Life and Its Mysteries, by Frank L. Hammer, [1945], at sacred-texts.com
Numerous are the reasons advanced of why the world has seemingly gone to pieces. Extraordinary is the ingenuity writers display in avoiding the natural and obvious explanation. Some even delve into astrology in their efforts to evade acknowledging the sole and direct cause which is none other than materialism. The destructive doctrine of annihilation with its inevitable outcome has superseded the Truth of immortality; nearly all semblance of morality has disappeared and corruption reigns supreme.
Rulers seem to be obsessed with the maniacal idea that civilization is advanced and people improved if the earth is drenched with blood; that human sacrifices will make this world better. Ostensibly, World War I was for this purpose and everyone knows the result. It set the stage for World War II and made a bumper crop of millionaires. Only money is sacred to materialistic people; human lives are conscripted but capital exempted. Only because the minds of the masses are drugged is such a preposterous condition possible; otherwise lives would be sacred and wealth conscripted.
The most imperative need of the world today is for a philosophy which shall destroy materialism, reconcile brother with brother, acquaint men with their origin, duty and destiny and enlighten them of the Truth of immortality. Universal knowledge of immortality will revolutionize the world because it will rationalize men's conduct. Men conscious of immortality will not hate or kill their fellowmen, realizing that what they do to another they do also to themselves and to God.
Now unenlightened and egotistical leaders believe that by purges, liquidations and wars they are destroying life, which would make their crimes infinitely more diabolical. They are worse than cannibals who believe that mankind is bred to be eaten; war lords think men exist to be slaughtered for their aggrandizement and power. Battalions they send to death for a piece of real estate. The loss of thousands of men they consider "negligible," but surround themselves with bodyguards.
This callous indifference to loss of life arises from their ignorance of a future life where a higher law and court of justice are encountered. If they had an inkling that, in the hereafter, they will be held accountable, they would speedily alter their conduct and settle their stupid disputes in a different manner. And when this knowledge becomes general, as it will, their power over life and death will end.
People are beginning to question, with considerable doubt and suspicion, the "divine" right of kings and rulers to conscript the life and freedom of their
fellowmen. Did they derive it from on high or usurp it from the people? What right has anyone to deprive millions of souls of earthly expression? The physical body is the temple of the living God, the dwelling place of the immortal soul, and was given by God for its terrestrial expression. Destroying the body, whether one's own or that of another, is a sin and must be expiated. And murder is still murder when committed by thousands or millions with the consequences increased proportionately.
Many people wonder if adequate punishment exists for those responsible for making slaughter houses of their countries, filling hospitals with the maimed, crippled, blind and insane, creating incalculable sorrow, suffering and moral disorder. They need have no qualms on this score. God is neither mocked nor cheated. While rarely, if ever, are rulers brought to justice on earth, there is a hereafter, a place of stark reality where all men reap as they have sown. Death wipes out no deeds of infamy, cruelty and murder, but the instigator comes face to face with their consequences.
As everyone knows, or certainly ought to know, the law of cause and effect is not terminated at death, but is eternal in duration and universal in scope, eventually bringing to all their just deserts. Divine Justice is administered through this law, and both evil and good return to their originator. Just as in the realm of physics "action and reaction are equal," so on the moral plane cause and effect are equal.
When death comes to the liquidators, how will they greet their victims? And meet them they surely shall. Terrible are the consequences of murder. Through long centuries the cries and curses of the slain will ring in their ears. Faces glaring with hatred and mockery will constantly be before them, oceans of blood filled with ghastly corpses from which escape will be impossible. There will be no surcease from remorse, no peace for their soul until reparation has been made. Dante in his Inferno gives a graphic and accurate description of the fate of such as these. Not a pleasant future to contemplate, nevertheless it is not the doctrine of fear but the gospel of Truth. Not for naught are so many prayers said for the souls in purgatory.
However, men themselves are responsible for their future condition and not some arbitrary being. In "Mystery of Mind" we mentioned the Akashic, life's imperishable record. This record is both man's judge and executioner. There is no tampering with this document, no judge or lawyer can "fix" it for you. One's secret history is told wordlessly and is forever known; the details of earth life are understood, all one's acts and their far-reaching consequences. Man sees what he has thought, wished, spoken and done without any palliating or extenuating excuses. Happy for us if we live so we can leave this world in good spiritual circumstances.
The first experience on entering the land of silence is usually seeing those who have preceded you; quite often the nearest and dearest of all greets the newcomer
and perhaps has long been awaiting his arrival. Hence, the expression of peace frequently seen on the face of the departing one. At death the soul returns to its Father's house, the home from which it has too long been absent. Death is life's most beautiful adventure and is reserved for the last.
Life Over There is not so different from life over here, for it is a world of activity, labor and service, with every opportunity for realizing one's dreams, hopes and ambitions, continuing and perfecting interests and studies, and completing plans which perhaps were only commenced on earth. It is a land of eternal development and progression, and not a place of eternal idleness, stagnation, sleep and rest. Many believe that after death all is different with the individual. There never was a greater mistake. One neither gains nor loses through the episode of death.
After death man assumes his spiritual body, which has senses corresponding to all the external ones, and this body is beautiful or ugly as was the life the soul lived on earth. Those of great spirituality are dazzling and beautiful in appearance, while those who are unevolved or evil are dark and hideous. Here in this earth life the robes of honor are frequently worn by dishonorable men. In the next life it will not be so. The light from the temple within will clothe itself with a corresponding exterior. If our spiritual bodies are composed of goodness and truth, we shall be clothed with pure robes. But if they be composed of selfishness, vanity and evil, which are the errors of life, we shall be clothed with
the filthy rags of impurity. There are no variations to this law.
There is a gradation or caste in the next world just as marked as among the dwellers of earth. But Over There caste is determined by mental and spiritual acquisitions; here, mostly by material possessions. On earth, men are respectively "worth" so many thousands or millions of dollars; in fact, they often are well nigh indistinguishable from their bank accounts. Here is injustice—there is absolute justice.
Space and time, as understood by us, are unknown in the four-dimensional world, and spirit people have incredible freedom of movement. Their power is higher than organic force, their will overcomes material gravity, and they can rise and float with the speed of light upon the ether. A voyage on the celestial seas is quicker and more easily accomplished than a telegraph operator can transmit events for the daily press. Will is their motive power, and, where they will to be, they are.
There are no barriers between this world and the spiritual spheres except the false ones which men have created in their minds. The spiritual worlds are around and above us, and we are under the constant scrutiny of its inhabitants. Their eyes are clairvoyant and they are well acquainted with what we are doing, and they also know well what we are thinking. If people realized that thousands of eyes witness every deed, there would be a great decrease in crime and evil-doing. If the transgressor knew that he was being watched and accompanied every
step, from the planning to the execution of his crime, that his conduct was causing untold suffering and anguish to those who see what he is doing though powerless to prevent it, much of our crime would disappear.
How fares it with the multitude of young men slain for causes no one can understand? Prematurely wrenched from the body, they find themselves in the next expression of life bewildered and confounded, emotionally, mentally and spiritually unprepared. They are met and cared for by those who understand and they gradually are made aware of their new status. Liberated from the dense body, their consciousness expands and activity increases, affording them innumerable opportunities for sending thoughts to people on earth. Their telepathic ability to impress those in the flesh is mainly responsible for the growing interest in what lies beyond.
Always in time of war, when the exodus into the other world is so enormous, there is a deep desire on the part of many people to know what has happened to their loved ones. The soul within rebels at the materialistic doctrine of oblivion and one yearns for assurance and conviction of immortality.
This longing is stimulated by those over there who see the sorrow and suffering their departure is causing their families and friends, and they seek, through every avenue at their disposal, to impress them they are not dead but more alive than ever. Many people are aware of these thoughts although
unable to see or hear their originators. But make no mistake, their voices will yet be heard.
Nothing is valued more by the boys in foreign lands, whether on earth or Over There, than greetings and remembrances from loved ones. These are treasured beyond all price, and people should daily send them loving thoughts and pray for their progression and enlightenment. Remember always, they are not "lost," but have only preceded you into the heavenly land where each of us will go in our turn. Those who pass on in youth have little karma to expiate and rapidly advance to higher planes. While the wicked go to a worse place, the righteous and innocent go to a world of surpassing beauty, happiness and peace.
The laws governing communication between earth and other planes of consciousness are definite and irrevocable, more rigid than the laws governing material communications. No caprice or will of man can change them one iota; he must familiarize himself with their operation and then comply with them. Those Over There are bound by these same laws, for by no means are they free agents, but are subject to many restrictions.
A phenomenon of clairvoyance is at best but an inferential evidence because it is not a matter of universal human experience. The same can be said about spiritual manifestations; they too are local, special and mostly private; although those who have received such evidence can affirm that immortality is true, and that the human soul can never be extinguished.
But the evidences which are worth anything are not outside. Man's immortality, to be of any practical service, must be experienced in his religious nature, felt in his soul, and not merely understood by his intellectual faculties. True evidences come through two inward sources of wisdom—intuition and reflection.
Those who dare to be truthful to these inward sources of knowledge will feel positive evidence of immortality, and external evidences will serve but as illustrations. When you find this internal conviction of immortality which no sophistry can invalidate, you have found a treasure beyond all price.
It is no more appalling to enter the next stage of consciousness than it was to come into this one.