answers by letting His voice sound to all spirits who have completed the rendering of their accounts.

God speaks through His thought, and by His will he transforms the vibrations produced by His thoughts into sound waves. God normally “speaks” to thousands of spirits at a time; but each individual hears only the questions addressed to that spirit alone, and the words sound as though God spoke in the earthly language used in the spirit’s latest incarnation. When all questions have been answered truthfully, the spirit is given once more into the care of its guardian for protection during the time of rest.

When the allotted time of rest³⁶ is at an end, the spirit is transferred to a better abode or to a higher sphere, if deserving of same through its life on Earth. Otherwise it remains in its old abode, for however much the spirit has sinned in the human state it will never be relegated to a lower sphere or a poorer abode. In the world of Light there is only progress or for a time standstill, but never retrogression.

After the time of rest, whether the spirit is transferred elsewhere or remains in its dwelling, it receives instruction³⁶ in the special matters that will be of use during the next incarnation.

In all the spheres are found numerous institutions of learning, corresponding to schools and universities of the Earth. All scientific and literary works that exist, or have existed on Earth are available there, reproduced in the earthly languages, except for the most primitive tongues. Each institution of learning has its own large libraries with pertinent laboratories and study halls. All public buildings, churches, assembly halls, universities, observatories, museums, etc., display great architectural beauty and are adorned with many works of sculpture. A number of these buildings have been designed and built by human spirits during their time of learning and thus were not created by the Thought and Will of God. They are made of the materials of the spheres, similar to the stone, wood and so forth on Earth.

From the moment that God began endowing the human souls with life, He created them as He did His first children, two by two, man and woman, so that when they had completed all the stages of their journeying and reached God’s Kingdom, they would belong eternally to one another. Each retains his or her individuality. They are two, yet as one, since one will always be a reflection of the other.

Wherever possible, the human male and female duals accompany each other in their existence on Earth as man and wife, brother and sister or otherwise closely related. But they do not always succeed in finding or understanding each other under earthly conditions.

Just as with His other children, God endows each human spirit with the characteristic of its spirit-body, but this is not seen in its full glory until the goal—God’s Kingdom—is reached.

A description in broad outline is hereby given of the bodily appearance of the spirits:

The spirit-body, like the human body, consists of an outer form enclosing various inner organs. The outer form has the appearance of the most beautiful human body, many times idealized, but without sexual organs. (The female spirit-body is softer and more rounded than that of the male, but the actual difference in the outward appearance of the male and female cannot be explained, since humans lack any basis for understanding this difference). The internal structure of the body only remotely resembles that of the earthly body. The physical digestive system consisting of the stomach, intestines, kidneys, etc., and all reproductive organs are absent, but the vascular and nervous systems are far more extensively and finely developed. By breathing in through the nose, the windpipe and lung-like organs, the body is supplied with the necessary ether currents, which then circulate through a finely and extensively ramified “vascular network” and back to the respiratory organs, where the currents are renewed. The vascular system is a double one. The network of vessels leading from the organ on the right side terminates on the left side, and vice versa. There are no arteries. If a spirit of the Light stays in or passes through accumulations of Darkness, a sensation is experienced similar to that of a human being breathing air of low oxygen content.

The spirit-body has no bone structure, but its consistency is entirely firm because of a strong musculature throughout the body.

Instead of the human brain, but in the same place, there is a nerve center from which an extremely fine network of nerves spreads from the head along the back and through the entire body. All the nerve-fibers lead back to the brain-center through a lesser center that corresponds most closely to the human heart and is found at approximately the same place; here the nerve-ends converge and lead through two cords, one on either side of the neck, back to the starting point, the brain-center.

If they so choose, beings in the transcendental world need not take nourishment.

Nourishment, if taken, consists mainly of fruits³⁷ taken as is or prepared in various ways. It is taken by mouth (the tooth structure is similar to that of the human body), is distributed through a finely ramified tubular system to the entire body, and is then secreted imperceptibly through tiny pores of the skin by interaction between the tubular and vascular systems of the body and the surrounding ether of Light or of Darkness. The pores of the skin are not unlike the sweat pores of the human body, but much finer and all connected directly with the tubular and vascular systems.

The spirit-body as here described is alike for all spiritual beings; but because the human spirit in the transcendental world is always an exact copy (see pages 188-91) of the human embodiment of its previous incarnation, the spirit-body also contains duplicates of all the organs and so forth of the human body. In the transcendental world everything human remains completely latent—rests in a state of dormancy. On the other hand, for as long as the spirit is incarnated the organs of the spirit-body are at rest, since these can be used only when the spirit is released. But the nervous system of the spirit-body functions at all times, although to a lesser degree during life on Earth.

When the spirit has completed all its incarnations and is released from life on Earth, God removes by the power of His Will all the rudimentary organs that stem from its human existence, and the spirit-body then appears exactly as God gave it.

7

At the instant of conception, when the first frail seed of a new human body is formed, it receives its share of the divine stream of Light that joins humanity to God. Gradually, as the embryo develops, the divine element absorbs the faint spiritual Light given by the Eldest, which through the streams of Darkness is also imparted to every human embryo at the moment of conception, and thereby faintly animates or brings to spiritual life the astral counterpart of man. However, the counterpart itself³⁸ is not absorbed, since it is completely interwoven with the earthly body. The astral counterpart of Darkness is not loosened and separated until after the earthly body has died.

At death, the astral connection to the soft substances³⁹ of the body is loosened, and the counterpart⁴⁰ is separated and released. Upon release it has the outward form and appearance of the dead body, but only briefly—from five to twenty minutes. It then dissolves, becomes misty, is absorbed and disappears. The time of absorption differs, depending on various circumstances. If death is in the open the counterpart is quickly absorbed, whereas the absorption is retarded in enclosed areas, such as rooms.

If one meets with sudden, violent death, with no preceding illness, separation of the counterpart and the earthly body takes longer. The time can vary from two to about twenty-four hours.

At birth, the element of Light received from the Eldest is completely eliminated by the divine element that enshrouds the child’s body as a faintly luminous mist, wherein the frail human form can just barely be discerned from the transcendental world. As the child’s body grows, the spiritual shroud of Light grows with it but still retains its misty appearance. When the physical body dies, whether at a tender age, in old age or in the years between, the spiritual shroud is released and at the same time condenses into an exact copy of the dead body. A new human spirit has thus been created, and in the earthly life just ended it has taken the first step on the difficult journey toward the Father’s distant Home.

What has been stated here about the joining of the divine element with the human body holds true for every human embryo.⁴¹ But where one of the Youngest is to be bound to a new human body, or a previously created human spirit is to continue its incarnations, the binding takes place during the fourth or fifth month of pregnancy. The spirit to be incarnated is brought to the Earth and bound to the fetus with the “life-giving” cord⁴² —a resilient connection fashioned from the finer substances of Light and interwoven with the vascular and nervous systems of the human brain⁴² in such a way that only death can undo it..

Once bound to the fetus, the spirit remains close to the pregnant woman. As the fetus takes form, the outer contours of the spiritual body gradually fade until the moment of birth when it merges with the child’s body, enveloping it like a mantle and taking on the appearance of a more or less luminous, misty formation in which the human form of the child can be perceived from the transcendental world as a darker body.

When, at the birth of the child, the spirit unites with the human body, it is slowly merged, by absorption, into the divine element imparted to the embryo at the moment of conception. This divine element thus enriches the spirit, if a human one, with an ever greater spiritual “plus” at each new incarnation. If one of the Youngest is bound to the child, the divine element merges with the spirit without adding further spiritual strength since each of the Youngest is on an infinitely higher level than even the most advanced human spirit.

If the fetus expires before fully developed, the spirit bound to it is released and shortly afterward resumes the appearance it had before it was bound to the fetus, and the incarnation thus will not be completed. If the spirit is united with the child during birth—has taken on its appearance—and the child dies soon afterward, the spirit, in the form of the child, is brought back to the spheres and grows up there in foster homes until maturity when it enters a new incarnation. These periods when spirits grow up in the spheres as children are regarded as times of rest and learning.

The foregoing holds true for all human spirits whose earthly bodies perish during childhood.

When on death the Youngest are released from their earthly existence, their spiritual bodies retain the forms of the human body until, after a shorter or longer time, they have rendered an account of exactly what they have accomplished among human beings; the spirit then assumes once more its original appearance, as received from God. If the Youngest are bound to human bodies that die during childhood, they do not grow up in the foster homes of the spheres as do human spirits but are brought by their guardian spirit to their home in the last sphere where, after a short rest and by the power of God’s Will, they assume their original form. Much unnecessary delay would otherwise be caused to the work of the Youngest for the progress of mankind.

The Youngest can assume any form from their earlier incarnations whenever felt necessary. They often do this when they visit human spirits in the spheres so that these may recognize the relative or friend who became dear to them during a contemporary incarnation.

Since the younger and undeveloped spirits normally stay only a short time in the spheres (from five to thirty years), humans cannot expect after every incarnation to meet all their departed relatives and friends. However, it is always ensured that humans who loved each other or were friends during an earthly incarnation may meet from time to time while in the spheres.

Human Spirits often form larger or smaller circles if they have had spiritual interests in common, have established sympathetic relationships, etc., in life on Earth. The various members of these circles will then meet sometimes in the earthly and sometimes in the transcendental existence; and when they have all overcome the power of Darkness through the strength of their will for the Light, and have thus completed their many incarnations, those who have come together will all simultaneously be transferred to one of the globes in the distant galaxies, there to complete their spiritual development.

When released, human spirits retain the characteristics of their earthly bodies until a new incarnation is begun, whereupon, as said, they assume the appearance of the new-born human child and develop accordingly as it grows up and goes through life.

If death comes in midlife or older years, the released spirit retains the aged appearance until after an accounting of the earthly lifetime when it then assumes the appearance of its human body as it was between 30 and 40 years of age.

The life-giving cord that connects the spirit to the physical body remains intact under spontaneous disembodiment which may arise during serious illness when the body is unconscious under high fever, or through an accident that causes the body to faint, or under narcosis or the like. Sometimes vague memories from this separation of the spirit and the body can remain.

The cord between the Spirit and the physical body also remains intact during disembodiment in sleep,⁴³  even if the spirit ventures as far afield as the spheres while the body sleeps. Such nightly release is permitted if the spirit has pledged to undertake a mission in a human existence. When need be it can then from time to time return to its abode in the transcendental world where its spiritual leaders can give counsel and thus help it carry out the mission on Earth.

So that the Youngest and the human spirits can eliminate the Darkness ceaselessly streaming through the human body, a layer of absorption is automatically formed by God’s Will at the time of birth. This layer is formed from the finer substance of Light and surrounds the entire body as a closely fitted casing about 1/8 (one-eighth) millimeter thick. The is itself enclosed by the spirit, which, after being united with the child and absorbing the divine element, constantly absorbs and to a greater or lesser extent eliminates the Darkness that streams ceaselessly through the astral body from the Eldest. This Darkness was originally depolarized by the spiritual element of Light that formed the basis for the creation of mankind.

As seen from the transcendental side, the human being appears as an egg-shaped, more or less luminous, misty formation, in which the human contours are only barely discerned. Firstly seen in the misty formation is the spirit in human form, somewhat less luminous than the enshrouding Light. Within the contours of the spirit-body can be seen a darker body. This is the human body itself together with its astral counterpart, framed by a luminous line—the casing. The higher and purer the embodied spirit, the more luminous is the misty formation and the radiations of the spirit-body—the aura.

The layer of absorption serves also as a layer of insulation, since the side of the casing facing the spirit is such as to be able to block the knowledge, characteristics, memories and experiences possessed by the embodied spirit and which must not be conveyed through the life-giving cord to the human (the physical) brain. The connection between the spirit and the earthly body is so contrived⁴⁴ that only as much of the intelligence of the spirit can penetrate as necessary to produce the human personality in the forthcoming life on Earth. Man is in touch with his spirit through his brain⁴⁵ so that all the knowledge and experience acquired by the human being during the many lives on Earth becomes the permanent possession of the spirit.

Were the spirit, while embodied, not protected by a layer of insulation it would come into too close a contact with the physical brain and the suffering of staying in the earthly surroundings would be quite unbearable, especially for the Youngest. Memory of life in God’s Kingdom and the yearning to return there would then inevitably become so compelling, so depressing that the Youngest would be incapable of carrying out their work for humanity’s journey toward the Light.

At death, the layer of insulation loosens and is absorbed by the Light within three to six hours. But in some instances it has happened that because of accumulated Darkness, the Light has not been strong enough to absorb the layer of insulation within the normal time. These casings have then often lingered for years at the places where the corresponding earthly bodies had died. Because the casings resemble unmistakably the body they once enclosed, clairvoyants have on occasion mistaken them for spirits of the dead⁴⁶—ghosts, that is.

Thus: a human being is composed primarily of an earthly body and its astral counterpart, with the addition of an absorption and insulation layer that enables the spirit to eliminate the Darkness that streams from the Eldest and prevents the memories of experiences from previous incarnations from disturbing the individual’s conduct of life. In addition there is the spiritual self (thought, will and spirit-body), represented either by a newborn or by a more advanced spirit, which is bound to the human body by a cord that disrupts and dissolves at the moment the physical body expires.

The casing, the spirit-body, the cord and the spiritual shroud of Light have no space-filling properties in the earthly thee-dimensional world..

Since animals, in contrast to human beings, are not endowed with everlasting spiritual life (no spirit being bound to their bodies), they have no layer of absorption and elimination.

The “intelligence”, or instinct, of animals is retained from individual to individual in the brain of the astral counterpart, which influences the animals’ physical brain and enables them to live their earthly lives entirely by instinct and impulse (further explained in the Summary, pages 295-96).

8

The empires⁴⁷ destroyed in the remote past by mighty natural catastrophes varied greatly in size and culture.

The most ancient of these, in the Pacific Ocean, extended over the largest area. In the remote past it was geographically attached to the northern part of South America but later separated by volcanic eruptions and sinking of the ocean floor. The numerous island groups of Polynesia still show evidence of this land’s existence and, in part, of its location. This realm perished around 30,000 B.C. It was separated into larger and smaller islands, also brought about through volcanic eruptions and sinking of the ocean floor. The devastation continued for about eight centuries. The land was completely destroyed, all plant and animal life vanished and only the highest-lying areas remained. Later, because of shifts in the ocean floor, some of the submerged parts reappeared as islands.

This empire’s inhabitants were the ancestors of the Malayan race. However, the Malays of today are no longer of pure descent but have been greatly intermingled through association with other peoples and stand at a much lower spiritual level than that of their prehistoric forebears.

In ancient times, during the many earliest millennia after the Youngest had begun their educational work among mankind, the peoples of the Pacific empire were predominantly sun and fire worshippers. Though the empire stretched over vast areas, it was but thinly peopled. These lived in tribes or families of various sizes under the leadership of a chief. They all stood at about the same cultural level.

The eldest of the Youngest experienced his first two incarnations⁴⁸ in this Pacific empire. In the first, he became chief, or leader, of the empire’s largest and most important tribe, which still stood then at a rather low cultural level. His mission among the people, therefore, had no lasting effects.

In his second incarnation, about two thousand years before the destruction of the empire, his rank and mission can best be described as that of high priest. By his authoritative yet gentle manner, he succeeded in calling to life among his people the belief in a Deity of Love. However, by that time the Eldest had already tried for millennia, and by every possible means, to undermine among the human beings the accomplishments of the Youngest. And as the spiritual influence of the Eldest became ever greater, polytheism prevailed and the “new” God, the gentle God of Love to whom the sun was dedicated as a symbol, became more stern and frightening in the minds of the people. He was elevated to highest god, and under the constant influence of the Eldest was made into a terrifying monster of cruelty. The symbol of this highest god was the all-consuming, all-destructive fire; and to satisfy the ever-rising demands for atrocities that the priests in the name of this “divine” monster imposed upon the people, the first human sacrifices took place, and over the years they became more frequent and gruesome. A much favored punishment for religious transgressors was to hurl them into a deep extinct crater.⁴⁹ If the victims were not crushed to death by the fall they died from starvation, for anyone caught offering help was liable to suffer the same punishment.

The Titihua people (or Mlawayans) lived mostly by hunting, fishing and barter. Agriculture was known only to a few tribes and was not organized. The first primitive boat originated here, fashioned from dried animal hides. The bow and the stern were held together by plant fibres. The boat’s middle was distended by pointed sticks, it was steered by a forked branch and it drifted with the current along the rivers; oars were unknown.

During the destruction of the land, large numbers of the population fled westward. The flight took place in boats of better construction and better equipped than the earliest boat, and bore some resemblance to the boats of the Eskimo people. The refugees and their descendants arrived by way of the intervening islands at the eastern and southern shores of Asia.⁵⁰

Other inhabitants fled eastward and reached—also by way of the intervening islands—the later South, Central and North Americas where they became the forefathers of the indigenous peoples of America, the red men or so-called Indians. Some of the many types of Indian evolved from intermingling of the Titihua people and a primitive, animal-like people—the true aborigines—whom they encountered upon arrival in America. The inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego and the Eskimos are the most direct descendants of the aborigines of America. None of the Youngest had been incarnated among these beings and consequently the level of their development was extremely low, but they still ranked somewhat above the very first human beings in intelligence. This slight spiritual progress was due to the divine element every human embryo has been given following God’s endowment of mankind with spiritual life.

The second empire that perished was a large island in the Atlantic Ocean, the so-called Atlantis. In the remote past this island was connected with the southern part of North America, but through volcanic activity it became separated from the mainland.

The island was shaped somewhat like a diagonally elongated, inverted “S” (the upper curve at the right and the lower at the left). Its northernmost point extended to about latitude 40 degrees North, longitude 34 degrees West. The island extended south to about latitude 25.50 degrees North, and west to longitude 47 degrees West, latitude 27.50 degrees North, and eastward to about longitude 28 degrees West. An imaginary line from the town of Plymouth in England to the center of the island of Trinidad would cut through the length of the island and touch its easternmost and southernmost points. Thus, the larger half of the sunken island would lie west of this line. The position given is only approximate, since major or minor upheaval and subsidence in the ocean floor constantly changes the island’s coastline. Investigations that might be undertaken would show it within the area indicated.

The area of the island was five-sixths that of the Iberian peninsula. The Azores, located north north-east and east of the island, were uninhabited at that time, but they had been connected with it much further in the past.

Some minor island groups were to be found between the Azores and the Iberian peninsula; there were also some small islands south-west and south-east of the Atlantic island, but all have disappeared by now.

This island empire went under about 12,000 B.C. by sinking of the ocean floor in conjunction with violent volcanic eruptions.

Earthquakes and volcanic activity ravaged the entire island for about ten months until the final terrible catastrophe completely destroyed and obliterated this rich and cultured land within a few hours. The final eruption created a deluge, the effect of which reached far and wide. The memory of this flood lingers still in the ancient legends of many peoples.

Polytheism predominated here also, but at that time without human sacrifice. However, animal sacrifice was customary throughout the island. The inhabitants were sun and fire worshippers. Culturally, they had reached to a rather advanced stage; the priests had no small knowledge of astronomy—some were astrologers⁵¹ or magi—and knew the planets from the fixed stars and how to calculate eclipses of the sun and the moon with fair accuracy; however, they believed these phenomena were caused by the interference of some evil spirit.

The art of printing made its first primitive appearance on this island, the priests having managed, by a form of hectography, to produce multiple copies of written accounts. A carefully distilled extract of crushed animal and fish bones was used, poured into flat earthenware forms. Closely woven fabrics of plant fibers were used, since neither papyrus nor parchment was known at the time. Impressions were made with a mixture of mainly burnt bone mixed with some adhesive substance. Pictographic text was mostly used, though ideographs were used in some places.

Agriculture, hunting, fishing and some breeding of domestic animals was known. A number of merchants traded with the surrounding islands and the nearest coasts of the main lands. Handmade utensils of clay were widely in use. Basins, bowls and vases were often engraved with ornamental animals and foliage and the grooves inlaid with brilliant colors. Gold, copper and some silver were known and utilized in the fashioning of jewelry and the better utensils and for inlays on carved wooden idols. Many of the idols were hewn in stone or cast in various metallic alloys. Architecture was particularly highly developed. Lyrical poetry was coming into being, especially as religious hymns intoned by the priests to the accompaniment of the beating of cymbal-like copper plates at the sacrificial rites. Death rites were practiced over the entire island.

The island was divided into three realms under a common supreme ruler. In one of the realms succession to rule descended by both the male and the female lines. The supreme ruler also served as high priest .

On this island the eldest of the Youngest was incarnated for the third time, as prince and high priest.

He was much beloved by the people because of his gentle and humane rule. He established a number of religious and ethical laws, but his attempts to abolish polytheism succeeded not. His incarnation on this island left few traces upon the culture of the people, since he died the same year the island disappeared into the sea. But his memory was kept alive through many generations by the descendants who had fled the destruction. He was regarded as a divine emissary.

Some of the islanders who survived the catastrophe fled across the intervening islands to the coast of North Africa and, slowly, through many generations, migrated as nomads eastward to the valley of the Nile, where they settled. Legendary accounts can be found in ancient Egyptian chronicles of a God of Light who for a time assumed human form. These accounts refer to the incarnation of the eldest of the Youngest on the vanished island.

A few of the islanders fled to the Iberian peninsula and were assimilated by the people living there; others reached Central America where they encountered descendants of the Titihuan people (or Mlawayans). After long and bloody conflict they succeeded in seizing and settling territories extending from the peninsula now known as the Yucatan,⁵² over the Isthmus of Panama⁵² to the north-western coast of South America. From those first settlements they spread northward to large areas of Mexico and southward and south-westward along the coast to the lands now known as Peru and the upper part of Chile.

Their original culture came under the strong influence of the Titihuans, especially with regard to idolatry and human sacrifice. The people from the island kingdom gradually merged with the Titihuans, their culture degenerated and their descendants, the Nahuacans, Aztecs, Incas, Toltecs and a number of other tribes whose names are only remembered in ancient Indian lore, never reached the high cultural level of the Island people.

The smallest of the three vanished empires lay in the eastern part of Central Africa, just below the Abyssinian mountains (south south-west and south south-east of the mountains).

Here, the religious culture stood at a somewhat higher level and was quite simple and beautiful. The highest god, Ra, god of the sun and god of creation was also the deity of peace and love. Under him ranged a number of gods and goddesses, among whom Shunut, the god of fire, ranked highest as protector and guardian of the land. Human sacrifice all but ceased in the last centuries before the country perished. The people were extremely warlike; their ruler had subjugated many of the neighboring tribes and he held sway even as far as the vicinity of the lakes that feed the Nile. The last ruler of the empire was called Kharru—the dark prince, or more literally he who is dark and tall, he who towers over all others. The realm was called Khuum, meaning valley, depression or lowland. The largest city was called ‘Lukna-Tee-Ra,⁵³ meaning the property of the god Ra, the city consecrated to Ra. The inhabitants were culturally less advanced than the Islanders, but hunting and freshwater fishing were known, as was to some extent agriculture and mining. Material for the great palaces of stone was quarried from the mountains and decorated with bright ornaments of lava in many different colors.

Despite the warlike tendencies of the people in relation to their cultural level, they had achieved a relatively deep and sincere belief in a gentle and just deity and their form of religious worship was superior to that of other cultured lands. The eldest of the Youngest was therefore not incarnated there, since the people would have been incapable of accepting and comprehending more than they had already received from the many Youngest who had been or still were incarnated among them.

The priests had some knowledge of astronomy, knew the orbiting of the moon around the Earth, but did not quite know how to calculate the eclipses of the sun and the moon. The priests also served as magi and no important undertaking was attempted without sanction of the gods. The dead were laid to rest in tombs hewn in the cliffs; rulers, priests, warlords, and members of the more prominent families were honored by special death rites.

The land was destroyed by a volcanic eruption about 10,000 B.C., and was buried completely under lava and huge boulders. At a number of places the ground opened in broad, gaping fissures.

Large numbers of inhabitants survived the catastrophe and fled northward along the Nile, and there in its valley—the later Egypt—they came upon a young, highly civilized kingdom created by the people whose forefathers had survived the destruction of the island empire (“Atlantis”).

The survivors⁵⁴ intermingled with the inhabitants of the Nile valley, but although the people of Khuum were in the minority they succeeded in retaining some of their culture and imprinting upon the people of the Nile some elements of their form of worship, which gradually merged into the cult prevailing there that was based upon the memories and traditions from the peoples of the vanished Atlantic island.

Other fugitives migrated southward, lived as nomads, wandered from place to place, intermingled with much inferior tribes and finally became extinct.

9

When the Elder of the Eldest stood forth and defended the common desire for incarnation, after God had warned the Eldest against letting themselves be incarnated, he spoke of the earthly beauty and the pleasures enjoyed by mankind as seen with human eyes—not of the Earth and all that was in it as seen from the transcendental viewpoint.

Whenever they wish, and by the power of their will, the Eldest and Youngest alike are momentarily able to utilize human organs of sight, much as human beings use binoculars. The spirit who wishes to “see” with earthly eyes stands behind a human body, thrusts aside the embodied spirit to the extent that, for an instant, the upper part of the body is deprived of the enshrouding spiritual Light, and the spirit wishing to see leans forward until its organs of sight are aligned with those of the human being—and the purpose is achieved.

When the Eldest availed themselves of this procedure, it usually had a harmful effect on the individual thus used since the Eldest invariably enclouded their victims with Darkness, thereby drawing them downward spiritually. Of course, no harm would result if a spirit of Light resorted to this procedure since spirits of Light never impart any Darkness whatsoever to their intermediaries.

Disembodied human spirits can only indistinctly see in this way. Their will is not strong enough that by its strength they can with their spiritual sight break the resistance offered by the—to all spiritual beings—more solid substance of the casing and the astral counterpart. Thus, whatever is seen in this way appears to the human spirits as gray, hazy images, without light or shadow.

When the Eldest had disregarded God’s warning and had all agreed to incarnate themselves as human beings, they attempted to bind themselves to human fetuses by means of Darkness, assuming that if their younger brothers and sisters could be bound to human bodies, likewise could they. But they had forgotten that God’s Thought and Will guided and directed the action of the Youngest; and the many attempts by the Eldest on their own invariably failed. Not one was able to fashion from Darkness an insulating layer dense enough to prevent their spiritual selves from establishing too close a contact with the human physical brain, so that they failed to achieve their objective, which was to banish the memories of their harrowing experiences in the realm of Darkness.

The Elder nevertheless continued to experiment with Darkness until he succeeded at last in creating a layer of insulation⁵⁵ that to some extent prevented the spiritual self from standing out too conspicuously in the human personality, and he then promised to incarnate his brothers and sisters.

The Eldest made their first appearance as human beings about half a century before the destruction of the Atlantic island, so that many of those who had been incarnated there experienced this dreadful catastrophe.

When the Elder, after aiding his fellow sufferers, then wished also to incarnate himself he was unable to prevent his own strong personality from breaking through the protecting layer; and since he possessed not the ability of God for limitation of the self, he understood that although bound to a human body he must remain the being he was. An earthly life under such conditions was unthinkable, since instead of bringing oblivion of his memory it would create intolerable suffering for him. He therefore had to abandon his contemplated incarnation as a human being.

In contrast to the spirits of the Light, who are bound to the human fetus between the fourth and fifth month of pregnancy, the spirits of Darkness, the Eldest, were already bound as early as the third month.

God’s Helpers and the Youngest, who direct the incarnations of human beings, always ensure that a male spirit is bound to a male body and a female spirit to a female body. The reverse has never occurred, neither for human spirits nor for the Youngest.

The Elder, on the other hand, incarnated the spirits of Darkness randomly. Often a male spirit would be bound to a female body⁵⁶—or the reverse—whereby the incarnations of these wretched beings became a succession of indescribable sufferings.

When the Elder realized that he alone (having also incarnated his female dual) would have to remain as his true self in Darkness, unable to achieve the desired oblivion, his hatred of everything and everyone grew in him; and with the mighty curses that he hurled against humanity and against those who had fallen with him, hatred was brought into the world, and Darkness gained still greater ascendancy over the inhabitants of the Earth.

His maledictions against the Youngest also had a strongly detrimental effect upon their work for the progress of humanity, since only the deepest love, the most profound compassion and the greatest patience are able to destroy and eliminate hatred and thereby overcome and nullify such maledictions. The greater the love of the Youngest for their fallen brother, the better they understood his anger and hatred, and the easier it became for them to overcome the Darkness that by the power of his curses he had gathered about them during their incarnations. But although all among the Youngest loved their elder brother in their discarnate state and would do everything within their power to win him back, it was extremely difficult to avoid being affected by humanity's fear and terror of him who was the highest representative of evil.

However, with each reincarnation lived in compassion for humanity, out of love for the Elder and with the desire to deliver him from Darkness, the power of his curses gradually diminished, bringing the Youngest ever nearer to their goal.

The maledictions called down by the Elder upon the brothers and sisters who had shared in his downfall caused constant strife amongst themselves and opposition to the Elder’s proposals and plans. To punish those who defied him, the Elder often refused their request to be incarnated. But when compelled thereto by their absolute insistence on taking human form, he would in most cases do their bidding and then avenge himself by incarnating them under the worst possible conditions. Thus he often embodied them among primitive peoples or bound a male spirit to a female human body, or vice versa, and so forth.

The maledictions the Elder directed against God were nullified by the power of God’s Will the moment uttered, otherwise they would have rebounded and destroyed the Elder himself.

God nullifies at once all curses thought or uttered against Him. In His infinite love and compassion He would never let His children lose the gift of eternal life, however much they might sin and however deep they might fall. Nothing can shake God’s deep, boundless love and compassion for all fallen beings.

The thoughts of the Eldest, incarnate as well as discarnate, are so potent that the evil they call down upon the object of their hatred can become reality. However, the power of the maledictions is weakened or diminished in the same measure as the person against whom they have been uttered is aware of God’s omnipotence. And if maledictions are directed at human beings who have completely and unreservedly submitted to God’s guidance with full faith and trust in His love and justice, those curses will completely lose their power since no evil can befall those who know that they are in God’s keeping.

This holds true for all human beings, regardless of creed or religious belief. Even people of primitive religious beliefs (polytheism, fetishism or the like) are fully protected against the onslaughts of Darkness if they turn to their deity with the trust as of a child, because God at all times extends His help to whoever calls upon Him in sincerity and with absolute trust in His omnipotence, regardless of the name and manner by which He is acknowledged.

Even though the maledictions of the Eldest can strike their objective, the repercussions will sooner or later turn upon the Eldest themselves and cause them the same grief and misfortune they have called down upon others.⁵⁷ This is the Law of Retribution.

On the other hand, embodied human spirits have not the power to call down the miseries of Darkness upon the heads of their fellow humans through maledictions.⁵⁸ But since every thought—good or evil—returns sooner or later to its originator, the curses thus turn invariably upon those who uttered them and bring upon them the same misfortunes and sufferings that were intended for others.

When the Eldest against God’s Will incarnated themselves on Earth, they were able to draw Darkness yet closer about human beings inasmuch as all the evil of Darkness and all base passions were concentrated in the spiritual selves of these Eldest, and their lust for power drove them to seek the most prominent positions in all walks of life, even though they attained their objectives through countless crimes, through the violation of both divine and human laws.

In earliest recorded history one can find accounts from the various countries on Earth of such figures, men as well as women, who in hatred, evil, crime and lust for pomp and power far exceed the average human being in this respect.

By thus knowingly bringing immeasurable sufferings upon their own creatures—the human beings—the Eldest brought themselves under the Law of Retribution, the law under which all human beings lead their many earthly lives.

However, when some of the Eldest after a few incarnations realized what sufferings they had brought upon themselves through their human embodiments, a number chose to remain in their ruined kingdom rather than face in human form the harsh repercussions of the Law of Retribution. But despite his many attempts to do so, the Elder was incapable of restoring fully to the Eldest their original spiritual personalities so as to become again “themselves” from the time before their first appearance as human beings. Those who chose to remain in the ruined kingdom therefore appeared as exact copies, both spiritually and bodily, of the earthly beings to whom they had been bound during their most recent human embodiment. These beings then tried to create in their world destroyed by Darkness an existence for themselves resembling life on Earth. By strength of their thought and their will they fashioned, from the astral substance of Darkness, shadow-like dwellings and shadow-realms in the likeness of those on Earth; but these imitations were colorless and more resembled cities and dwellings in a state of disrepair.

To render this existence more tolerable, the Eldest exerted their strong will over weak and sinful human spirits, compelling them, after their physical bodies had expired, to inhabit this world of Darkness where they were then pressed into servitude. Numerous human spirits were thus prevented from returning to their habitats around the Earth.

Those Eldest who persisted in continuing further incarnations gathered large accumulations of Darkness about themselves while embodied on Earth. These accumulations, attracted by the strong radiations of Darkness from their spirit-bodies, similarly bound thousands upon thousands of human spirits to wander the Earth after physical death, instead of ascending to their appointed dwellings in the spheres. However, Darkness and the evil will of the Eldest had power only over sinful and dissolute human beings and human spirits; but since these have always been predominant in number, the astral plane of the Earth soon teemed with the spirits of the dead who wandered restlessly and uncomprehendingly about among the living, keeping mainly to the places they had known during their last lives on Earth. And since humans after death are exact copies both spiritually and bodily of whom they were before death, these sinful and depraved beings wrought much disturbance and harm among the living, often through their thoughts inciting susceptible individuals to wicked deeds.

The discarnate Youngest tried unceasingly to assist these restless spirits, who by remaining on the astral plane of the Earth were trespassing against the laws of God governing the existence of human spirits in the spheres; but their efforts stranded more often than not upon the will for evil of the spirits themselves—and their numbers increased rather than diminished. At times there were more “dead” than living upon the Earth.

Authentic accounts from the earliest historical times and from all the peoples of the Earth tell of these apparitions,⁵⁹ often seen and heard by people gifted with second sight⁶⁰ and hearing.

During the millennia in which the Earth-bound spirits wandered the Earth’s astral plane, many of the God-given laws for the embodiment and disembodiment of human spirits on Earth were broken by these sinful beings who tried in every way to bring grief and suffering into the world.

Among the laws thus violated was the so-called “Law of Sleep”, explained further as follows:

Normally, under this law, the guardian spirit would lull to sleep the human spirit at physical death so as to ease the release of the spirit and to bar any distressing recollection about the lifeless body to which it had been bound.  However, if the dying person was burdened by many unrepented sins or death was by suicide, large numbers of Earth-bound Spirits would gather about the body and these beings of Darkness would then hamper the guardian spirit in rendering assistance at the critical moment. Consequently the released spirit would be at risk of witnessing its own dead body, the mourning of those left behind, the cremation⁶¹ or interment, the decomposition, etc.

However, since the astral plane of the Earth is now purged of all Earth-bound and sin- bound spirits,⁶² there is no longer any hindrance to the guardian spirit in extending the afore-mentioned help to the dying. Even those most sinful (murderers, suicides or the like) will now and in future always be lulled to sleep at physical death and not re-awaken until in their home-spheres, to which the guardian spirits bring them,

The spirits of the Light will always be present to give aid during wars or major catastrophes, when many lives are lost at the same time.

The Law of Sleep is rarely applied when the Youngest are released from their expired physical bodies since these high spirits usually feel disembodiment as an intensely joyful relief.

Thus, the accumulations of Darkness, attracted in various ways to the Earth by sin-bound spirits, created new obstacles for the Youngest, who, up to the time of the first incarnations of the Eldest,⁶³ had achieved many good results among the human beings.

The bitter spiritual struggle against the incarnated Eldest almost broke the courage of the Youngest and all but crushed their hopes of leading the Light to final victory over the Darkness. Only the never-failing love of the eldest of the Youngest for his fallen brothers and sisters and for suffering mankind persuaded them not to give up the struggle.

When the Youngest, at the request of their older brother, besought their Father for more support in their difficult struggle against the Darkness, God again promised help, partly by strengthening them spiritually and partly by calling on the Earth-bound spirits at the end of each passing century in hope of awakening their memory and their remorse.

Having comforted and strengthened the Youngest, God sent many of their number to be incarnated among the Jewish people among whom, at that time, there appeared the best prospects of obtaining good results by a stronger, more concerted influence of Light.

Those sent to the Jewish people were also to prepare the way for the incarnation of the eldest of the Youngest as Jesus of Nazareth.

Before the Youngest depart the spheres to be born as humans, God outlines and instructs them on their earthly missions, but only in broad terms. Within such outlines, and guided by the guardian spirit, they must themselves find the most suitable ways and means to accomplish the tasks entrusted them.

When the eldest of the Youngest was preparing for his incarnation as Jesus of Nazareth, God emphasized to him that the times on Earth were evil and that human beings were in dire need in many ways. This was told him that he should be fully aware of the difficulty of the mission, a mission he might still not be able to fulfill.

Since it was the Gospel of Love the eldest of the Youngest was to bring to suffering and struggling humanity, it was necessary for him, in his life on Earth as Jesus of Nazareth, to bring his deep love to his earthly brothers and sisters. But in order to present the full truth he must first overcome Darkness, and as the human Jesus he first had to remember his promise to pray for the fallen brother. Could he carry out this part of his mission, then, in victory over Darkness, he would be fully able to win mankind to his teachings of love. For this reason, God prevailed upon him to pray for the brother who was bound by Darkness.

But since a forgiving nature of gentle love was to characterize Jesus as man, he could not at the same time display the full authority that he possessed as a released spiritual personality, since such an absolute authority in the earthly world could easily lead to self-righteousness under the strong influence of Darkness. As a human being he might then fail to ask help and guidance of God, as his supreme leader, at the crucial moment when difficulties presented themselves, and thus easily be tempted to misuse his earthly authority.

God thus knew that if the eldest of the Youngest failed the first part of the mission (to pray for his fallen brother) he would most likely not be able to assert himself with sufficient firmness if the people—led astray by Darkness and the Elder—turned against him in their doubt, anger and contempt. God therefore said to him: “If you fail to remember to pray for your brother, human beings will bring you death—death upon the cross.” The death of Jesus upon the cross was thus determined by earthly, human conditions (and not by God), and neither was it a demand nor a wish by God that the son with his death should atone for the sins of men in order to bring about a reconciliation between God and mankind.

In His discourse⁶⁴ with the son, God depicted for him what his life on Earth could be with victory, or with defeat by Darkness and human beings.

The eldest of the Youngest was to lead his earthly life between these two extremes. Because of His self-limitation not even God knew then if Jesus would be able to accomplish the contemplated mission. It was left to Jesus as a human being, guided by his guardian spirit (in this instance, God), to make the best of the given situation.⁶⁵

All accounts of the personality and conduct of Jesus bequeathed posterity through the Gospels are marked by his love of humanity, by his compassion. His authority becomes apparent only in glimpses.

10

About eighteen centuries before the eldest of the Youngest was incarnated as Jesus of Nazareth, he had his fourth incarnation—as a priest in northern India.

In this embodiment he became the actual founder of Brahmanism, although not in the form known today.

Only a fraction of his original teaching survives in the old myths and songs. A few highly distorted remnants of his ethical teaching can still be found in “The Code of Manu”.

Jesus was born in Nazareth—at the home of his parents—and not, as tradition has it, in Bethlehem. The year of his birth has been established about five years later than the actual event.  Since the 24th of December has come to be honored as the birthday of Jesus, the eldest of the Youngest does not wish this date changed. The correct date of his birth will therefore not be disclosed.

The accounts of the three wise men and the flight into Egypt are legend. Neither in a dream nor as a vision was the birth of Jesus announced to Mary or to Joseph. Everything on this subject is legend. None of God’s Servants (see the legend of Gabriel) has ever appeared before human beings, since no human would be able to perceive these radiant beings of the Light, neither with physical or spiritual eye.

However, God’s Servants have often spoken to humans as an intensified voice of conscience, when the thoughts of the Youngest were unable to penetrate the Darkness.

The Angels of the ancient Scriptures were usually the Youngest, who, with God's permission and for some specific reason, rendered themselves visible to human beings. But not all these accounts and legends are in accordance with the truth. Most are pure fiction—figments of human imagination.

The Eldest have likewise appeared before humans with the intention of gaining greater credence or gaining greater power over them.

No human being has seen God, and no human, incarnate or discarnate, will ever be able to see Him until the journey to His Kingdom has been completed.⁶⁶

In the incarnations through which the eldest of the Youngest lived, God was his personal guardian spirit and guide, or conscience. God was in other words in constant thought-connection with the son. No one else has ever had God as guardian spirit from the moment they were born to life on Earth. But because of their unshakable trust in God many of the incarnated Youngest have placed themselves under His guidance and protection and thereby rendered the guardian spirit superfluous, since God always takes into His care any who trust Him implicitly. Only a few human spirits have ever become as one with God’s thought and will during life on Earth, and thus made him their guardian spirit. But God watches over all and follows their earthly lives, just as through His thought He often intervenes if the guardian spirits or His Servants fail in their attempts to guide human beings. However, God does this in such a way that He never imposes in the least on man’s free will.

11

To the great disappointment of his parents, Jesus had no interest in the trade of carpentry, which his father wished to teach him.

At an early age he sought instruction from the priests and the scribes and soon learned to form his own opinions, which often ran counter to tradition. He probed the ancient Scriptures, became rather well-versed in Egyptian religious culture, and acquired some knowledge of Persian, Indian and Assyrian forms of religious worship. He often went to Jerusalem and studied there under the elders and the more learned of the scholars of the day. Jesus also visited the most prominent synagogues at several other places in order to study the written accounts of the past.⁶⁷ His knowledge of languages was quite extensive for his time, and he had some acquaintance with Greek philosophy.

Jesus moved about a great deal before his emergence as a religious founder, and often spoke to travelers such as merchants and itinerant philosophers. But he never went beyond the borders of his homeland.

At the age of 23 he appeared in public for the first time, at the synagogue of his native Nazareth. Accounts of this event can be found in the Gospels, but all are inaccurately reported (Matthew 13: 54-57; Mark 6: 2-3; Luke 2: 42-50 and 4: 16-30; John 7: 14-20).

The fragments of the utterances of Jesus in the synagogue at Nazareth quoted in Ardor’s Account are factual. On the whole, the words of Jesus as spoken at the time are quoted by Ardor as accurately as possible, allowing for the fact that they are quoted in another language. For this reason it was not always possible, through the medium, to find words that fully expressed the Aramaic speech—but nothing has been changed or distorted in the thoughts that underlay the words used at that time.

What Jesus spoke at Nazareth gave the high priests and the scribes their first grounds for anger and hatred toward him. Up to that time he had been regarded as a disciple and prospective rabbi, but his words concerning their incorrect understanding of Yahweh, or Jehovah, put an immediate end to such hopes.

12

The meeting with John took place about four years after the first dispute between Jesus and the scribes. (The discourse at Nazareth.)

No dove was sent down from heaven at the baptism of Jesus, nor did God speak to the gathering. It was John who called out the words: “This is the Son of God! . . .”⁶⁸ (Ardor’s Account, page 38).

When Jesus let himself be baptized he regarded his baptism as an initiation into his forthcoming work among the people. It was not until, in conversing with John, that he came to fully understand the symbolic significance of baptism: the purifying of mankind from the defilement of sin.

Baptism as an expression of purification and initiation was known long before John’s time. It was first practiced on the former Atlantic island to symbolize initiation of the priests into the temple service.

13⁶⁹

Since Darkness streams constantly through all humans, none can be free of sin. And however pure and exalted a spirit Jesus was in the transcendental world, he had to suffer—just as do all the Youngest when bound to human bodies—under the sins, impurities and low desires that cling to the human race. But because God was his guardian spirit, was his conscience, Jesus transcended all human beings in purity as only he can who has “God’s Thought and God’s voice” for his conscience.

When the Youngest reach a certain degree of spiritual and bodily maturity in their earthly lives, their guardian spirits seek by every means possible to guide their charges toward their appointed tasks. Rarely, though, had the Youngest, while incarnated in human form, been guided into an understanding of the meaning of prayerful intercession for the Elder, their fallen brother.

When a definite promise had been given before an incarnation to attempt to render such help to the Elder, the task of the guardian spirit had first and foremost been—as a prelude to the charge’s work among humans—to awaken the memory of the charge of the pledge given before the earthly existence began.

The moment for rendering this help was never chosen without counsel of God, and not before the guardian spirit had made the best possible preparations, nor until the charge had reached the peak of spiritual maturity in his earthly existence. At that point the guardian spirit intervenes to give support and guidance. Under the onslaughts or temptations of the Elder, the guardian spirit had then usually tried to awaken the charge’s memory of the prayer for the fallen brother. But if the charge had not been able to remember the given promise or to understand the prompting, then would the opportune moment have been forfeited for that incarnation and any further attempts would be in vain.

Any further attempt could not possibly succeed if the charge was not able to accomplish it upon having reached the peak in the particular spiritual area that formed the necessary basis on which to carry out the mission as promised.

No new attempt could be made because once Darkness has gained the advantage initially, the individual will—during that incarnation—be incapable of any further spiritual growth in the area where the Darkness gained victory. Growth ceases, all spiritual insight often stagnates, and in most instances Darkness gains more and more influence and with growing ease is able to confuse and corrupt all discernment. The moment when the individual was to have remembered the given promise by being confronted with the Elder or with a special task therefore often became the absolute peak of spiritual maturity.

But can the charge at the appropriate moment actually recall the promise given, this first great victory over Darkness will bring a spiritual strength even greater than already possessed. And if this victory leads to further victories over Darkness, the individual will rise still further in spiritual strength, confidence and maturity. This upward trend, increasing in the same measure as Darkness is overcome, can then (if it becomes necessary in order to carry out the mission) continue until the mission has been fulfilled and the individual’s spirit is absolved through physical death of all further obligation.

Although Jesus was a man in every respect—felt, suffered and desired as a man—his thoughts were pure. The Elder’s efforts to instill unclean and sinful desires in him stranded on Jesus’s inner purity. Still, the Elder persisted in ever new attempts to make Jesus unfit for the mission he had undertaken; and even though the love of the eldest of the Youngest for his fallen brother and for suffering humanity was deep, he was, as Jesus incarnate, not yet able with the love and compassion in him to repel the Darkness the Elder had gathered about him. Thus, at the crucial moment, he misunderstood God's warning voice, his conscience, and the moment was forfeited when Jesus, through a prayer for help not for himself but for the Elder, the Tempter, might have been able to evoke the Elder’s remorse to thereby release him from the bonds of Darkness.

God chose to remind Jesus of the prayer for the fallen brother at the moment the Elder tempted Jesus to the extreme by trying to instill in him prideful thoughts about his work amongst mankind. Thus, the love and compassion of Jesus toward humanity had reached its zenith and he was standing at the threshold of his mission, with trust in God’s help and in the firm belief that by his testimony as to God’s infinite love and compassion he could teach the people to love one another, to live in peace and tolerance under the leadership of the Most High. Thus, filled with happy expectations, Jesus had sought solitude to meditate upon the best way to proclaim what he felt in his heart.

But the Tempter pursued him, and when in human fear and human selfishness Jesus cried out to God for help on his own behalf, God, by His Will, drew the Darkness aside and revealed the Elder's visage; and Jesus recognized him, and instantly remembered his pledge: the prayer for the fallen brother. But then it was too late—Darkness had defeated him.

To remind Jesus of the possibility that the Elder might gain yet further victory over him by leading people astray and by turning them against him, God repeated the words He had spoken to him before his incarnation: “Human beings will bring you death—death upon the cross.” With these words Jesus should always be reminded that the suffering and possible death would be brought about not by God but by the Elder and the people.

With each incarnation lived by the Youngest out of love for the Elder and out of compassion for mankind, a portion of the power of Darkness is broken.  With each new incarnation of this kind they are ever better able to repel the onslaughts of Darkness. The eldest of the Youngest, who by his voluntary action and pledge—in response to God’s appeal for help for the creatures of the Eldest—made the first and also the greatest contribution toward the redemption of his fallen brothers and sisters and the salvation of humanity, proved himself by this act to be the purest, noblest and most sublime reflection of God’s own fullness of love. He thus became the one most likely to succeed in eventually redeeming the Elder and all who had fallen with him.

By assuming the leadership of his brothers and sisters, it also became possible, because of his outstanding love and compassion,⁷⁰ that he might succeed in overcoming the Darkness after undergoing but a few incarnations.⁷⁰ His fifth incarnation (as Jesus of Nazareth) was, therefore, undertaken in the possibility, however slight, that he might succeed in fulfilling his pledge: as man, to feel compassion for the fallen brother and, through ardent prayer for his deliverance, to evoke remorse and win him back. But, as said, Jesus, as man, did not entirely succeed in escaping the oppressive Darkness, and even though his love, compassion and pity for suffering mankind never waned, his trust and faith that his mission would bear visible fruit gradually diminished. And at this vulnerable point the Elder aimed his attacks, with the result that Jesus's authority appeared not always sufficiently convincing; he would, especially when confronted with antagonists and scoffers, often remain silent rather than voice his own views or oppose those of others. Because of this loss of hope by Jesus, the Elder, as the Servant of Darkness, could continue to exert his power over the people in order to oppose the mission of Jesus. This opposition grew in direct proportion to the despondency of Jesus and it finally broke his spiritual authority and led him to his death upon the cross.⁷¹

Jesus was clairvoyant, and thus able at times to see with “inner sight”. Since the spirit envelops the earthly body, the expression “inner sight” is in a way misleading. However, since this figure of speech has gained acceptance in everyday language as meaning “psychic sight”, it has been used in Ardor’s Account, where other expressions and forms would have broken the rhythm of the style.

14

Jesus's concepts of, and thoughts about "Hell" (abode of the dead, nether world, purgatory, evil place) were rather vague. He intermingled his own faint recollections of the ruined kingdom partly with the Jewish conceptions of the abode of the dead, partly with the Egyptian, Greek and Persian ideas of life "after-life". At one moment the stay in “Hell” appears to him as the sum of all suffering and misery—a state of torment and punishment—and at another as a state of contemplation or improvement, an idea that originated with his faint recollection of the life of the human spirits in the spheres. Jesus himself was thus utterly confused on this point, and consequently not always able to think and express himself clearly on the fate awaiting the sinner after death. And as on many occasions he remembered his own unfulfilled pledge, he often felt deep concern when thinking of the grievous suffering that was to befall those who persisted in wicked behavior. Jesus therefore described life after death for sinners as starkly as possible. But when he beheld his listeners’ terror of the “evil place”, his own hope was strengthened that the stay there was possibly only temporary and not meant to last “for all eternity”.⁷²  He therefore always referred questions about definite periods of time to God alone, but also urged all to overcome the power of evil on Earth by deep-felt prayer for help and strength.

The Parable of the Salt is rendered in Ardor’s Account exactly as it was related by Jesus.

The parables of the Gospels are often quite incomplete. A number originate not with Jesus, but since it was customary in his time to speak in parables it is quite understandable that some of the contemporary parables were attributed to him.

15

Wonders— “miracles”⁷³—have no existence. All phenomena apparently inexplicable to man, invariably occur according to spiritual or material laws, that is, psychic or physical laws. But that which uninformed and undeveloped people cannot immediately understand or themselves explain is often proclaimed “super-natural”.

A sharp distinction should be made between the true and the false miraculous events reported in the Gospels, since much that is related there has never taken place, while other events have been wrongly interpreted.

The three forms of wonders described in Ardor’s Account all refer to actual events, The three forms of wonders described in Ardor's Account refer to actual events, but were due neither to supernatural nor unnatural intervention.

1) The incarnated Youngest and the more advanced human spirits have a capacity for curing certain ailments of the human body. By directing their will toward the Light they can exert the power of suggestion⁷⁴ over ailing individuals—especially those with nervous disorders—or those already cured but who appear in a state of weakness for lack of the will to recover.

By passing the palms of the hands, one to two inches from the body, from head to foot—not the reverse—or by laying the hands crosswise over the ailing part of the body, good results can be obtained and sometimes even a complete cure. Under treatment, during which the subject must lie outstretched in a comfortable position, some of the Light that radiates from the practitioner is transmitted to the subject. The radiations are absorbed by the body and pervade it completely, thereby alleviating or bringing to an end the suffering. It stands to reason, however, that most physical ailments cannot and never will be cured in this way. And, since God, through the work of the Youngest on Earth, has brought the human beings so much knowledge and so many means whereby ailments can be cured, or at least alleviated, the sufferer should first turn to those who through special study of the diseases of the body have become qualified to give medical or surgical assistance, or to those who have knowledge of the healing powers of sunlight, air and water. These should then judge whether the so-called magnetic passes are the proper treatment.

At present, only a small part of mankind is capable of treating patients by magnetic passes or suggestion with any prospect of effective or lasting results.

2) After a long, grave ailment that leaves the body wasted and weak, the individual, although cured, can sometimes lie in a death-like coma, that often, imperceptibly to those present goes over to actual death.

In such cases, a loud call can awaken the body to consciousness since the Spirit reacts automatically to a stronger will and returns promptly when so ordered, even though it is separated from the body — but still connected with the "cord".

If the separated Spirit returns and reunites with the weakened body, the return can add a current of Light, strengthening the body which is on the border-line of death, so as to re-establish the failing connection between the astral counterpart and the molecular vibrations. But if this momentary improvement is to be sustained, the reawakening body must be re-invigorated by strong stimulants.

If the connection between the astral counterpart and the physical body becomes so weak, however, as to incur death, the cord that binds the spirit to the body disrupts. And, once the cord is severed, no demanding call, and no act of will, can bring the Spirit back to revive the expired body.

3) Clairvoyants were usually able to see that others were possessed—that is, if one or several Earth-bound spirits were clinging to the human body in order to participate in various worldly pleasures. Persons of strong will have always been able to free themselves easily from such intruders. But it was another matter for people weak of will since the parasites quickly gained control over them and, sooner or later, left the stamp of depravity upon their victims.

Jesus, who was exceptionally clairvoyant, often attempted to expel the parasitic spirits by his strong will—but not always with the best results, since in cases where the victims did not seek to better themselves the spirits would return and regain control over them.

Possessions⁷⁵ have been known ever since the times when the human spirits were not all capable of ascending to their homes in the spheres after the death of the body, because of the increasingly dominant power of Darkness after the incarnations of the Eldest.

The other miracles described in the Gospels are all more or less fictitious. Among the purely fictional are: the water turned to wine (John 2: 6-10), the healing of the palsied men (Matthew 8: 5-13; 9: 2-7),⁷⁶ the blind regaining sight (Matthew 9: 27-30; 20: 29-34), Lazarus raised from the dead (John 11: 1-46), the healing of the leper (Matthew 8: 2-4), and a number of others such as the healing of the withered hand, of the mute, the sick man at the pool of Bethesda, and so on. The Son of the Widow of Nain is a version of the Daughter of Jairus.

Some of the foregoing events are based on "miracles" from the Old Testament.

All accounts of these miracles appeared after the death of Jesus, concocted by fanatical believers (disciples of Jesus or the apostles) in attempts to prove the divine origin of Jesus. As the years passed and the stories were passed by word of mouth they grew in exaggeration and improbability until they emerged as presented in the Gospels.

The accounts of such miracles as the feeding of the multitude, walking on water, and stilling the tempest on the Sea of Galilee, refer to actual episodes, but in distorted form. A more accurate explanation for these is as follows:

1) The feeding of the multitude happened this way: about a hundred people were gathered to hear Jesus speak. As the day grew late and only a few had brought food, Jesus sent some of the apostles to catch fish in the lake nearby, while others went to the nearest inn to buy bread, the small, flat loaves then known. Jesus continued speaking to the people, while the apostles were thus occupied.

 When the apostles returned, the fish and the loaves of bread were handed out, fires were lit and the fish grilled or boiled. Jesus began the repast as always, by asking God’s blessing on that which they had received.

Many children were present on the occasion, and when, as adults, they spoke to the Evangelists, they misinterpreted this episode. The children had been indelibly impressed by Jesus when he raised his hands in prayer, and in their young minds conceived of this action as if it were he, who, by his prayer, had multiplied the loaves and fish.

2) Jesus walking on water. One evening, some of the apostles had sailed out to fish in the Sea of Galilee, or Lake of Tiberias. Jesus came walking along the steep banks of the shore and called out to them to take him across to the opposite shore. The night was misty, and, for a moment, it appeared to the apostles as if Jesus were floating in the air toward them. But they soon realized that it was an illusion and rowed in toward the shore. Before they had quite reached it, Peter leaped out to pull the boat ashore.

The apostles often spoke of this incident which, having passed by word of mouth, gradually took on the distorted form found in the Gospels.

3) Stilling the tempest. One evening, when Jesus, exhausted from the day’s travels, had fallen asleep in the boat as some of the apostles sailed it to the opposite shore, there arose one of the sudden whirlwinds so well known on the Sea of Galilee. After struggling long and futilely against the storm, the apostles, fearing they were meeting their doom, awakened Jesus. A skilled navigator. he took the helm, issued his orders, and brought the boat safely to land while chiding them for their lack of faith in God.

This episode was misconstrued by the apostles themselves. In their worshipful adoration of Jesus, they believed he had saved them by calling on “supernatural” powers.

16

The Youngest who, with God’s permission, appeared before the earthly eyes of Jesus, were materialized⁷⁷ by strength of their will. Both the Youngest and the Eldest can render themselves visible to human beings, but the Eldest emit no energy of Light as do the Youngest. No human spirits, even the most advanced, possess the necessary power of will to appear on the Earth's stratum unassisted. They must therefore always employ one or more intermediaries (mediums) whose earthly materialistic radiations they "borrow" so as to render themselves visible.

Impelled by their longing, many departed ones have appeared before relatives and friends at the moment of death or shortly afterwards. When these apparitions are human spirits, they make their appearance through ordinary mediumistic materialization. The one who has seen the apparition has then been the medium—though often unaware of possessing this ability—or else a medium has been present near the person before whom the spirit longed to appear.

It is impossible to explain this phenomenon further since human beings lack the ability to understand the law under which it takes place. However, in the discarnate state, it is easily understood by all, even by less developed human spirits.

17

When Jesus promised the apostles that he would ask his Father to grant them more of his “breath”, he was merely using the old Biblical expression (Genesis, 2: 7) concerning the creation of a man’s body (Adam) from the dust of the ground, when God “. . .breathed into it the breath of life”, meaning spiritual power.

In his thought, Jesus did not perceive this “breath” as an individual being who could be merged with God. The expression “breath” is thus used in Ardor’s Account as Jesus used it, namely, that at his intercession, God would guide the apostles with His Thought and thereby give them greater spiritual strength.

God’s breath (God’s thought, that is) is also identical with eternal life. All who are received into God’s thought and who by the power of His will are sustained by it thereby partake of eternal life. (Commentary, page 180).

19

Jesus never uttered the baptismal words attributed to him in the Gospel.

Baptism has no significance as a sacramental act. However, if Christians wish to retain the baptismal ceremony it should be regarded as symbolical only for human purification from sin.⁷⁸

Baptism could also serve as an initiation ceremony into the Church and would as such be a beautiful and commendable custom. Parents could then bring their children to the church where, through baptism, they would be admitted to the appropriate church community. But all must clearly understand that God in no way gives preference or privileges to those baptized over those not, whether in regard to remission of sin, of eternal life, or of other things; for God looks never upon outward ceremonies. He considers only whether, in spirit and in truth, individuals in earthly life act strictly in accordance with their conscience. Only so does God judge the individual.

22

The discussion between Jesus and the scribes is rendered exactly as it occurred. Some of the words he spoke then are preserved in the Gospels, but in distorted form. Since Jesus had many encounters with the chief priests and the scribes, Ardor has selected the one discussion reflecting most clearly the deep conflict in their relationship.

Jesus associated only reluctantly with the Sadducees and then only if sought out by them. He found it intolerable to enter into discussion with them, as they were very quarrelsome and stubborn.

When Jesus felt as though he were speaking to stones he seldom defended his opinions, especially if he saw no hope of finding understanding among those to whom he was speaking.

Among the references in the gospels to the Sadducees, there are some well-preserved references to actual events and conversations.

The relationship of Jesus to the Pharisees is clearly illustrated, but the accounts of his conversations with them are not altogether accurate.

23

Human beings would have possessed a more factual and complete account of the life and acts of Jesus on Earth had Joseph of Arimathea fulfilled the mission he had undertaken; for he had been chosen to put in writing the words that Jesus addressed to the people. But doubt—one of mankind’s worst banes—plagued him constantly until finally he completely ignored the urgings of his conscience.

It goes without saying that whenever the Youngest were incarnated with the mission of bringing mankind the full truth, the Elder would do all possible to prevent them from cooperating with each other during their lives on Earth.

Since the Elder did not entirely succeed in leading Jesus away from his mission, he sought by every possible means to draw Joseph under his power and the power of Darkness; and in this he succeeded only too well.

Jesus cannot be held entirely blameless for his attitude toward Joseph. Had he later tried gently and kindly to develop a closer relationship with Joseph, he might have succeeded in making him realize the true purpose of his mission. But Jesus was unable to overcome his human anger toward Joseph.

In his human state, it was natural that the deep grief of the eldest of the Youngest over the wickedness and misery of the people would turn into sudden outbursts of temper, even though brief, when he saw all the sin and impurity about him. Only with Joseph did he lose all self-control, because he clearly felt how much this man’s support meant to him, and he was unable to meet him halfway. But the heavier burden of guilt lies with the Elder, as it was he who tried to sow dissension between them in order to prevent the Light from becoming victorious over the Darkness.

Reminiscences of the conversation between Jesus and Joseph are found in the Gospels (Matt. 19:16-22), but they are completely distorted and unrecognizable.

The accounts in the Gospels about Jesus and the “temptation in the wilderness” are also based on this conversation with the scribe.

A number of the apostles and disciples were present at the encounter with Joseph, and later, long after the death of Jesus, when his friends commemorated him, they tried in various ways to interpret, from their point of view, what had happened. Some believed that Satan, in the form of Joseph, had tempted Jesus to assume the kingship so as to lead him away from his true mission among the people, but that Jesus had harshly repudiated him. This interpretation was passed on by word of mouth, as was so much about the life of Jesus, until it finally appeared in the Gospels in distorted form, partly as the temptation in the wilderness and partly as the account of The Rich Young Man in Matthew 19: 16-22 previously referred to.

The one among the Youngest who was incarnated as Joseph of Arimathea has now fully atoned for his sins as the man, Joseph. Among other things, he has, as a discarnate being, assisted Ardor in the preparation of that part of this work wherein Ardor confesses his guilt of sin toward mankind. (Ardor’s Account).

24

As shown in Ardor's Account, Jesus interpreted the predictions of the  prophets somewhat freely when he spoke of the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the world. His conception of things to come was very human in what he said. His utterances reflected the influence partly of his knowledge of the teachings of Zarathustra and partly of faint memories from his transcendental existence. Thus when he said that on the last day God would call upon all the dead, he had some recollection of the time—about 80 years before his birth on Earth as Jesus of Nazareth—when God first called upon the Earth-bound⁷⁹ spirits. To Jesus, as man, this experience of the past seemed more like a prevision than a memory. Since he could not explain to himself from whence these ideas came, he believed that God had shown him the future. His thoughts then led naturally from the dead to the living, and in his utterances he therefore let God summon all the living to judgment as well. When Jesus said: “The evil shall go to that place which has been prepared for them”, he retained a faint spiritual memory of the fallen spirits (the Eldest) who were brought to distant worlds to be cleansed of the Darkness that had infused them at the time of their downfall.

Jesus remembered nothing explicitly about reincarnation; he knew of it, chiefly from Indian teaching, but as he was himself uncertain on that point he taught nothing specific about it; but a few sayings preserved in the Gospels show that the concept was not unfamiliar to him.

25

The entry into Jerusalem, preceding the Feast of Passover⁸⁰ according to the Gospels, is legend based on an incident from a previous Passover celebration.

Two years before his death and a few days before the "Feast of the Unleavened Bread", when Jesus was walking along the road to Jerusalem, he stumbled on a stone and sprained his foot. As it was painful for him to lean on it, he asked some of the apostles accompanying him to fetch him a donkey.

This trivial human mishap thus gave rise to the legend of the triumphal “palm-strewn” entry. (John 12: 12-16).

At the Feast of the Passover, Jesus and the apostles were seated at small, low tables placed together to form one long table. Although Jesus often attended repasts where the guests ate as they lay on couches, this was never so when he himself was the host. Everyone then sat on a type of high stool, or hassock, as was the custom in his native town of Nazareth.

The rendition in Ardor's Account of Jesus's talk with the apostles at the supper is fragmentary; it includes only excerpts of general interest.

In his parting words to the apostles, when he had bidden them proclaim his teaching, Jesus also bade them preach to the heathen; but he did not exhort them to baptize the converted, as related in the Gospels.

The bidding to evangelize among the heathen was thus given at the time of leave-taking and not, as incorrectly stated in the Gospels, at the time of his appearance after death.

And, when Jesus made this request of the apostles, he had in mind only the neighboring non-Jewish peoples and the Greeks and Romans, whose worship of many gods was well known to him.

The world Jesus knew was small, and Jesus could therefore only have in mind the peoples whose existence was known to him. For this reason, missionary work among the heathen, as it has been and still is practiced, accords not with what Jesus intended, since he had no knowledge of the more primitive races of mankind among whom extensive and often perilous work has been undertaken through the last centuries in order to introduce Christianity.

Still less does this work, amongst primitive heathen peoples, accord with God’s plan for the education of mankind: one step forward through each incarnation, from undeveloped beings to more spiritually awakened and independent individualities — by which procedure they will be better and better able to conceive of a perfect and exalted divinity as the spiritual self gradually grows and matures into a conscious awareness of its own origin and eternal life. From a transcendental viewpoint, religious missionary work among the primitive heathen thus becomes rather pointless—as useless as would be a mother’s words to her newborn child about its divine origin and its Heavenly Father. The human spirits incarnated among these peoples are usually so young and uncomprehending that any attempt to give them insight into a religion such as Christianity will in most cases come to naught. Conversions from heathenism to Christianity or to some other higher religion are therefore of no benefit whatever to these individuals. As long as religious and ethical ideas have not, as a matter of course, become a part of their spiritual consciousness, have not become as one with their inner natures so as to uplift their ethical standards, they will, when discarnate, reap as little benefit from these thoughts and ideas as would a child in later years from the mother’s religious words spoken when the child had not yet awakened to full consciousness of its own existence in the earthly world.

But as the young human spirits gradually advance through their incarnations, and as their spiritual insight deepens and clarifies, they too will arrive at the truths that still lie far beyond their ability to comprehend, either as human beings or in a discarnate state.

Consequently, missionary work among the primitive races as customarily practiced in so many ways—both spiritually and materially—by people all over the world, can never give results measuring up to the amount of self-sacrificing work done now and in the past. Since only God, not humans, can judge how deeply a conversion is rooted, the few really good results can never justify the many human lives that over the course of time have been sacrificed on the altar of missionary work among the heathen. Usually it is the missionaries themselves who benefit most from this religious work, as it often enriches them with great spiritual values (patience, compassion, self-sacrifice, and so on).

On the other hand, work of general education among the less primitive peoples may possibly be beneficial in a cultural sense and thereby improve the general conditions of life for these often unfortunate beings and their descendants. Much can be gained if a simple and easily understood teaching concerning transcendental matters is then added. It is sufficient for these spiritually undeveloped beings that they should come to know that a loving God and Father watches over them, and that in prayer, however childlike and simple, they can always turn to Him for help and protection against the evil in their earthly existence.

As indicated in Ardor’s Account, Judas Iscariot was not predestined to betray Jesus. Any such predestination is absolutely irreconcilable with God’s paternal, all-embracing love.

Judas acted of his own free will, wherefore he, alone, must assume the guilt; the Elder did not tempt him to do so, as Jesus supposed.

Judas disliked intensely the eleven apostles of Jesus, who avoided him as much as possible, and none of them understood the love and care that Jesus showed him, his whole appearance being of a dark, unattractive and repellant character. The contempt and ill-will always shown Judas by the eleven apostles finally aroused his ire not only against them but also against Jesus.

Jesus, apprehensive over Judas's increasingly brooding behavior and fearing that he would act as informer and accuser, warned him during the Last Supper against the evil thoughts that threatened to overwhelm him. The effect of this admonition was just the opposite of the one intended and desired by Jesus. Judas only became still more embittered—and he took leave to inform the Council of the whereabouts of Jesus.

However, the condemnation and death of Jesus in no way depended upon the betrayal by Judas. Already, some of the members of the Council had decided they must destroy the Nazarene.

In his despair over his treachery, Judas took his own life.

The eleven apostles must all be held to blame for Judas’s action. Had they attempted to emulate the love and kindness of Jesus with the sincere intention of accepting Judas as one of their own rather than constantly rejecting him, it is unlikely that he would have become a traitor and a suicide.

The story of the thirty pieces of silver is legend.

The vision in the Garden of Gethsemane is also legend.

Jesus was saddened by the thought of that which awaited him, but he was entirely calm. He knelt as he prayed deeply for strength to meet his fate. The apostles who accompanied him were either asleep or resting while Jesus prayed.

Jesus's words in the Garden of Gethsemane: "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt", were intended to show that Jesus voluntarily submitted to God's will and that his death on the cross was pre-ordained by God. But Jesus never uttered these words nor did it even occur to him to ask God for help in evading the impending suffering or the approaching death.

From the moment that Jesus failed to pray for the fallen brother and thus failed to overcome the Darkness, he carried the deep grief of defeat in his heart. Although he felt certain of being a messenger from God, he was not certain that he was the expected Messiah,⁸¹ and this grief and doubt showed in his relationship both with his fellow beings and with God. And although Jesus during his earthly life had often spoken of how hope and trust can be undermined by doubt,⁸² he was himself in doubt on this crucial point. His words and his conduct were thus not as resolute as expected, and his relationship to God also suffered. In consequence it became impossible for him to strike a path between the two given extremes in his earthly life, even though God, as his guardian and leader, in many ways tried to support and to guide him.

His grief over not having succeeded in his intentions preyed more and more upon Jesus and so discouraged him that he finally saw only one way to meet the doubt, hatred and persecution of the people: to confirm the truth of his teaching by his own death. He saw clearly that his strength, his spiritual authority, was too lacking to overcome human blindness and he met his death without fear and without hesitation.

Thus, the eldest of the Youngest was sent to Earth as Jesus of Nazareth with a two-fold mission. The first, to pray for his older fallen brother; the second, to bring the Gospel of Love to mankind.

Though he failed in the first part of his mission, Jesus might have succeeded in the second had he but fully trusted his inner voice—God’s voice—the voice constantly whispering to him that he was Messiah. Through a firm belief in his own true and exalted nature, he would have succeeded in attaining to complete harmony and unison with God and God’s Will and gradually, as he had familiarized himself with the thought of being the Messiah, his conduct would have been marked by such divine strength and determination that in carrying out the second part of his mission he would have overcome the influence of Darkness and thereby avoided death on the cross, even though Darkness had earlier prevented him from remembering to pray for the fallen brother.

Jesus’s firm belief that he and no one else was the Messiah was to have been the basis for the second part of his mission, and the culmination of his spiritual maturity as a reformer and religious founder would have been reached the moment he fully and completely gave himself up to belief in the truth of the thought that he was the Messiah.

But the deep grief of Jesus over his defeat, overshadowed the thought of being the Messiah and prevented him from reaching the spiritual maturity required for him to step forth as a reformer. Thus, he failed to win over the officials and the leaders of the people to his Teaching of Love, and was consequently unable to carry out fully the second part of the mission he had undertaken.

Jesus never dared ask others to pray for the Evil One. He knew that no one would understand him, inasmuch as he, in his earthly existence, would be unable to explain the reason for such a prayer. He also felt convinced that intercession would be in vain if the prayer was not heartfelt—expressing an understanding of and compassion for the sufferings of the Evil One. So he remained silent, because he knew that everyone about him only hated and feared Satan, and also because he felt that, as a human being, he himself possessed not the needed compassion for the fallen brother.

As happened to the eldest of the Youngest in that incarnation, so has the same often happened to the Youngest in their various missions on behalf of mankind. Doubt as to their personal strength, doubt as to the truth of their own words or doubt of God’s absolute help at the crucial moments, made them falter and thus gradually succumb to the influence of Darkness; and the people would then thank them for their self-sacrifices by torturing them spiritually or bodily, or by giving them death.

The slightest doubt or hesitancy invariably diminishes the strength of the Light-current that streams from God through the Passage of Light to every human being on Earth, whether the embodied personality is that of one of the Youngest, a human spirit, or one of the Eldest incarnated under the Law of Retribution.

Therefore: the more the individual trusts the divine within the self, the more strength and help will be received from God, and the easier will be the victory over human prejudice, distrust and scorn—indeed, over all forms of Darkness.

26

Judas did not kiss Jesus at the moment of betrayal.

Peter, who was impulsive and quick-tempered, struck one of the servants in the face in an attempt to protect Jesus. The account of the sword and the severed ear is all legend.

Peter’s denial of Jesus is not included in Ardor’s Account, since it in no way plays the part ascribed to it by the Evangelists.

Jesus had often made known to the apostles his choice of Simon Peter as their leader when he himself had departed. In view of Peter’s quick temper, Jesus forbade him to accompany him when he was led to the house of the high priest, lest he endanger himself or the other apostles by some impetuous action.

Peter’s grief over the imprisonment of Jesus was so great that he was unable to comply with this instruction and, unseen by Jesus, he stole after him and hid himself in the courtyard around the house of Caiaphas so as to be as near to his beloved master as possible..

But when someone asked if he was one of the Nazarene’s followers, he remembered his pledge to be leader of the apostles; and so as not to act against the wish of his master, his only alternative was to deny his acquaintance and relationship with him. Peter thus acted not out of fear for his own life, but from fear of disapproval by Jesus of his impulsive action.

The prediction by Jesus of Peter’s denial is fictitious, as is the account of the later, thrice-repeated question by Jesus: “Simon, son of John, do you love me. . .?” (John 21: 15-18).

Only fragments of the questioning of Jesus by the high-priest are given in Ardor’s Account, since the Gospels have preserved much of the proceedings more or less correctly.

The examination of Jesus by Pilate was essentially a repetition of the questioning by the high priest. Jesus answered him as he had answered Caiaphas.

The story about Barabbas is correct; he was set free in place of Jesus.

The account of the dream of Pilate’s wife is fictitious.

27

Two thieves were crucified at the same time as Jesus, but bound to their crosses without a footrest so that they died several hours sooner than Jesus. As both were deeply stupefied by drink given them before their crucifixion, any exchange between them and Jesus would not have been possible. The account in the Gospels of the words of Jesus to the thief is fictitious.

Jesus refused the drug offered for he wished to endure in full the impending suffering.

The earthquake felt immediately after the crucifixion was the result of a volcanic eruption in northeastern Palestine (the ancient Bashan). Its effects extended to Jerusalem and to some towns lying to the south of the city, where the tremor was not especially severe. At the same time, ominous storm clouds gathered in the sky, changing the clear daylight into a deep dusk. After a few hours the clouds dispersed without rainfall. The darkness, the oppressive calm and the earthquake were enough to strike such terror among the superstitious people that they fled in panic into the city.

The Gospel accounts in Matthew of the events after the crucifixion are exaggerated and misleading. (Compare Matthew 27: 51-54 with the foregoing explanation.)

28

In the days of Jesus, the wall about Jerusalem lay in ruins at several places and repairs and rebuilding were being carried out at other places. For this reason, anyone who so wished could easily slip into or out of the city unobserved despite the sentries who had been posted.

Roman soldiers did not stand watch at the tomb.

Since the body of Jesus was anointed and swathed in linen before interment, the account of the women who came the following morning to anoint his body is incorrect—the women came to mourn at the tomb of Jesus.

When the human body expires, it must inevitably decompose and disintegrate.⁸³ Since Darkness has become destructible through the victory of God and of the Light, everything produced and created from Darkness must in consequence also be destructible. Thus the concept of the resurrection of the earthly body of Jesus is contrary to the temporal ⁸⁴ laws of physics and chemistry and to the eternal laws of the Light—never broken by God.

Mary Magdalene was gifted with second sight and therefore alone saw the spiritual body of Jesus, invisible to the others. The spirit of Jesus thus did not in this instance become materialized.

Mary Magdalene⁸⁵ was the woman closest to Jesus during his last years on Earth. Her deep grief and her yearning for Jesus called his released spirit back, and when he stood before her she saw him with her spiritual vision.

29

In his Account, Ardor points out that when Jesus appeared before the apostles he stood at the upper end of the table. Jesus chose this place so that all should know he had not come to them through the entrance in the usual way.

Jesus appeared before the apostles of his own accord and with the permission of God. Thus, he materialized by his own will alone.

The Ascension of Jesus is fictitious.

30

The legend of the Wonder of Pentecost sprang from the fear and terror that a sudden unseasonal thunderstorm produced among the frightened, superstitious and fanatically aroused people.

God, who at all times and in many ways has tried to turn the Elder’s evil designs to the good, in fact granted the apostles additional spiritual strength because of their unswerving trust and faith, but not before their thoughts had met God’s Thought⁸⁶ in their deeply felt prayer of thanksgiving.

The untruthful explanation of the disciples to Simon Peter concerning that which had happened gave rise to the practice of “speaking in tongues”, which to this day finds converts among obsessed and hysterically aroused people. It is a practice of no justification whatever, since fanatically aroused people are never able to think or speak with sufficient clarity or authority. Those who uncritically allow themselves to come under the spell of  “speaking in tongues” usually attract Darkness⁸⁷ to themselves and to their surroundings, thereby often creating much spiritual suffering for themselves and others.

On the other hand, the Light will flow more freely and purely to those free of prejudice, to those who are unpretentious and unselfish in their religious belief, who trust God unquestioningly, and who respond with selfless love and profound compassion for all their fellow beings. These people can give others valuable spiritual comfort and strength through well-chosen words based on timely, clear and logical thoughts.

31

The deep longing of the apostles for their beloved master and their constant hope for his early return, a hope stemming from their misconception of his words⁸⁸ regarding the end of the world, together with John’s Revelation—inspired by the Elder—are the reasons many even today expect the Second Coming, the Millennium, the End of the World, the Day of Judgment, and so forth.

Not before all mankind has reached the greatest possible earthly⁸⁹ perfection will the end of the world come. And when the day does come, after millions of years, that the Earth is disintegrated by the power of God’s will, all human beings will have departed the Globe; no earthly being will be present on it when it meets its “death”.

32

Saul’s vision of Jesus on the road to Damascus was a psychic experience. Jesus materialized not before Saul’s physical eye but appeared to him while Saul’s body rested in sleep. The memory of what he had seen was so vivid for Saul that, as related in Ardor’s Account, he believed he had been blinded by the radiance that emanated from the figure of Jesus.

33

Although the words and acts of Jesus left a profound impression on Saul, he was never able to entirely reject the age-old rabbinic teachings, so that the form in which Christianity appeared through his interpretation became a complete distortion of the simple and beautiful teaching of love presented by Jesus, a distortion in part owing to Saul’s great over-assurance of self and in part to constant interference by the Elder.

God, Who out of deep compassion received the creatures of His fallen children into His Thought, and thereby bestowed eternal life upon mankind, surely did not need to demand a blood sacrifice as atonement for the iniquity of mankind. The interpretation of the death of Jesus on the cross as the “sacrificial lamb”, in whose blood all sinners would be cleansed, is therefore an entirely blasphemous thought, implanted in Saul’s mind by the Elder.

The custom of animal sacrifice is so ancient that it goes back to the Mlawayans in the Pacific Ocean, and even though Saul’s original conception of Jesus as humanity’s sacrificial lamb was intended to be symbolic, it is a symbol that can only be ascribed to the intervention of Darkness, since God has never demanded, nor will He ever demand such acts in order to forgive the sins of mankind.

The congregations founded by the apostles originally celebrated their Communions solely to commemorate the parting of Jesus with his friends. Not until the time of Saul’s interpretation did they take on a different meaning.

The words by which Saul tried to interpret the acts of Jesus were instilled in him by the Elder. These words were adopted by all the congregations which Saul had founded—and later by other congregations—and the words became so deeply embedded in the minds of the people that at the time of the Evangelists they were attributed to Jesus.

From being a symbolic act, Holy Communion or the Lord’s Supper in its new form became more and more materialistic, until finally the bread and the wine were turned into visible expressions of the “true body and true blood of Jesus”. (John: 6: 53-56).

Christians who believe they can obtain forgiveness of sin and partake of the bliss of heaven by “eating and drinking the flesh and blood of their god”,⁹⁰ place themselves on the same religious level as the so-called heathen, even if they regard Communion only as a symbolic act.

People who take part in Communion out of habit, or because it is customary, are all guilty of a perverted act. And those servants of the Church who within themselves feel offended by this custom—which originates with ancient pagan rites—carry a grave responsibility if they continue to serve the communicants when the Lord’s Supper is shared, because they lack the courage to reject dogmas conceived by and instituted by human beings.

Many Christians who take part in Communion according to the inherited traditions and with complete trust in the truth of this Sacrament, do often feel comforted and strengthened. But the spiritual peace and strength they receive results not from taking part in the “Sacrament”, it is due to their deeply felt remorse and to their prayer to God—or to Christ— for forgiveness of their sins; for any heartfelt prayer will always meet with God’s Thought, and the answer to the prayer will be felt as a profound, spiritual peace that passes understanding.

No human being can be delivered from the guilt of sin through Communion. All must atone, under God’s Law of Retribution, by repenting of their own sins, or, failing this, facing the repercussions from their sinful thoughts or acts by, in later incarnations, performing acts of love and compassion for those against whom they have sinned.

Transgressions against God or against the divine in man can be annulled only through deepfelt grief and remorse. None can assume the guilt of sin of another, nor did the eldest of the Youngest by his death upon the cross assume the sins of mankind in any form, much less atone for them.⁹¹ But through earnest prayer anyone may ameliorate the lot befallen sinful fellow beings, because selfless prayer from a loving, compassionate heart will always draw the Light to those for whom the prayer is intended. This added stream of Light will then dispel the Darkness that envelops the sinner or the lawbreaker and will enable the guardian spirit—the conscience—to exert itself to better effect, so that its admonitions will be easier to follow. In this way, human beings may afford one another much valuable help.⁹² 

Were Christians to put the Lord’s Supper in its proper place by making it a commemoration of Maundy Thursday (the night of the final meal of Jesus with his disciples) either in the churches or at home, they would afford the eldest of the Youngest much gladness; for then would he have achieved in large measure his purpose intended as Jesus of Nazareth: to be remembered on that evening by all who love him.

——————————

A further and more detailed account of the more or less truthful descriptions in the gospels concerning the life and acts of Jesus and of the insertions and additions of later days, cannot be undertaken here, for it would place too much—indeed an impossible burden—upon the medium employed as intermediary. But with the foregoing as a basis, those who feel called upon to do so, may for themselves search out the true grains of gold to be found in all four Gospels.

It remains but to be said only that no one has the right to reproach the Evangelists for the erroneous, distorted or entirely false accounts that through them have been handed down to posterity, since it must be remembered that nothing was put into writing during the lifetime of Jesus—nothing until a generation after his death. During this time the words of Jesus and accounts of his life as well as the wonders he worked, were passed on by word of mouth. Now something was added here, now something omitted there, and it will be readily understood that in consequence it was impossible to produce a complete account accurate in every detail. Nor must it be forgotten that the Elder was to blame for most of the many distortions, contradictions, and falsehoods. And although a number of the incarnate Youngest of those days, gave the Evangelists much assistance through their inspiring influence, it was not possible, as long as the Elder had not been liberated from the power of Darkness, to make everything agree exactly with the facts.

None of the apostles are authors of the Gospels. The Gospel bearing the name of John was written by a disciple of his, of Greek descent. It was compiled and completed after the apostle’s death toward the end of the first century. Minor fragments were, however, put in writing before his death and read aloud at meetings of the congregations. Only a small part of the collected work was known and approved by the apostle John.

The Apocalypse (Book of Revelation) can in no way be regarded as given by God. It was entirely inspired by the Elder. Its earthly author is not related in any way to the author of the Gospel of St. John.

The Acts of the Apostles and the many Epistles included in the New Testament should be regarded only as edifying reading of varying merit. Not all the accounts in The Acts are truthful, nor were all the Epistles written by those named.

34-35

Ardor’s historical survey, linking the prehistoric past to the present, is presented as briefly and simply as possible. Only the essentials are included, since many historical and religious records are available to those who feel called upon to study the abominable religious wars and other conflicts of the past, the tyranny of rulers and the lust for power that drove them to commit the most monstrous crimes in their quest for dominance.

Or, if so inclined, anyone can make a study of the numerous sectarian deviations from the teaching of Christ, and the resulting conflict, superstition and hypocrisy.

36

When Ardor in his account says that God caused His voice to be heard by the earthbound Spirits a little more than eight decades before the eldest of the Youngest was born on Earth (or about 81 B.C.), this number is given according to the traditional date for the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. But, since that date is placed about five years too late, the actual birth of the eldest of the Youngest as the man Jesus took place about 76 years after God's first call to the earthbound Spirits.

The centuries for God’s callings coincided not with the endings of the earthly centuries.

Christ and a number of others of the Youngest who had pledged their help, began in the year 1857 their toilsome journey across the Earth as discarnate spirits in order to communicate directly with human beings through mediums, and with their help to try to influence the earthbound spirits—a task whose nature no human can fully comprehend.

Because of the Light that had streamed to the Earth over millions of years through the work of the Youngest for humanity, a faint dawn had gradually appeared on the astral counterpart of the globe in place of the dense Darkness that had rested there at the creation of mankind. But at various places—especially where the earthbound spirits gathered in greater numbers—were found large accumulations of Darkness giving the effect of dense cloud formations; and inasmuch as astral Darkness is a reality (has substance) for all discarnate beings, the Youngest on their journeys constantly had to penetrate these accumulations of Darkness with the help of the Light that emitted from their spirit-bodies.

In partial, and frequently incomplete Darkness that could only be dispelled by the Light they themselves emitted, the Youngest had thus to journey from place to place seeking earthly helpers. They had also to endure the spectacle of the thousands upon thousands of wretched and foul-smelling earthbound spirits, fleeing in panic in all directions whenever these radiant figures of Light made their advance.

Christ and his companions were obliged to remain in these dismal surroundings, unable to withdraw to their dwellings in the sixth sphere for rest and peace away from the noxious vapors and ghoulish spectacles of the Darkness. They had to abide on the astral plane of the Earth for an extensive period until finally, after much spiritual hardship and disappointment, they reached the goal that God had established for their journey and mission.

Over time, some of the earthbound spirits began to understand that the spirits of the Light had come to help them escape their dreadful and captive existence on the Earth. These spirits therefore congregated in large numbers wherever Christ attempted to establish communication with the so-called mediums. This added still further difficulties to their already burdensome task inasmuch as the accumulations of Darkness these human spirits brought with them enveloped everyone—the spirits of Light as well as the séance members present on Earth. In the earliest years the messages from the spirits became therefore very faulty and misleading, and more often than not quite erroneous. Although the mediums were not always at fault, it naturally gave cause for much justified doubt as to the validity of the alleged spirit-communications.

But these shortcomings occurred mostly among the circles not protected by spirits of Light, either because the spirit of one of the Eldest was embodied in the medium, or because the participants were themselves too earthbound in mind and action, or because the Elder and the discarnate Eldest acted as the spiritual leaders of the séance so as to oppose Christ’s work. The Eldest would often identify themselves under the names that Christ and his helpers used, assuming, and correctly so, that most of the participants would be unable to determine whether they were confronted by a spirit of the Light or of Darkness.

The Elder sought constantly to induce mediums to experiment with trances,⁹³ materializations, and the like, so as to gain greater control over them. He also incited the Earth-bound spirits to possess the medium and the séance participants, resulting in many false messages, inasmuch as these spirits—misled by Darkness—never hesitated to appear under the well-known and imposing names of deceased persons. Séance participants exposed to such false but easily disproved messages were thus inclined to denounce everything as sheer falsehood and fraud.

But many who sought out the spiritualistic circles often did receive truthful messages from departed relatives and friends who, without permission, took advantage of such tempting opportunities to be remembered through mediumistic speech, writing or materialization.

As a result of the persistent efforts of the Elder to counter the spirits of Light, many spiritualistic circles were formed, quite often with fraudulent mediums. Moreover, a number of circles were formed of quite undiscerning people, who gave to the séances an unfortunate stamp of vulgarity, greatly harmful to the work the Spirits of Light sought to carry out.

However, there were also those who did sincerely and unselfishly attempt to bring order to the chaos of spiritualism. Christ and his helpers found among these a number whose assistance was of great value in the effort to release the earthbound spirits and to bring to the fore some of the truths of the Light—truths that in many respects contradicted orthodox teaching. But the messages from the Youngest, appearing sporadically at many different places, were always intermingled with the falsehoods of the Elder.

Whenever Christ and his helpers found individuals who might be employed as intermediaries for their special work, they tried by various means to deepen the interest of such persons in transcendental communication, gradually also introducing the séance members to religious questions. But only a small number of the spiritualistic circles⁹⁴ they visited, scattered over the world, were able to sustain an interest in purely spiritual questions and answers, and as soon as the desire for physical manifestations rose to the fore in a circle, Christ with regret would have to abandon whatever ground had been won and search anew for other and more understanding intermediaries. To obtain a favorable result in this way demanded endless patience and deep love—traits that only Christ could fully evince. His unfailing patience and absolute trust in God’s guidance gave courage to his companions when, after two decades had passed, they were all inclined to abandon the Shorter Road.

To the circles with which the Spirits of Light had established communication, Christ would speak under names that all had some connection with or reference to his mission amongst mankind. In this way, he succeeded in holding their attention so that many of his ethical and religious teachings were received, understood and believed. Only rarely did he risk identifying himself under the earthly name of his last incarnation, and was then usually met with disbelief. In a few instances, when he identified himself as Jesus, or Christ, in the hope of meeting with understanding, he was promptly dismissed as if he were Satan himself—a strangely illogical attitude, for if they were truly convinced of the realities of communication with spirits, Christian people should have realized that Christ, as readily as any other discarnate being, would be able to communicate through mediums with those who believed in and loved him—indeed, especially that he in all probability would succeed better than anyone else in establishing such communication. And since many circles opened their séances with a prayer for God’s help against the intervention of Darkness, the séance members should at least have remembered the words of Jesus from the Gospel: “. . .If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18: 19-20).  In view of these words the members should have questioned the manifesting spirit and ascertained whether they actually were confronted with a spirit of Light, and, when thus convinced, feel confident that the name given was true, since spirits of Light never resort to falsehood. However, many séance members will claim that despite their prayer for help against the influence of Darkness during séances, they have often been deceived by evil spirits. To this there is but one answer: prayers⁹⁵ not made in full trust and from the heart, but only in an unthinking or habitual manner, are of no benefit at all.

Hoping to ease the difficult task of Christ and his helpers, God arranged that a number of the Youngest and some of the more advanced human spirits—male and female alike—be incarnated at various places over the world, so that they, as mediums, could establish the necessary link between the spirits of Light and human beings.

In a small spiritualistic circle, some of whose members had been incarnated for this purpose, Christ found at last the complete understanding and trust established by God as a prerequisite for the success of his work.

To aid Christ further in carrying out this arduous task, God called upon the earthbound spirits some years earlier than originally planned. At a given time⁹⁶ in the second half of October, 1911, God caused His voice to be heard by all who were bound by sin and vice to the astral plane of the Earth, and all except the Elder and his dual⁹⁷ heeded His call. (Ardor’s dual returned at a later date.)

Darkness had thus at last to yield before Christ’s perseverance, since nothing could discourage him and nothing would deter him. But that which still brought Christ forward and enabled him to overcome the opposing Darkness as well as human prejudice was his deep conviction that God would not have shown him the “Shorter Road” had He not known that it would lead to the goal. The final victory over Darkness must therefore first and foremost be ascribed to Christ’s unshakable trust in God, to his profound love for the fallen brother, and to his deep compassion for the sinful human children of the Earth. It was this love and patience of Christ that gradually broke the power of Darkness, that evoked the grief and remorse of the Elder and that resulted in his return to God and to the Paternal Home.

The eldest of the Youngest is, therefore, in the profoundest and truest sense of the word, the Christ—the Savior and the Redeemer—not because of a blood-offering of atonement, but because of his unselfish and never-failing love.

Since Christ, by delivering his older brother, has reached the goal his Father had set for his arduous task among the fallen spirits bound by Darkness, the possibility that Christ now or in future will communicate directly with mediums or spiritualistic circles is out of the question, as such forms of communication would be entirely unnecessary. Christ has once more returned to his dwelling in the outermost sphere, where, as in the past, he will seek to guide humanity and to establish order in the earthly conditions.

Mediums can act as intermediaries under the influence of either Light or Darkness.

Apart from all the incarnated Youngest and Eldest, the more advanced human spirits are gifted with mediumistic talents while incarnated; but these faculties do not always appear in the earthly consciousness of the individual.

However, human spirits are only slightly gifted as mediums, but in order to serve the Light and if so desired by the transcendental world, their gifts or talents can be strengthened by the guardian spirit, who then seeks in various ways to support the medium, for example by strengthening the will to work for the cause of the Light, or by reducing the thickness of the layer of insulation between the physical and the psychic body, thereby providing a stronger and more direct influence from the transcendental world. Should mediums fail to heed the prompting of their guardian spirits and follow instead their own desires to satisfy their vanity, lust for power or other similar low motivations, they will soon come under the influence of Darkness, which can readily be detected in the manifestations brought about with the help of such mediums

Discarnate spirits can easily discern which humans have mediumistic ability. The radiance of the egg-shaped auras of their spiritual bodies is more luminous than that of others; the aura of the Youngest is especially bright. However, if one of the Eldest is bound to the medium’s human body, the spirit as seen from the transcendental world appears as a jet-black shadow. These people are, as a rule, strong “physical” mediums, since practically all physical mediumism originates with Darkness. Spirits of Light, obviously, never use such mediums as intermediaries between themselves and human beings.

Physical phenomena produced with the help of Darkness include levitations of the medium or of the séance participants; irregular flickering light phenomena, such as larger or smaller phosphorescent spots, misty formations and the like; all genuine materializations and dematerializations during séances, violent explosive knocks or sounds and all irregular tappings and forth.

All regular tappings, with equal intervals between each knock, can be performed only by spirits of Light and therefore occur under the laws of the Light. These tappings can in the presence of intense Light radiations ring with a clear and sonorous metallic sound, even though there be no metallic objects in the room where they occur. By this means, the spirits of Light have often called upon their earthly helpers.

Materializations during séances are performed only by the earthbound spirits, including the Eldest. The Youngest have never materialized at any séance; they appear spontaneously and usually without an intermediary, since they can render themselves visible by their own will. That is, they reduce the frequencies of the atoms of Light of which their spirit-bodies consist—or they otherwise appear to clairvoyant persons.

It has happened at materializations that mediums of unquestioned honesty have allowed themselves, in good faith, to be employed as intermediaries for unscrupulous spirits.

These mediums have usually acted from the best of motives in lending their assistance at such phenomena, partly to prove that life exists after death and partly to act as intermediaries between the living and the "dead". But since God has never permitted the earthbound spirits to make themselves known in this way, the spirits who exploited and abused such mediums must carry the full responsibility for their forbidden actions. But, if the medium had been warned by the guardian spirit and thus acted in defiance of conscience, the medium would be fully responsible for its actions.

Many strongly physical mediums (the Eldest) can by their spiritual will—and with no help at all from discarnate spirits—cause levitations, such as lifting objects from floor or ground or floating smaller objects about. The medium is usually not consciously aware of this, since the spirit whilst in trance cannot exert as strong an influence over the earthly body as otherwise.

Only a few of the materializations and other physical phenomena known from seances are or have been genuine. Most were trickery and thus outright deception⁹⁸ by the human medium, a fact of which all who take part in manifestations of Darkness must be aware.

Explained here are some forms of trance phenomena:

Under deep trance (a deep, insensible sleep), the medium's spirit was thrust aside from the physical body to allow an earthbound spirit to use the physical organs of speech. Many authentic results were produced in this manner and a number of truthful messages given by the deceased to relatives and friends. These messages were usually limited to earthly affairs, notably to recall past events and experiences so as to make known the identity of the deceased. Many Earth-bound spirits never known by the séance participants, have given proof of life after death by stating names, occupation, place of birth, native land, year of birth and death and so on—information proven correct by subsequent investigation. The earthbound spirits could usually say nothing about life in the spheres, since such remembrance does not as a rule awaken until the spirits have returned to their abodes in the transcendental world. However, a few have given a number of obscure and confused messages describing this life as well as they could remember it; but the majority always tried to evade direct questions on life after death, reluctant to elaborate on their own harrowing and eerie existence on Earth’s astral stratum. Only a small number have given accounts fully describing earthbound existence in Darkness, without peace and rest.

The many mediumistic messages given by Earth-bound spirits, unaccompanied by spirits of Light, occurred always without God's permission and therefore belonged to the numerous manifestations that were due to the intervention of Darkness.

Under deep trance, the medium’s own spirit frequently acts as communicator without the medium’s awareness, a circumstance easily verified by a vigilant observer since such messages are usually colored by the medium’s own experiences and opinions. This is also a form of the influence of Darkness, not necessarily due to the medium since it is often caused by accumulations of Darkness attracted by one or more of the participants in the larger séances. Séances should therefore never be made available to larger groups or to the public, since such “performances” only attract Darkness and adversely affect not only the medium but all séance participants.

It happens not infrequently during trance materializations that the medium’s own spirit appears visibly and “poses” as various spirits, changing appearance by its will-power to show itself in forms from earlier incarnations or assuming an appearance corresponding to mental images of the séance members present, whose thoughts dwell on a beloved departed relative or friend.

If heavy concentrations of Darkness have accumulated, conditions are especially favorable for the medium’s spirit to exert its will so as to create a number of thought-images or phantoms in human likeness and rendering these visible to the onlookers who then easily mistake them for spirits of the dead,

However, all this can take place only if the medium is one of the Eldest, for no human spirit possesses a will strong enough to bring about such manifestations.

It is entirely unnecessary that trance materializations be produced in darkened rooms, as is clearly proven by the numerous spontaneous materializations.

The cause of spiritualism has suffered much from conducting séances in unlit rooms, a practice that enables fraudulent mediums to operate under cover of darkness. To ensure that materializations were authentic during séances, the mediums themselves ought to have been the first to find, or propose a procedure that precluded all fraudulence.

For example, the following procedure might have been followed: the medium should have lain on a mattress on the floor, arms and hands somewhat extended, the participants sitting in a circle around the medium about one and one-half meters distant, forming a chain by joining hands, the light somewhat dimmed, yet leaving everything in the room clearly visible.

Had this procedure been followed, the medium, in a true trance, would remain on the mattress in deep sleep while the materialized spirits, or thought-phantoms, appeared inside the circle of the participants or above the medium's body. But since the “spiritual control” of most⁹⁹ materialization mediums has been the medium’s own spirit or one of the discarnate Eldest, it is understandable that everything possible has been done by them to keep the mediums in ignorance of the facts, and this has unfortunately succeeded only too well.

Since all materializations during séances occur under the influence of Darkness and are therefore not permitted by God, all are strongly advised not to attempt such materialistic experimentation. (See also pages 247-51).

During somnambulistic trance, induced by hypnosis or by self-hypnosis, the medium’s spirit is released by the hypnotist’s will or by the medium’s own will. The released spirit can move freely about, but remains connected to the physical body by the cord. If the medium’s spirit is one of the Eldest or one of the Youngest, then it is able to move far afield from the body. Upon waking from a true trance, the medium can describe places, landscapes, dwellings, rooms, persons, and the like visited by the spirit during the trance. If later investigation establishes that the descriptions are correct and the medium in a normal state was not previously acquainted with the persons concerned or had never been at the places described, a somnambulistic trance can give clear evidence that a human being consists not of a physical body alone but possesses also an independent spirit able to think and act apart from the physical body.

The Spirit also is able to travel about freely in ecstatic trance produced by religious exaltation. Memories from such excursions to the spheres or to the Earth's astral stratum can often be retained when the spirit reunites with the body. The medium, or the hypnotist, must accept full responsibility for these two forms of trance. Excursions of this nature should be brought to an end forthwith if the medium feels that it acts against the conscience, because repeated separation of spirit and body can cause grave harm to the physical body.

Semi-trance, or false trance, manifests as a dreamy, sleepless state or as a form of religious rapture,¹⁰⁰ or over-enthusiasm. In either case it is always the medium’s own spirit that acts as speaker and communicator. All spiritual accounts that emerge in this way therefore bear the stamp, more or less, of the medium’s own earthly belief, although such messages occasionally can appear to range a few degrees above the medium’s human intelligence and insight. In those circles where spiritualism is made into a sectarian religion by religious gatherings, it is the mediums themselves who often speak in such false trances. Spirits supposedly manifesting through these mediums exist therefore only in the imagination of the mediums, made in no way more real by the well-known names under which these products of fantasy appear. This form of religious rapture has little or nothing to do with true mediumism, since enthusiasm in itself—with little or no direct spiritual influence—can cause anyone to express themselves more energetically when they feel moved by their subject matter, when because of this enthusiasm or excitement they clarify their train of thought, choose their words with greater care, and seemingly raise their personalities above the ordinary to give the impression that their speech or words are inspired.

Even without mediumistic ability, preachers and orators have often been inspired by their guardian spirits to speak with more than their usual lucidity and authority. However, such inspired orators, who are not spiritualists, will never claim that this or that well-known deceased person has spoken through them, even though they did distinctly feel they were under a spiritual influence.

Spiritualistic circles are therefore seriously advised never to employ “mediums”—male or female—as religious speakers, inasmuch as spirits of Light have never appeared through mediums who are in semi- or false trance  If spiritualistic religious speakers were to appear at the meetings under their own names, they would receive help from their guardian spirit, as do all others who serve the Light. But as long as they act under false pretences and wrong assumptions, the spirits of the Light can give them no assistance.

However, mediums speaking in semi-trance are not always aware of perpetrating a fraud.¹⁰¹ They usually act in good faith and are rarely fully aware that they are only under the domination of their own spirit. But if the medium has been warned through the conscience and thus becomes aware of the fraud, Darkness will be attracted increasingly—and the medium will become totally unfit to serve the cause of the Light.

Thus: all materialization, dematerialization and the like at séances  conducted in the dark or in dim artificial light (though occasionally by daylight), all levitation of persons, animals or objects, and all speech in trance or semi-trance have always taken place and still do without the permission of God.

The following means of communication can be employed by spirits of Darkness and of the Light alike:

1) Thought-inspiration¹⁰² through mediums possessed of the ability to receive intuitively. 2) Direct speech to receptive (clairaudient) mediums. 3) Writing that is to a greater or lesser extent automatic, including mediumistic drawing, painting and inspired musical achievement. From the style and content of such communications anyone should be able to determine whether or not these originated with a spirit of Darkness or of Light.

Intuitive inspiration of thought, when used by the spirits of Light, demands absolutely truthful and understanding human mediums who are fully aware that their egos play no part in the communications received beyond that of being an instrument suitable to the purpose. And since thought-inspired mediums are never in trance or even semi-trance but fully awake and alert, such mediums will always readily be able to determine whether the thought-images and ideas are their own or originate with outside intelligences.

If a medium’s faith in God's protection and guidance is absolute, the style and content of the messages received will bear a stamp of clarity and strict consistency far beyond the ordinary capability of the medium's earthly personality.

A means of communication employable only by Spirits of Light, is as follows:

When spiritual intelligences manifest themselves and wish to be recognized through words, expressions, modes of speech, and so on—characterizing a former personality on Earth—they can resort to a procedure which in every detail reproduces the words and expressions of that personality.

When the medium's physical body rests in natural sleep, at night, for instance, the guardian spirit (with God's permission) releases the medium's spiritual self, which then learns and memorizes the subject matter (be it prose or poetry) to be transferred to the earthly world. Next day, at a predetermined time made known to the medium, the guardian spirit transfers the acquired learning from the medium’s psychic brain to the physical brain. Through strong, concentrated radiations of Light, the thickness of the casing—or the layer of insulation—between the psychic and physical brain is reduced. Once it is reduced to 1/16 of a millimeter, the transfer itself—not explainable in human terms—takes place. As the transfer progresses, the memorized material gradually emerges in the medium’s physical brain, after which it can be put into writing in the sequence in which it appears. If a medium, in the released state, fails to memorize poetry or prose correctly, that is if the psychic brain is unable to recall every single word, a “void” will appear in the transferred matter. The missing word can then be given orally if the medium is sufficiently clairaudient; otherwise the medium must learn the forgotten matter during the next release, and it is then transferred—when the medium is awake—and inserted at the correct place in the previously written text.

This procedure is exceedingly difficult, demanding great patience as well as great care and attention by the manifesting spirit. For this reason it has to date been attempted with only one medium, when, from the transcendental world—with God’s permission—it was decided to present incontestable evidence¹⁰³ of the fact of the continuance of the human personality after physical death.

A number of other forms of mediumistic abilities—psychometry, hypnosis,¹⁰⁴ hypnotic suggestion and so on—as well as many additional forms of communication with spirits have been known and practiced since the dawn of history. Some are still known throughout the world, even by the lower races among whom the Eldest were often incarnated.

These subjects are too numerous to be discussed in detail, but it should be said that it can be most harmful to submit oneself to hypnotic experimentation and especially so for those who allow themselves to be influenced or dominated by a stronger will inasmuch as a hypnotist, by repeated practice, can gain complete control over the subject, who thus becomes a compliant tool in the hypnotist’s hands, whether in or out of hypnosis.

Suggestion can be successfully applied in some nervous disorders but, to preclude any malpractice, the integrity of the practitioner must be beyond question.

One more form of communication with spirits should be mentioned, a form often practiced by the Earth-bound spirits and at times by the spirits of Light (the Youngest) when no better means were at hand.

When the séance participants had seated themselves around a small table,¹⁰⁵ they would lay their hands lightly atop it while one of them posed the questions. The manifesting spirit would then, by power of will and with the aid of the psychical and physical radiations of Darkness or Light emitting from the séance participants, lift one side of the table until one of its legs was raised slightly (semi-levitated). The séance leader then slowly recited the alphabet so that, by letting the table leg fall to the floor when a particular letter was reached, the spirits could engage in quite lengthy conversations with the participants. However, one or more mediums had to be present. The procedure was exceedingly slow—much to the dissatisfaction of the spirits of the Light—but indispensable to Earth-bound spirits for whom this was the best and the most convenient means of communicating when they could not resort to trance possession. When the spirits of the Light had established communication with human beings, many wretched Earth- and sin-bound beings, with God’s permission and accompanied by one or more of the spirits of the Light, have received great spiritual help and comfort at these table séances through sympathetic and understanding human beings.

Where help to the Earth-bound spirits, given by this or by other methods, has been associated with larger religious gatherings as a kind of “soul-saving” work, the help has mostly only led to a negative result, since most of these sinful beings were ashamed to mention anything in public about that which plagued and tormented them. And so, when they manifested at such gatherings, they mentioned not the true reason for their restless life in sin and a dark state.

Religious societies are often formed for the purpose of giving aid to the sin-bound spirits, though, as said, they have not had the intended effect. And since the mediums on these occasions have sometimes been in a trance,¹⁰⁶ the spirits who have spoken through them have done so without God’s permission, and hence unaccompanied by the spirits of the Light. When those who manifested themselves were moved by sincere remorse, the Youngest have then later tried to bring them the help for which they yearned, partly by exerting their own influence on them if possible, and partly by bringing them to small séance circles where they could more easily unburden themselves and thus come into closer contact with the Light.

Since Earth-bound spirits no more inhabit the astral plane of the Earth, and since all the spirits of the dead are led back to the spheres within a few hours of earthly death, all help through table séances or similar forms of assistance will in future be quite superfluous and unnecessary. Thus, all—mediums and non-mediums alike—are earnestly advised never themselves to call upon deceased relatives, friends or strangers.

In the years¹⁰⁷ that have passed since 1911, when the Earth-bound spirits at God’s request all returned to their dwellings in the spheres, it has many times proven difficult for most of the young and undeveloped human spirits to escape the strong, longing thoughts of the bereaved, which often—much against the will and desire of these spirits—drew them back to the Earth once more. In the early years only a few of the discarnate spirits were attracted back to the Earth, but after the outbreak of war in 1914 it became more and more difficult for the guardian spirits to prevent this unlawful journeying back to relatives and friends left behind on Earth. On each occasion when immature human spirits let themselves be lured to the Earth (most often with the assistance of the medium’s compelling thought), they then found it more difficult to escape the calling thoughts and demanding requests of the bereaved. Many of the spirits were drawn to the various séances, where, blinded and bound by Darkness, they delivered messages not always in accordance with the truth,¹⁰⁸ especially when those on Earth demanded information on occult matters.

Because eighty-five percent of human spirits are young and undeveloped, obviously neither they nor those on Earth can in any way benefit either themselves or the living, since they will only exert a disturbing influence on the earthly state of affairs as well as hamper their own development. The inhabitants of the first four spheres closest to the Earth will never be able to give satisfactory or accurate answers to questions of a transcendental nature asked of them by humans on Earth.

Imagine, for instance, parents on Earth asking their young children in the lower classes of school to give comprehensive and precise answers on how pupils are instructed in the higher classes, or demanding from these children accurate information on social, political or commercial matters, or other such circumstances in their country. Reasonable parents could only regard any such messages or information as childish prattle. Similarly, it should be obvious that discarnate spirits from the lower or lowest spheres can at best give information only on what they know from their own sphere, and many cannot even give that. Hence, they will give only mediocre and uncertain answers, convey false messages or give information on matters and experiences seen only from their own narrow point of view.

The next ten percent of human spirits, from the fifth sphere, are stronger personalities, with a more developed will. It is therefore easier for them to resist the beckoning calls from Earth, although only by exerting the full power of their will. But in the end, despite their exertions to the contrary, many have let themselves be lured back to Earth by the grief of relatives or the calling thoughts of mediums.

Only the remaining five percent, the inhabitants of the lowest circles in the sixth sphere,¹⁰⁹ have with few exceptions succeeded in remaining in their dwellings with no appreciable effort.

As time went by and the spirits noticed that on their repeated, unlawful visits to Earth they met with greater and greater difficulty each time they wished to return to their sphere, they understood that in the end they would be forced to remain entirely Earth-bound and thereby create a new lower class of spirits. Since the memory of earlier Earth-bound existences between incarnations on Earth stood before them all as a dreadful scene of horror, they turned to God and in their distress and their fear they prayed to Him to help them, so that none could come to Earth without His permission.

God answered their prayer and in order to provide effective help to the weak and immature human spirits He created, by the power of His will, a barrier across the Passage¹¹⁰ of Light to the Earth. Spirits from the first four spheres are not able to penetrate this barrier, or wall. But so that human spirits should not always remain as immature and passive beings, subject to influence from the Earth, God ordained that when they had reached a certain degree of spiritual maturity and strength they should attempt on their own to free themselves from the earthly callings and the demands. This spiritual maturity should be reached when the spirits entered the fifth sphere. For this reason God has arranged that the impenetrability of the Light-Barrier gradually diminishes for the inhabitants of this sphere as they ascend within the sphere’s planes or circles. As the impenetrability of the Light-Barrier diminishes, the human spirits, whose spiritual strength increases proportionally, must themselves give greater and greater attention to steeling their will so as to remain in their dwellings rather than respond to the demands of human beings to let themselves be drawn to the Earth. All necessary help will, of course, always be given to any who desire it. Thus, the guardian angels will constantly endeavor to strengthen and guide those who still show weakness toward earthly attraction. But no restraint whatsoever will be imposed to hold back those who despite all help break one of the laws given by God when they visit the Earth without permission and without escort.

Far into the future, many spirits from the fifth sphere and some from the sixth will probably let themselves be lured to the Earth by demanding human thoughts in spite of all good intentions and efforts to remain where they belong; and since each violation is inevitably followed by a repercussion, a penalty, God has ordained that all who against their better knowledge and without permission return to the Earth, will each time this happens lose a period corresponding to one earthly year from the time otherwise allotted them for rest and development in the spheres. This stipulation is automatic, without question or judgment, and brings the transgressors—those who seek not to steel their own will—into their next incarnation sooner than normally intended. And thus it becomes an incarnation for which they consequently lack the necessary spiritual preparation.

Therefore, in order to create the best possible conditions for the discarnate spirits, all human beings (in particular mediums) are seriously admonished never to attempt calling upon the “dead” through any form of séance, whether by conversation, materialization, psychometry or any other means.

To better understand the disturbances and disorder that can enter the astral world through such intrusions by human beings, the following example provides a comparison with conditions on Earth:

Would any principal of a school allow or even tolerate that the students placed under the school’s supervision and care, time and again should be called from their classrooms by parents, relatives or friends so that these might inquire into the welfare of the students, their scholastic progress, or obtain information on the operation of the school, and so forth? If requests to cease such intrusions were heeded not, the only recourse of the principal would probably be to appeal to the proper authorities for help to end such untimely interruptions.

Therefore, if mediums having learned the facts as here set forth do not respect this appeal from the transcendental world, the authorities of the various countries should prohibit public spiritualistic séances.¹¹¹

If mediums are barred from appearing in public, and if the concept of “private spiritualistic circles” is limited to the medium’s immediate family, that is, parents, brothers and sisters, husband, wife and children, and no one else, the mediums will probably soon lose the urge to perform, since by far most mediums are motivated by a desire for the public limelight. And since material gain also plays an important part for many, it cannot be emphasized too strongly that all spiritualistic séances, public as well as private, to which there is an admission fee, always have been and always will be under the influence of Darkness.

Mediumistic powers were originally granted by God so that the discarnate spirits of Light—the Youngest—might with greater ease make contact with mankind through a medium, an intermediary. But these gifts were not given for humans to abuse by contacting the dead whenever they wished or by procuring information on occult matters through experimentation. These gifts are not to be used until permission to establish such communication or to obtain such information has been given according to God’s insight and Will to those already chosen, and who in their earthly lives fully submit to the guidance of the spirits of Light.

Only one in about 10,000 mediums¹¹² can be employed consistently as an intermediary between spirits of the Light and human beings. Of the remaining 9,999 only about a dozen can be employed spontaneously, that is, without any preparation by human beings, and of these perhaps three or four can be employed more than a few times. This is because most mediums lack the necessary humility, the necessary understanding of their own unimportance, and hence will at once make more demands or be steeped in self-admiration and lust for power and continue to experiment, thus soon being drawn under the influence of Darkness.

The mediumistic talent of the remaining number is so slight that there will always be a danger they will fall under the confounding influence of auto-suggestion, although on occasion one or two genuine¹¹³ communications might be established. Among these are a number of the Eldest, who can never be employed by the spirits of the Light.

By means of the messages that have been received through the numerous mediums who over time have been in communication with Earth-bound spirits or with the discarnate Eldest, many people have been led to believe that their departed dear ones would always remain nearby, able to offer advice, give warnings, and so forth, and that this was a natural relationship permitted by God. But since communications through mediums on Earth had their beginnings with Earth-bound spirits and the discarnate Eldest without God’s permission, it should be obvious to all in view of the information given that any such relationship is abnormal and contrary to the laws given by God for the progress of humanity. Humans must therefore abandon this misconception and in the future remember: that the departed ones live in the various spheres that they have reached through their struggle out of Darkness and toward the Light; remember that the discarnate human spirits walk no longer among them, because according to God’s laws they must not stay upon the Earth; remember that each sojourn in the spheres is a time of rest and of learning, and that the spirits will only be held back and bound by the selfish yearning and demanding thoughts of the bereaved.

On the other hand it should also be remembered that every thought of love and gratitude, free of selfish grief and bitter longing, will reach the beloved in the spheres and bring them great joy—a joy that passes human understanding; for the greatest that a person can achieve during life on Earth is this: to awaken a pure, sincere and unselfish love that can remain intact and be faithfully remembered beyond death.

Should God in future need human helpers or intermediaries, the spirits of the Light know of many ways to call upon and communicate with such helpers whenever desired. Now as in the past there are also many ways in which mankind can be warned of danger. For example, if a human life is threatened by attack from Darkness and it is not deemed appropriate that the individual be exposed to a sudden or premature death, then a warning can be given through the guardian spirit. For this purpose the guardian spirit, in future as in the past, can employ a human spirit who in life on Earth was a relative or friend of the one to be warned. By the power of the guardian spirit’s will¹¹⁴  the deceased is made visible in the earthly world, and with this sudden appearance the warnings are lent stronger force and made more credible. Many have in dreams¹¹⁵ or while awake thus seen a dear departed one who, through the help of the guardian spirit, has brought warning in words or in images so that death through shipwreck, railway accident, earthquake or similar disaster has been avoided.

Under the Law of Retribution, those who are not warned but perish in catastrophes of this kind have exposed themselves through actions in previous incarnations to meet death in such ways or to endure the sufferings resulting from such accidents and misfortunes.

Those who spontaneously or continually receive messages or other information from the transcendental world without having requested same will always—directly or indirectly—receive simultaneously such proof that they can never be in doubt as to the identity of the originator, nor that the communication received is given with God’s permission. When communication with human beings is initiated from the transcendental world, this is normally because before their life on Earth began, those concerned were selected to assist in spreading knowledge and understanding of life after death through the written word, lectures and the like. Those chosen and called upon in this way should not let themselves be intimidated by the poor judgment of others, by their materialistic views, their prejudice or their scanty insight in these matters, but rather come boldly forth with their knowledge, whether received through their guardian spirit by ordinary inspiration, through their own mediumism or through that of others. But it must be clear to all that information concerning the transcendental or the occult is given only to very few, and only to those who through their greater spiritual development—the Youngest or advanced human spirits—are able to act as spokesmen for the spiritual world.¹¹⁶

Thus: no one, including mediums, should ever call upon the dead themselves; but if called¹¹⁷ upon from the transcendental world then they should answer the call, and the one addressed should seek to comply with the caller’s wishes. All possible support and spiritual help will be extended to those who without fear of human judgment work for the advancement of the truth and the Light.

But all who act as intermediaries between this world and the transcendental, without a calling from God and against their better judgment, will for each occasion a discarnate spirit is drawn to Earth see deducted, in the same way as for such spirits, a period corresponding to an earthly year from the time of rest and learning to which they would otherwise be entitled after completion of their life on Earth. If mediums heed not the warnings hereby given, many will risk immediate reincarnation after earthly death, without any spiritual preparation.

Finally, prescience and clairvoyance will be discussed.

Mediums who possess fully the rare ability to foresee the future are few. By foretelling things to come these mediums take upon themselves a heavy responsibility, since the abstract events that through the predetermination of the Elder¹¹⁸ have been, and through human thoughts constantly are, recorded by the vibrations of the ether, do not always become realities on the plane of the Earth. With the predictions of these seers, knowledge of possible future events becomes accessible to large numbers of people, and through the thoughts of those who are incessantly preoccupied with such forecasts the still abstract recorded images are frequently brought into the human world as realities. This often hinders the Youngest in their determined effort by means of their strong thought-influence to prevent the occurrence of some of the adversities that the Elder has determined for mankind, or that people create for themselves by their sinful thoughts and appetites; adversities that the Youngest—the guardian spirits—could often alleviate and perhaps partly or even entirely prevent.

These ether-recordings¹¹⁸ relate not only to individuals but to entire nations as well. Such and such a thought, such and such an action determines such and such a future event, for the individual as well as for the many. Through their own thoughts and actions humans thus create, in the truest and deepest sense, their own lives and the lives of their descendants. But with the voluntary help of the Youngest, God attempts to guide the will of humans for the good, and many wicked and frightful events have thereby been prevented from entering the earthly plane as realities. Where but a single individual is concerned, the spirits of the Light can easier annul a few or many of the threatening abstract events. If, on the other hand, entire nations are concerned, it is often difficult to guide the rulers and leaders onto the right path and draw them away from thoughts and actions that can convert threatening abstract ether-recordings into earthly, concrete events. Often the Youngest meet frustration, especially when confronted with individuals of strong will. It is then nearly impossible to guide, for example, heads of state, diplomats and leaders of people away from the erring path of hatred, lust for power and envy and onto the difficult paths of tolerance. The disputes among nations that so often lead to bloody, brutal and senseless wars, might in many cases have been prevented if the leaders had each followed the guiding voice of their conscience, instead of succumbing to the desire to take matters into their own hands.

When predictions are uttered of things to come, this can often hinder the work of the Youngest for a brighter and happier existence on Earth and bring about the very thing the Youngest strive so much to prevent.

Only when the one who can foresee the future feels compelled—through the conscience—to share such knowledge, should the “vision” or the readings in the ether-waves be revealed.

Second-sight, or clairvoyance, is the ability to see with the spiritual sight, either sporadically or more regularly. If necessary for some specific purpose this ability can be developed by the power of the human will or with the help of the guardian spirit.

The Youngest have occasionally rendered themselves visible to clairvoyants, but this should not be mistaken for a true apparition that is seen with the physical eye.

In earlier times most clairvoyants were able to see the Earth-bound spirits, and through clairvoyants many people have received descriptions from which they recognized the deceased. It should be noted, however, that mostly it was not the spirit of the deceased that the medium described, but the thought-phantom of the subject involuntarily created by the inquirer. Only when the medium was able to reveal particulars completely unknown to medium and inquirer alike—information later proven true—could one be certain it was the actual spirit and not a thought-phantom. But as previously stated (pages 251-52), human beings should in future never seek information about the dead.

The casing, or layer of insulation, between the spirit and the body, cast off at death, has often been mistaken by clairvoyants for the spirit of a deceased person. A spirit, even the most sinful, will always look like a living being, whereas the cast-off casing most closely resembles a mask. Where great accumulations of Darkness exist, the casings are often preserved for long periods since they can be dissolved and absorbed only by the Light. Through the ages many clairvoyants have seen these casings, best described by the term “ghosts”.

The casings of the Eldest are dissolved only by Darkness and therefore remain for a long time in places where strong Light-radiations are present, since the Light cannot absorb the Darkness of which the casings are made until the radiations of Darkness have dissolved them.

FOOTNOTES

Chapter 1

1) Ardor’s Account omits mention of the period when Thought and Will were inert with respect to Light and Darkness. When Ardor reached this point in his narrative he was unable to give the intermediary a clear understanding of this state. Further explanation was therefore deferred to the Commentary.

2) As soon as the particles escape human sense perception they take the forms of the four-dimensional world. Transitional forms nevertheless exist between the three- and four-dimensional states wherein the particles can be sensed at one moment and escape human sense perception the next, depending on whether a material or an immaterial influence predominates at that moment. Similarly, there exist forms in which the presence of particles can be recognized but not perceived. These particles then belong on the boundary between the three- and four-dimensional worlds and can deflect to manifest on either side.

Chapter 2

3) Commentary, pages 171-72.

Chapter 3

4) This core is formed of Darkness.

5 twice) It must always be borne in mind that the term “Darkness” should be understood by humans purely as a designation for a power that manifests in many different ways in the earthly world. This power may therefore also appear as radiations visible to the human eye as light.

6) Contained in the Light-corona of the globes, in the global layers invisible to the human eye.

7) Ardor’s Account, page 9, and Concluding Summary, pages 296-97.

8) In the system to which the Earth belongs, not all suns and planets are composed of parts ejected or erupted from their Central Suns; many are globes that, through collision with floating accumulations of Darkness, have first been expelled from their orbits and have since been attracted to and held captive by a larger sun (Concluding Summary, page 297). No accumulations of Darkness drift about in the other three systems. The Darkness there precipitates to the core of the globes and is slowly eliminated through the great circulation of the Light-ether.

9) The immaterial centers come into being automatically under established laws.

10) Upon further inquiry, the following has been stated and confirmed from the transcendental world: all the globes of the galactic system (the Milky Way) circle around the mother sun and the invisible, that is, immaterial center of force. As the globes approach the mother sun or the center, their speed increases, and, as they recede, it decreases proportionately, The velocity around the immaterial center, however, is much lower than that around the material mother sun. The same holds true for the comets and the planets; their velocity is likewise much lower around the immaterial centers than it is around the material (visible) centers. In the cases where the orbits approximate a circle, the increased velocity round the immaterial center is so low as to be scarcely detectible. —Note by the Editor/Publisher, Michael Agerskov

Chapter 4

11) Concluding Summary, pages 260-61.

12) The Darkness that ravaged the world of Light of the Eldest and flowed through their spiritual bodies was of the astral and spiritual form.

13) Concluding Summary, pages 257-68.

14) There is a third way known to God alone.

15) Concluding Summary, pages 297-301, regarding depolarization of Darkness.

16) Concluding Summary, pages 261-63.

17) Concluding Summary, pages 266-67.

18 twice) Concluding Summary, pages 260-63.

19) Ardor’s Account, pages 15-19.

20) Concluding Summary, pages 266-67.

21) Concluding Summary, pages 266-67.

22) When live leaves, flowers or stems are cut and shortly afterwards exposed to drying or similar processes, the counterparts are not separated until the objects or anything made thereof have been destroyed in some way or other. When fresh twigs, shoots, or branches are cut to be planted or grafted, the counterparts are not separated; the connection slackened after cutting is restored with the fresh supply of nourishment.

23) Concluding Summary, page 295.

24) Concluding Summary, pages 267-70.

25) Concluding Summary, page 269.

Chapter 5

26) Concluding Summary, page 322.

27) Commentary to Ardor’s Account, page 189.

28)  Through frequent and very diverse cross-breeding, a number of the animal species used in this way degenerated and became extinct. Careful research can show which prehistoric and contemporary animal species are related to some of the known apes.

29) Commentary to Ardor’s Account, pages 188-90.

Chapter 6

30) However, the human spirits were only allowed to use this Passage of Light when accompanied by their guardian spirit, that is, with the permission of God.

31) Commentary to Ardor’s Account, pages 247-50.

32) Concluding Summary, pages 307-10.

33) Guardian angels.

34) When the sin-bound spirits walked the astral counterpart of the Earth (the Earth’s astral plane), this opposing voice often stemmed from these wicked beings, and in many cases also stemmed from the Elder, who in that way tried to lead humans astray. See also Ardor’s Account, page 29, Commentary to Ardor’s Account, pages 203-04, and Concluding Summary, pages 307-09.

35) Commentary to Ardor’s Account, page 204.

36 twice) See section in smaller type, page 185.

37) The spheres abound in flowering and fruit-bearing trees and plants unknown on Earth. According to laws given by God, the fruits and flowers develop without pollination and have a flavor and fragrance far superior to anything on Earth.

Chapter 7

38) Concluding Summary, pages 274-75 and page 289, regarding astral counterparts and dwellings in a state of disrepair.

39) What has been stated earlier—on page 177—about the counterparts of the more solid substances of animal bodies also applies to the human body.

40) As earlier stated, the astral counterparts of the first humans could not dissolve, because they were held together by the faint spiritual Light that had been brought to them from the Eldest. These counterparts—the “shadows”—retained to some extent the outer form of the human body, but without any real firmness. Thus, one moment they would dissolve into a misty mass, the next again assume a human form. Ardor states that the shadows “wandered about”, but undulated or flowed would more aptly describe their movements.

41) Human fetus.

42 twice) Ardor describes the cord as life-giving because the spirit is connected by this cord to the brain of its physical body, thereby giving “spiritual life”—thought and will—to the human being. (Concluding Summary, pages 278-79).

43) Concluding Summary, pages 292-93.

44) Concluding Summary, pages 278-79.

45) Concluding Summary, pages 277-89.

46) Commentary to Ardor’s Account, page 255.

Chapter 8

47) In order to achieve a better survey, the accounts of the three vanished empires are here described collectively. See also Ardor’s Account, pages 22, 26 and 28.

48) Not mentioned directly in Ardor’s Account, since it was deemed unnecessary by the transcendental world. —Note by Editor/Publisher Michael Agerskov

49) Ardor’s Account, page 22.

50) Present-day geographical names are given.

51) Concluding Summary, page 317.

52 twice) Large areas of the coasts of Central America, where the Island people settled, have since vanished through volcanic upheavals.

53) The apostrophe before ‘Lukna-Tee-Ra de­notes a sound almost like the vowel “e”. The word ‘Lukna was usually represented by one of the two symbols of Ra: 1) Several triangles, together describing a star, symbolizing the many, all-seeing eyes of Ra; or 2) a ring—the sun disk—symbolizing Ra, the creator. Sometimes these symbols were bordered by flaming tongues or rays.

54) After the migration of the Khuummi people into Egypt, two further immigrations from the south took place, with centuries between, by tribes related to the initial immigrants.

Chapter 9

55) By earthly measurement, this insulation layer of Darkness is approximately one-half millimeter thick.

56) Commentary to Ardor, page 201.

57) Speech of Christ, pages 111 and 113.

58) Since humans influence one another through their thoughts, those who utter curses are in danger of inciting others, through thought, to utter similar curses in anger and hatred, which will then bring fresh consequences upon the originator. (Summary, pages 309-10.)

59) Commentary to Ardor’s Account, pages 234-35 and page 255, and Concluding Summary, page 319.

60) Commentary to Ardor’s Account, page 255.

61) Inasmuch as the cord, by which the spirit is attached to the human being, is ruptured at the instant of the death of the physical body it is quite impossible for the spirit to feel any suffering through cremation of the remains.. Accounts to the contrary may be ascribed to undeveloped and therefore ignorant spirits, or to the imaginings of the medium.

62) Ardor’s Account, pages 100-01, and Commentary, to Ardor’s Account. pages 234-39.

63) About 12,000 B.C.

64) Ardor’s Account, pages 32-33.

65) Commentary to Ardor’s Account, pages 212-13

Chapter 10

66) Concluding Summary, pages 334-35.

Chapter 11

67) Although teaching by oral tradition was common in the time of Jesus there were many written accounts, though a number were only fragmentary.

Chapter 12

68) John actually said, “This is the divine son!. . .”

Chapter 13

69) Commentary to Ardor’s Account, page 221, regarding The Temptation in the Wilderness.

70 twice) Commentary to Ardor’s Account, pages 201-02.

71) Commentary to Ardor’s Account, pages 225-26.

Chapter 14

72) Ardor’s Account, page 42, regarding eternity, that is, an inconceivably long period.

Chapter 15

73) Commentary to Ardor’s Account, pages 302-03.

74) Commentary to Ardor’s Account, page 246, regarding suggestion

75) Concluding Summary, pages 312-13.

76) Only the Gospel According to Matthew is quoted where the other Gospel versions are similar.

Chapter 16

77) The apostles being asleep did not perceive the Youngest through their physical eyes but through their spiritual vision; yet some recollection of the event remained.

Chapter 19

78) Commentary to Ardor’s Account, page 209.

Chapter 24

79) Ardor’s Account, page 31.

Chapter 25

80) Commentary to Ardor’s Account, pages 231-33, regarding The Lord’s Supper.

81) Ardor’s Account, page 35.

82) Ardor’s Account, page 57.

Chapter 28

83) Commentary to Ardor’s Account, pages 177-76.

84) Concluding Summary, page 305.

85) Mary Magdalene was one of the Eldest. Through the caring of Jesus she was brought under God's guidance so that, through new incarnations, she could atone for her transgressions against humanity.

Chapter 30

86) Speech of Christ, pages 117-18, regarding prayer.

87) Many who "spoke in tongues" were possessed by Earth-bound spirits, including the Eldest.

Chapter 31

88) Ardor’s Account, pages 58-59, and the Commentary, page 221.

89) Concluding Summary, pages. 306-07 and 322-23.

Chapter 33

90) Christ as the second member of the triune Deity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the traditional interpretation according to the Christian religion.

91) Speech of Christ, page 112.

92) Speech of Christ, page 118, regarding prayer.

Chapter 36

93) Regarding trance and materializations, see pages 241-45.

94) Christ approached only circles having few members, never those with a larger membership or large public circles.

95) Speech of Christ, page 117.

96) The transcendental world wishes not to give the exact date. —Note by Editor/Publisher Michael Agerskov

97) Discarnate at that time in the ruined kingdom, the “Hell-Sphere”.

98) This also applies to photographs of spirits, of which only a few are genuine.

99) In a few instances, the controlling spirit was a human spirit.

100) Religious fervor must not be confused with ecstasy nor with hysterical excitation, which can lead to “speaking in tongues”.

101) The deceit is often produced through auto-suggestion by the mediums themselves.

102) All human beings are inclined to be infuenced to varying degree in their thoughts by Darkness as well as by Light; however, in a very small number of individuals the power of clear intuition is so far developed that the spirits of Light can use them repeatedly as intermediaries for communications of thought.

103) A collection of poems by some Danish poets long ago deceased.

104) Concluding Summary, page 282, regarding hypnotism.

105) Other means were also employed, such as a planchette—a small, heart-shaped board supported by two casters and a pencil or stylus that, when moved by the fingers across a surface, points toward letters of the alphabet to produce messages.

106) Often the mediums were not in trance, only pretended to be. The mediums would then themselves “perform” as spirits and would then carry responsibility for their fraud.

107) This communication was received in April and June of 1918 and added to the earlier messages pertaining to the relationship between mediums and the deceased. It is included at the request of the spirit responsible for the Commentary to Ardor'’s Account and was received and put in writing under his guidance. —Note by Editor/Publisher Michael Agerskov

108) However, many have described their earthly existence in great detail and thereby given further proof of a continued existence after death.

109) The uppermost circle or plane of the sixth sphere is inhabited exclusively by the Youngest, who have their dwellings there while they work for the progress of humanity.

110) The barrier does not obstruct Light from reaching the earth.

111) The prohibition of public seances violates personal free will no more than does the prohibition of assault, burglary, theft and so on. Public séances  are a disorder that should not be permitted.

112) Often a much higher number of mediums must be rejected before the spirits of Light can find one who may be repeatedly employed by them.

113) In the past, individuals of slight mediumistic talent have often been employed by Earth-bound spirits and by the Eldest. Many genuine connections have been established, but they were under the influence of Darkness—an influence under which most mediums perform and which explains the many false and confused mediumistic messages of the past.

114) Mediums are not always required. Where absolutely necessary for the guardian spirit to act without an intermediary, this is achieved by the power of the guardian’s will.

115) Concluding Summary, page 292.

116) Speech of Christ, page 119.

117) Supplement I, page 18, Question 4.

118 twice) Concluding Summary, pages 307-09.

END