I was shown those who existed in the _thought-forms_ and scenes of
their recent human states: Such as these were surrounded with the
“things” (forms of things) familiar to them on Earth, and apparently
necessary to their happiness even in the new state of existence. These
scenes illustrated that our lives even in the human state, consist
largely of “_states of mind_,” that we see the things we are accustomed
to see, or have trained our minds or wishes to see omitting many and
sometimes _most_ of the things of beauty and of import that we _might_
see.
The spirit states that are “exactly like the scenes of Earth” are
composed of the thought-forms of the spirits’ imaging or reproduction,
and _are_ the _reality_ to them. I recalled the weaving of a web that I
had once seen an industrious spider perfect and he was afterward caught
in his own web. I wondered if we are not often in human life--and the
states that immediately follow the weavers of many such “cobwebs”?
These thought-webs seemed to proceed from the minds of the spirits
fashioning them and in which the spirits seemed to be ensphered,
sometimes enshadowed. Before my questionings had _taken form in my
mind_ the answer came from the Presence: “No, they are not enmeshed
_by_ the thought-forms; their creation is the result of the present
_condition_; remove the power to produce thought-forms, _i.e._, to
create ones own environment and you remove all activity of mind. As
the Spirit unfolds the thought-forms change and then disappear as
_perception_ takes the place of limitation by the senses.”
With the almost axiomatic proposition that “our world of life is what
we make it” our spirit-surroundings and conditions the result of our
states of unfoldment, it became less difficult even when returning
to the limitations of human organism to understand the conditions
of existence in the “next stage” of personal experience beyond the
“transition” misnamed “death.”
_Spirit states are as varied as are the personal states of those
composing them; the knowledge--or lack of it--possessed by the person_
IS _the spirit state_, i.e., _knowledge of spiritual principles_.
Oh, if one could coin new words, or new understandings, in order better
to express that which one knows when set free from Earthly environment!
Yes, the _New Understanding_; that is the great need; and that must
really be _attained_ by _unfoldment_, growth from within, the pervading
all illuminating power of the spirit.
Those in the spirit states who were reproducing the familiar scenes
of their recent Earth conditions were satisfied and even very
happy--especially when the scenes so reproduced were of a nature that
had brought comparative happiness in Earth life--in their ability to
make things seem “exactly as they did in Earth life,” not even knowing
that this similitude was the result of their own thought-forms instead
of being _inherent_ or _organic_ in the “spirit land.”
Interesting and absorbing as were these lessons of observing, the
process of weaving their thoughts into the forms most desired or needed
by the spirits producing them, there were many whose reproductions
were of the shadowed kind and were not voluntary, but results of the
deep impress that the shadows of Earth-experiences had made upon their
minds. No _one_ illustration could serve--but all states and conditions
that I could realize were shown.