The sphere beyond the veil, generally called the Soul World, is but a continuation of this plane of action.

When we retire for rest and sleep in the evening, we pass into complete unconsciousness, to awaken in the morning into another day. This daily experience is very similar to the sleep between life on earth and the awakening in another sphere; a repetition of our nightly rest. In both instances the unconsciousness is complete although one may be of longer duration than the other.

A few of those among us find heaven on earth, a place with which they are well satisfied despite the many problems to be faced and the trials to be experienced. These few, as a rule, and while still in the flesh, have been able to rend the veil that hides the future. To the vast majority the earth appears to be neither more nor less than a Gehenna. This is largely due to the fact that they accept the good things as a matter of course, as their due, but cannot comprehend that they must meet the undesirable only because they have earned it; that it is something to be overcome; that they are here for the express purpose of doing just this, and that in this overcoming they set in motion those Laws that will make their future as they would have it.

Man's body, this microcosm, is the temple of a Soul. Man is, in fact, a complete universe within himself and is prototypic of the Macrocosm or larger universe in which he lives and has his being. Man has been given free Will and right of choice, but his little universe is not as well organized as is the large universe which is under full control of the Law. It might be said that man's universe is in almost complete uncontrol, one law operating against the other, or perhaps we can say that one department of his universe is in constant conflict with the other, and the whole is in an almost total chaos.

Frequently people who are very wicked, debased and degenerated live in palaces just as degenerated Souls, black as night, often inhabit beautiful bodies. An old dwarfed Soul may desire a beautiful body to serve as a veil for its ugliness. In such instances we find the body is no more than a shadow, a cloud, as it were, to hide the real. Those who know and watch quickly see behind all these outward barriers and recognize the true state within, no one being able to hide the real self during moments of unguardedness.

While it is true that an evil person may possess a beautiful body, it is equally true that frequently a very holy and devout person is protected against many temptations by homeliness. Abraham Lincoln was considered one of the homeliest men of his day, but his Soul was great, sublime and beautiful.

When people caught a glimpse of his Soul as it shone through his eyes they became his admirers immediately and in many instances almost his slaves. He was honored, not by what at first glance he appeared to be, but for what he really was. The individuality within the crude outer shell manifested through the outer personality and even made that seem glorified. Had his form and features been on a par with the greatness of his Soul it is easily possible he might have failed in his great mission.

The coarse, brutal Soul is not as fine and light (does not contain as much Light) as the developed and enlightened Soul; yet there is no separate Soul world for these to inhabit.

The good and evil are separated only by their own individual state of being and can communicate with each other in the same manner as they were able to associate and converse with each other while on earth, for it is written that at the feast of Job both the good and the evil were present.

The Soul world is neither more nor less than a continuation of this; only a veil hides it from mortal vision, and that veil may be rent by many who desire to do so. As we retire at night only to awaken in this world to the same duties as the day before, so do we "retire" at the sleep called death, but awaken in a world beyond the veil. The Soul has in no wise changed and is not one particle different than if it had awakened as from a sleep in this world, except that the flesh which was its gross medium has been cast off and the Soul stands forth as it is, veiled with the Light or laden down with all its earthly grossness.

The Souls who have not become Illuminated before death certainly will not be able to make any changes in the Soul world or during their stay there. The mind, the builder and director, dies with the body. Death destroys all possibility of changing or building that which was neglected while there was opportunity. The Soul alone lives but it cannot change itself. It must remain just what the mind constructed and furnished during the earth life; nothing more. The evil Soul, having no mind to guide or reconstruct it during its term in the Soul world between its reincarnations, cannot change its hues or desires one iota. The Soul as it enters the Soul world, whatever be its degree of goodness or evil, is the "accumulated experience" of all its previous existences. If it has failed to attain consciousness before its departure, it must await reincarnation for another opportunity to free itself from its darkened, servile, degraded state.

Man's chance for salvation or freedom is not to be found in the state beyond the veil. It is here and now. If man fails to take advantage of the opportunity it is to his loss and ultimate regret. The Nazarene said to His followers: "Now is the accepted time." Nowhere is it written that man can continue to live "after the flesh" while on earth and then free himself of the earthly burden after entering the "kingdom of heaven" or freedom. That kingdom or state of being must be found and won here and now.

The final judgment is at that moment when the Soul crosses the threshold, when the curtain is drawn aside, and it is forced to stand face to face with itself as it was and now is, with the whole of its earthly record to either burden or lift it up. It is then forced to read from the "Lamb's Book of Life" both its good and its evil deeds and pass judgment - upon itself.

The exalted, Conscious, Individualized Soul no more attracts those of evil there than it does here. It looks upon the evil Souls with the same compassion and sorrow it did while on earth, yet is as helpless there as it was here to be of service to them.

We have in mind what is written of Lazarus and the rich man; how Dives lifted up his eyes in torment and beheld Lazarus in heaven; in peace and beatitude. The rich man had builded according to his thoughts and desires. During his lifetime he had all the things he thought good or desirable. He saw to it that his body was well fed, though perhaps not wisely, while he abused the Soul with all manner of evil deeds. He was so utterly selfish that he refused even the crumbs of bread to the beggar and, as a result, beggared his own Soul. He was clothed in purple and fine linens. He fared sumptuously insofar as the body was concerned. The body lacked nothing. The Soul was starved and wholly ignored. He made material things his god. He was selfish and hard hearted. He lacked all the sympathies that make men human, and as a consequence he utterly and completely starved the Soul instead of bringing it into Consciousness.

Lazarus, on the contrary, was poor in all the things the world had to offer. He did not have sufficient to eat. He lacked the proper clothing. He had nowhere to sleep. He was alone and apparently deserted. Yet, despite all these earthly lacks, he kept his Soul free from malice and hatred. He did not condemn others for their possessions, nor was he envious of them. He kept the fires of love, sympathy and compassion burning in his heart, even for evil ones. His thoughts were turned to deeds of nobleness. He exalted his ideals, and insofar as opportunity permitted he worked in harmony with the Creative and Governing Law. He in truth and deed built a Soul. He attained Sonship as a result of his desires, his ideals and his little acts. He succeeded in attaining Consciousness. His Soul became a living, conscious entity and he walked with God, though his Soul was enmeshed in clay, ill-fed, ill-clothed and often as a result of denial, ill of body.

Why should God torment the rich man, even though he had been utterly selfish, while He blessed the poor?

God did not torment the rich man; neither did He bless the poor man. God never damns, judges or torments anyone.

It is the individual Soul, weighted down by its evil deeds as a result of its acts on earth, that judges itself, and finding this judgment against itself, is tormented thereby. God neither judges nor condemns; He does not judge or bless. The Soul itself does this.

The life beyond the sleep of earthly consciousness is a continuation of the life here. Evil here remains evil there. Construction here is exaltation there. All that is good, blesses. All that is evil, torments. Evil is a corroding force; it gnaws as does the hungry rat on a bone. It eats the heart out of that which is self-accursed.

It is also written: "There was a great gulf fixed so that they which pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us who would come here."

Does anyone think there can be a wide, fixed material gulf dividing the two, or any two or more?

A gulf there is, but it is of like nature as that existing here between the constructive and the destructive; between the good and the evil. Good here cannot and will not mix with accumulated evil, while evil is impotent to be benefitted by good unless it changes itself. Only as it becomes purified and transmutes itself is it able to attain goodness and become a part of all-good.

The Soul must be awakened, built and become Illuminated here on the earth sphere, here in this mundane school of experience.

If the Soul is unable, because of its heaviness, to choose the good instead of the evil while here on earth, it will not have the opportunity to do so in the Beyond; because there it is as it was on earth, and can contact only that which it is itself. It cannot there parade under cover of the body or hide its real self in any other manner. Death has "rent the veil in twain." The temple (body) was destroyed; the Soul, the real self, is laid bare, it is "stripped to its nakedness," it stands completely exposed; it can no longer succeed in pretending to be what it is not.

Dives, bad as he was, sought freedom from his anguish and made one unselfish request, thereby indicating that he had not wholly destroyed his Soul by his selfishness.

Our weaknesses may become our strongest assets if we are wise enough to use them to good purposes.

Dives' weakness was the selfish self, self-absorption and worldly desires. He hungered for the material things to the exclusion of everything else to the benefit of himself and the loss to others. Had he desired the good as strongly as he desired the material, he might have become one of the Immortals instead of an example of utter selfishness.

Our strength lies in our noblest aspiration.

We are governed and controlled by our most intense desires. If we desire the carnal, then it is only natural that we should gradually become gross and degenerate, which in turn weighs down the Soul with gross matter until it becomes almost overshadowed and invisible.

Dives, the rich man, had finally learned to understand that as he had sown so now must he reap. He at last was able to comprehend that he had failed to do to others as he would have had them do unto him; but for this incarnation it was too late.

The Soul he had built, or had failed to build, was now himself. He was all Soul, or what there was of it. He had to continue to be, or to live with that Soul, until reincarnation would offer him another opportunity to try once again. Even while in the Soul world, after his awakening to the undesirability of his status, and not having become wholly evil or selfish, he began to long for a change and in this change and longing he found his torment. His desire became so strong that he sought to help others, requesting Abraham to send Lazarus to his father's house that his five brothers might learn of his own error and of the undesirable state of his own Soul. Abraham informed him that: "They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them."

Dives was not satisfied to let it rest there. He pleaded: "If one from the dead went unto them they will [surely] repent."

Abraham answered him: "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." Men cannot be forced into believing. Phenomena, though awe-inspiring and Soul-stirring, cannot arouse a faith that has no foundation within. Men are good not through fear of consequences but because of the good that exists within.

The brothers of the rich man were as much their own creators as he had been. They were building Souls, Souls that would be their judges at some future time, even as Dives' own Soul had judged him as he passed over the Great Divide. They, under the Law, were destined to be either their own saviors or destroyers; theirs alone was the choice and the desire of anyone else could not affect them.

The goal confronting them was fixed. If they lacked an inner desire to change, then no other Soul had the power to change them, or to cause them to change. The divide between the good and evil is fixed. Good, though all-potent, is nevertheless powerless to uplift the evil, thereby exalting and saving it, any more than evil is capable of contaminating good. The nature of either cannot be changed by outside forces. It must be changed by the inner desires.

Though the Soul in Hades, having awakened to its unfortunate state, desires a change, it can attain such a change only through reincarnation. The Soul in torment may long for such a change just as we here long for freedom, but it cannot bring about such a change because the mind which built it no longer exists. It is not present to undo that which was done, any more than the carpenter after having built a house and leaving it, could dismantle the structure, alter the plans and rebuild it without being there.

Reincarnation is the only means to freedom for the Soul that was created by selfishness, cruelty, evil thoughts and desires and acts of life. In the Soul world change is impossible; the mind which was the instigator and creator is not present. It is among the dead, as surely dead as the body, beyond all possibility of resurrection.

In the earth life the mind is the giver, the Soul is the receiver.

The mind is the creator; the Soul is being created or built.

The only possibility of relief for the Soul is that as desires for relief are born in itself, as a result of its misery, vibrations of like nature are created. These vibrations may come in touch and harmonize with minds on earth who are seeking reincarnating Souls.

Thus is the Soul reborn and given another opportunity. This is symbolic even of the original incarnation when in the embryonic Soul, existing in the Elysian spheres, there was born a desire to know as humans do and it left these spheres, descending, or "falling" into the earth life. The Soul itself must seek for its rebirth. It has, through sorrow, again awakened to desire for the good and once more it may try to redeem itself. The desire that now governs it passed with the Soul into the Beyond at death. This desire, which was at some time created by the mind during its earth life amidst the pleasures of life and at a moment of dissatisfaction, may now become its savior. This desire stowed away in the Soul was possibly all that saved that Soul from total extinction.

The desires of the flesh are seemingly strongest because they are always with us and prevent the spiritual in us from making itself felt. When, as a result of suffering or some other cause, the carnal desires have less hold on us and we have sufficiently awakened to something higher than the purely material, the Soul begins to manifest itself in ennobling desires. This is the beginning of the consuming and transmuting fires from heaven changing the earthly into the heavenly or refined state.

The Nazarene understood this perfectly when He said: "While we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord."

The material self claims the attention and the affection of the mind and this material self, being stronger, robs the Soul of its rightful thoughts and desires. We possess more love for the body than we do for the Soul. If someone were to tell us of a way to build the body for eternity we would strive to do so. Why? Because the things pertaining to the body are of immediate and ever-present use and give us pleasure and other desirable sensations, while that which is of the Soul is slow in manifesting itself or in giving us the benefit of its influences.

Ponce De Leon sought for and traveled many leagues in order to find the Fountain of Youth, ignorant of the fact that it had to be opened within himself. He sought to live on and on. He wanted a body always youthful and filled with life and strength.

Like him, many of us labor continually in behalf of the body and allow the Soul to starve for want of a little attention, wholly ignorant of the truth that in the Soul alone is life and eternity. How can we remain strong and youthful when we are continually poisoning the spring of life by our thoughts, desires and actions?

When the Soul is awakened and brought to a state of Illumination it is in turn the beginning of youth.

When the Soul is permitted to die for want of attention it is the beginning of death for the body. When the Soul dies it is the death of everything that we were or might have been.

No vibrations created by the mind are strong enough or potent enough to bring to life a dead Soul. It is a Soul that was destroyed in hell, that is, by lusts and carnal desires. This is the Biblical lake or hell of fire and brimstone.

We consider electricity a form of fire. Lightning, having the power to burn or destroy, is a fire. Lightning is electrical. The mind and thoughts are electrical forces, vibratory forces finer than ordinary fire - an invisible fire, but fire, nevertheless.

The lustful thoughts that possess our mind are consuming fires, the fires of hell. They are of the body and to requote: "While we are at home in the body [living the purely physical life], we are absent [are not of] from the Lord."

We must change these thoughts from the purely material and lustful, to something higher. This will then be the beginning of our return to the Lord or that which is not destructive.

Pure, happy, elevating and exalting thoughts are the fires from heaven. These have the power and the potency to burn out the crude and the evil; they elevate us, as a result of the transmutation, thus taking us to the heavenly plane - i.e., the Lord. Heaven is a state of mind and Soul, a feeling, an upliftment, and is attainable only through the process of spiritualization.

Before man is able to attain such a degree of refinement he must first pass through other stages of growth and development. There is the physical and material plane. These are planes of earthly experiences. Here men live in a world of sensation. Such experiences are necessary before the awakening of the mentality to greater things is possible.

It is on the mental plane where man has moved forward and onward in progress and civilization and made possible the greatest of discoveries. A great mentality may lift man above the material and physical, while at the same time the Soul remains unawakened. This is made manifest by the fact that men of strong mentality are as forceful in ways of evil as they are in works for good.

Having passed through the purely physical plane, and then the mental, man is ready for the spiritual - the things that are part of the Soul and belong to God.

Soul is in reality a part of God. It was sent out as a part of Himself in order to gain experience, the knowledge of good and evil, then to free itself from the evil and become God's Son.

The world of God is the plane of Soul.

Man is a thought of God become manifest. The Soul of man is of God only to the degree of its advancement and freedom from evil. Figuratively speaking, the Cosmic Soul or God is the accumulated experience of all good, while man's Soul is composed of the accumulated experience of good and evil, of his entire existence.

Evil cannot become a part of the Cosmic Soul or God. God cannot receive evil because it is unable to surpass the good; therefore it is cast aside. All evil existing in man must be transmuted into the good or the constructive in order that he may grow and advance. In and to man, evil is like the plant food that we supply in order that the plant may grow and supply food for the mortal body; in man it is the substance, which, transmuted or "burned" up, becomes the Fire of the Soul and is the Flame which is the Soul.

If the Soul should lose all desire for good then it has succeeded in destroying itself. So long as there is ever so little of good in man there is hope of the evil being "cast out," that is, used as a nucleus to bring the Soul into Consciousness, transmuting this evil into the fires that save, and through these fires bringing that Soul back to God. "He that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John the Baptist." John the Baptist represents the mind. The Soul, however little awakened and brought into consciousness, is yet greater than the greatest mind or most brilliant intellect. John the Baptist (the mind) passes into the realm of what was but is no more, while the Soul, unless destroyed, lives to try again.

Evil is a consuming fire. It not only consumes everything with which it comes into contact, but it likewise destroys itself unless it is checked in its mad rush to destruction.

As an illustration: Gather together a pile of rubbish and set fire to it. You see the pile become less and less as the volume of the flame becomes greater. Soon the entire pile is consumed; all that remains is the ash and in that ash is all that originally existed. It is so with evil. If man permits the fires of passion to gain control it will as surely consume him as it did the pile of rubbish and soon nothing will be left but the original salts which composed his body. It is "dust to dust and ashes to ashes," and, unfortunately in this case, there is no Soul flame left to ascend to heaven.

When man's physical organism dies and is buried, what becomes of it? Dissolution takes place through the chemicalization of gases. These gases, like flame, pass through everything that may confine the body and come into conflict with the air and there is a glow.

Where does this physical fire go? What becomes of it?

This material fire is not the Soul. The Soul is not consumed unless it was so evil that it had become part of the body.

The Soul had preceded the beginning of the corruption of the body. It started to leave the body soon after the cessation of the heartbeats and completed its separation by the time the warmth of the body had completely left it.

The Soul is not present at the corruption of the body; but, having completed its mission perfectly or imperfectly, it begins its journey toward other experiences.

The Soul is a Fire. God also is a Fire, but He is the "consuming Fire" for the reason that nothing that is impure can withstand contact with this Holy Fire.

God is in all, but not everything that is, is God.

God is the separator; He casts out the chaff, unwinds the snares, separates the tares from the good at the moment of judgment and at the moment the veil is rent. In most instances when this takes place there is little left of the Soul surroundings after the undesirable is eliminated. To redeem itself another earthly pilgrimage is necessary.

The Soul world is the trial chamber of the Soul. This was more clearly understood by the Initiate Priests of Egypt than by possibly any other people. It is the clearinghouse where Souls awaken or become conscious of the things they missed or in which they failed in life. It is the point from which the Soul begins its journey and search for the things needed to complete itself and attain to Consciousness, its mission on earth.

How is this possible? Here is an example: Let us consider the young girl who loves music with all her heart and who is trying, by study and practice, to become the perfect artist. For some reason not apparent, there is a weakness or lack which cannot be overcome and which prevents her from attaining the mastery of expression she so much desires. Despite this, she is not dismayed but continues her efforts until earth life finally ends.

The body is laid to its rest. The Soul enters the Beyond. There it awakens and becomes conscious of the fact that life in the Beyond is neither more nor less than a continuation of the earth life. Her desires have not changed one particle, but have become increasingly stronger. She is aware that she is now a free agent to try as she pleases. She, the Soul, is now able to hear music in its perfection and becomes filled with its harmonies. Then the knowledge is born within her Soul that there is an opportunity offered her to return whence she came and once more begin where she had left off.

To her Soul all else is without charm. There is no attraction for her except in music. She seeks for an opportunity to reincarnate and in this desire she is drawn to the earth plane and her love for music. An attracting vibratory force draws her to parents-to-be who, like her, love music and will give the coming child every opportunity to study. She is drawn closer and closer to the mother-to-be as the time for delivery approaches and with the first breath of the newly born child, she, as a Soul, enters the new body. That Soul has found its opportunity to perfect itself and a great artist is born.

The same Law governs the poet, the artist, the physician, the priest and the statesman. Once this Law is understood and there are those with deep heart desire, a new people will come upon earth, people who will live and express that which is in the Soul and possess the strength to ignore all else.

All now living, each and every one of us, if we will, may have this same experience. It is only necessary that our desires be so centralized that there is but one thing we really want to do, and in its attainment be willing to make every sacrifice necessary, even to facing death or the loss of freedom.

As we build now so will it be with us in the Beyond. We continue as we are. If we are lacking in desire, if no great emotion stirs within us, then we are laboring under conflicting emotions and reincarnation will be governed by the momentarily stronger force.

A great step forward is made when the Soul, here and now, becomes aware of a great longing and decides to make this one desire its life work, here and hereafter, despite every obstruction that may be placed in its path. Such a Soul is on its way to self-mastery; it will succeed in its aspiration; it will become the master of that which it is in search of; it is the Soul that is in search of itself.

The strongest desire of the mind, that desire that possesses the mind, will build itself into the Soul and become the substance of the Soul. This specific quality of the Soul becomes the magnetic or drawing power that will attract to itself, here and now, the power and the means whereby it may realize its ambition.

The Law of Success, whether in the material or the Soul world, is to desire one thing and work in full harmony with it. There can be no failure where this Law is obeyed.

This great, irrevocable Law governs all things in life whether our desire be for music, the arts, in the professions, business or in Soul culture. There is no effort in life that is not under the control of this ever-functioning Law.

Do you desire great beauty and perfection of form? Then hold this desire constantly in mind. Work unceasingly to this attainment. Obey every law and follow every rule for development of form and culture of beauty. This desire will charge the Soul with its vibration. It will be a magnetic force that will draw to itself and develop everything within toward the end desired and in good time this thought of beauty and perfection will express itself through the eyes and every movement of the body. Should life on earth be too short to accomplish the desire to its fullest perfection, then the Soul remains filled with this desire and the magnetic force to attract; and at the next incarnation the Soul will be attracted to parents of similar desires and in position to help the Soul to bring this desire into perfect realization. So it is with all things man may wish to attain.

It cannot be too frequently repeated that the Soul in the Beyond can be neither more nor less than the sum total of its experiences on earth. After it passes into the Soul realm it cannot think, plan or change its desires, unless it has attained Consciousness while on earth. It is merely a Soul on its way, not yet conscious and therefore unable to choose. It is governed by the Law of Attraction; an attraction that will draw it into an environment for its greatest good. This attractive force is that with which it impregnated itself while on earth.

The ordinary, materially governed carnal man lives in a sphere of opportunity but is usually lacking any special aim in life except possibly to enjoy himself and gain material possessions. He is far from being totally evil. He is merely more or less selfish, though not to the degree of bringing destruction to the Soul. He finishes his earthly career and passes into the Beyond. During his earth life he did not seek knowledge of the Soul, made no effort to awaken his spiritual self and is ignorant of all knowledge pertaining to the Soul. When he passes on and awakens beyond the veil, his Soul is far more material than spiritual; he is in darkness; for him there is no Light. Of him it may be said: "Behold, their [his] last estate is worse than their [his] first."

In nature this Soul is more spiritual than it is material, but it is weighted down by more or less evil. This Soul, as a result of its earthly desires and lack of spiritual inclination, though actually in the Soul world, a spiritual sphere, is truly in "hell." It remains in this "hell" or darkness for a time, possibly as we reckon time for centuries, or until it is able to throw off its earthly longings. When finally it is free from its earthly ties, flying in space, its vibrations will draw it to the parents and environments best for its interests. It will be reincarnated and commence another earthly pilgrimage. There is nothing discouraging in this thought, other than that man delays his final achievement, which might be accomplished much sooner and with less suffering and sorrow.

The builder of a Soul is much like a railroad construction engineer, with this exception: He may use but part of that which he builds. His thoughts, desires and acts are the track he builds and over which the train must run. The Soul he builds is the engine to run over the track. If he is of one desire, then he will follow - run over - the track he built while in life. As he passes into the Beyond, he will find that the second portion of his track was constructed at the same time as the first and that the Soul, his engine, will continue onward on the same tracks, without danger of deviation, until they lead him back, via the circle he created, to reincarnation whence he will continue - again take up his efforts - where he had left off when life ended and he entered the Soul World. The true Soul builder constructs after this fashion; his is truly a "one-track mind" and well indeed for him that this is so.

You may be that which you want to be, whether it be an artist, musician, sculptor, architect, statesman or a world savior. Yours is the right of choice; yours is the life to live; you make the effort; and you accomplish or achieve in proportion to your effort. Your success, even during this life, may be wondrously great, and the ultimate to be obtained is beyond your power of comprehension.

One desire, one Love.

That which we truly Love we desire. That which we truly desire we will make effort to attain. To fail in effort is proof of lack of Love.

Soul Consciousness is the rhythmic expression of beautiful ideals even in the ordinary affairs of life.
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