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Professor Walter Hinz in “The Corner Stone,” Neville
Spearman, 1977, writes: “As we have already seen,
[in the story of Catherine and her daughter, both
killed in a car crash], a child when it passes into
the world of spirit continues growing to full maturity
in one of the special children’s paradises. These
exist on all planes of evolution. A comprehensive
answer to questions concerning the death of children
was given in the course of a week of retreat in Flims,
on the 22nd September 1967.”
These messages came from Lene, one of the spirit
teachers coming through the medium Beatrice Brunner, a
Swiss housewife who led most of the Saturday meetings
of the Zurich Spiritual Lodge between 1948 and 1983.
Here are some of the significant passages:
“The spirit of a dead child is taken to one of
the paradises for children in the world of spirit;
there it will be looked after while it is growing up.
The spirit body of a child needs to grow slowly, just
like that of a human child.
Spirit children are to be found in all the
spheres, each plane of evolution having its own
paradise where children are educated according to
their spiritual capacity. Everything that happens on
earth has a spiritual meaning, and it therefore makes
a difference if a child dies half an hour after birth,
or weeks, months and even years later.
In certain parts of your world, many children are
dying. They will go to a children’s paradise, and
there be nurtured with care and love. This enables
them to accelerate their spiritual growth.
However, spirit children, too, can be disobedient
and rebellious. Their foster parents can have as much
trouble in bringing them up as their earthly parents
would have had. The naughtiness of these children
reveals the stage of their spiritual development [In
terms of the “Michael” teachings channeled in
California, this would equate with their being infant,
baby, young, mature or old souls….and at one of 7
levels within that category. R.R.]. It would be
wrong to assume that in paradise angels can always
produce perfect behaviour in their charges.
The spirit body contracts when it is to be born
as a human child, and it will still be in that
condition when a child returns to the world of spirit.
The etheric body of such a child contains his total
life-plan: the whole of his past, with all its
achievements and failures. If failures have
predominated, then his spirit body will have a murky
appearance. This murkiness indicates that a state of
guilt is preventing the divine spark within from
shining through. A spirit child whose etheric body is
in this condition cannot be contented. Obstinacy,
resentment and other qualities of the lower nature are
part of this body and will grow with it. As more and
more divine energy becomes available for the growth
and development of the little spirit, so will its
weaknesses grow, too. The spirit world is well aware
of this, and that is why paradises for children exist
on all levels of evolution.
On the other hand, the love and devotion of
spirits who help in their upbringing may bring about
great improvement in these children. Angels and other
spirits can transmit to them some of their own pure
energy, a little at a time – or, in other words,
influence them by the power of persuasion. If a child
is willing to obey he can in this way become quite
docile. These are some of the advantages of growing
up in a paradise for children. There are many steps
on the ladder of spiritual evolution.
Spirit children grow up under the guardianship
and loving care of angels and spirit helpers whose
task it is to mind and teach them. Later, the
children themselves will be called upon to work, and
will be given appropriate training. Attending school
is obligatory, and so is the study of God’s plan of
evolution for mankind. When eventually the right time
comes for them to be able to make good use of it, they
will be led into another incarnation, where they will
often succeed in making remarkable progress. Thus, a
life on earth lasting only an hour or two may be
enough to speed up their evolution in succeeding
incarnations.
In many cases this is what happens. Sometimes,
however, a spirit will beg to be allowed to come back
to earth as soon as possible because he feels a
longing for the spiritual heights. His cry is
spontaneous: “Send me back, so that I may rise more
quickly!” Here again a short life span may be all
that is needed – perhaps only a few months, weeks or
even days. In the Kingdom of God, time counts for
little; what matters is the speeding up of spiritual
growth.
There are many ways of advancement. Spirits may
be forced to prepare for another earthly existence, or
they may accept it of their own free will. A third
possibility is the way of sacrifice, which a spirit
chooses for himself: “May I be allowed to enter human
life with a mission or a special task, and be granted
the necessary strength for its fulfillment?” So he and
many like him come full of goodwill – one might almost
say, by good fortune. [Herein lie the life roles and
‘overleaves’ that Michael talks about. R.R.].
After this, you will be able to understand why
some spirit children have only needed to take on a
very short span of life. Another factor can be that a
child who is to die has been given to particular
parents in order that his death may lead them, through
the experience of grief and pain, to a transformation
of mind and heart: their loss helps them to find their
way to God.
There are then many different ways of
facilitating progress. Parents may experience
profound grief when they lose a child. If, however,
their child rightly belongs to a higher sphere, it
will live in one of the more beautiful paradises for
children; such a child will have a natural goodness,
and in addition it will gain spiritually from the
loving and careful upbringing it will receive in the
angelic world. When the time comes for the earthly
parents to die, their child will be there to welcome
them and to intercede for them. Sometimes a much
loved son or daughter may, after a period of training,
return to the parents and accompany them as a spirit
guide or guardian until they, too, are called to take
leave of earth. [We had evidence of this in the
“Letters from Lancelot” earlier in this series, and
the transcripts from Cynthia Sandys, for example.
R.R.]
In the next world, a spirit will make himself
known to his former parents. He will embrace them,
expressing his joy and his gratitude for all they had
done for him during his earthly life. So premature
death becomes a blessing, both for the parents and for
the child.
There is for all life a divine plan, designed to
further spiritual evolution. Each one of us is linked
to all the rest; each one helps another to climb the
upward path, whether as a human with spiritual
awareness or as one who is totally ignorant , or
indeed as a spirit whose journey to the other side has
given him a greater understanding. No one should
remain sad if they have lost a child in the bloom of
youth, or after only a few years of life. Remember:
that child may become your spirit guide, and so be of
the greatest importance to your spiritual happiness
and progress.
Paradises for children are to be found not only
on the lower and intermediate planes of evolution, but
also in the very highest spheres. When these children
reach maturity they leave their paradise and either
remain in the same sphere or return to earth to fulfil
a particular task.
In the highest regions, spirit children are there
not simply to be educated – to develop their talents
and to facilitate their progress; they are there
because they are a source of joy for the King of
Heaven. All the children are in the care of angels
and are therefore truly living in paradise.
So these children live in a divine world, a world
of wonderful happiness. When the time comes, many of
them will leave to carry out important tasks, for your
earth will always need steadfast human beings, men who
are strong in spirit, and whose powerful faith enables
them to bear witness to the reality of the celestial
world.”
Other spirit teachers had this to say about
angels and spirituality, speaking during meditation
weeks at Flims in the mid-1960s:
“Humans often imagine that angels go about their
duties with stern expressions, having no mind for
pleasure. But they are wrong! We, too, have fun –
though I would emphasize that our enjoyment lies in
what is harmless and beautiful and can cause no
jealousy. In our thinking and our doing, we are
attuned to what is pure and harmonious. We are
well-disposed towards each other, knowing that in
mutual dependence we serve one God. Our only desire
is to fulfill this task.
Man to-day finds it difficult to believe in a
spiritual world. All the more will God bless you if
your faith is strong and you are willing to stand up
for it. Try to reach out to others and share the
truth with them. The truth comes in living your life
trusting in God’s world of spirit and wherever
possible sharing this conviction with your neighbour.
Always remember that this is the most precious thing
you can give to others.
This truth must be re-established on earth; man
must once again know that he is subject to the
influence of a spiritual world. This will only happen
when he accepts that within every living thing which
moves and has its being on earth there is a spark of
eternal life, struggling to evolve. He must realize
that this necessitates a continual transmutation from
one spiritual body to another until he has regained a
perfect spiritual body.
The search must go on. Those who seek will find,
and for those who knock the door will open. Be
persevering and strong in faith. Open your heart and
soul, and be aware that you are a member of the
spiritual kingdom. You belong to spirit, in time and
in eternity.
Know that in this human incarnation you can pass
through spiritual schooling which will render similar
tuition in the Beyond superfluous. If you are
familiar with the most important divine laws, you will
be able to continue learning at a more advanced level.
Those amongst you who remain closely linked with us
will be schooled for the New Age, and may one day be
chosen for a special mission on earth.”
Now we’re going back over two hundred years to
Waldersbach, now in Eastern France, to show once
again that spirit communication has been with us down
through the ages. The Alsatian minister Johann
Friedrich Oberlin (1740-1826) lost his wife Salome in
1783, but within a week of her death she was back in
communication with him. His correspondence with a
fellow minister tells what happened:
“For nine years after my wife died I saw her
almost every day, in dreams and awake, partly in my
home and partly in her own abode in the other world.
I learned from her many remarkable things, including
political changes that lay far in the future. She
appeared not only to me, but also to members of my
household and to many people in the Church. She often
gave me warnings about misfortunes, made prophecies
and gave information concerning events beyond the
grave.”
Luckily for us, Oberlin kept a diary. Here are a
few extracts:
“The first time she came to meet me was only a
week after her death. Her embraces, her kisses, her
tears upon my cheek soon made me realize who she was,
and then there flowed a precious balm into my soul.
She said ‘I shall be with you surprisingly often,’ and
then she disappeared. Three days later she appeared
to Salome Caquelin in the church, and said to her:
‘Believe me, until now I have only briefly visited
Paradise. I have not yet seen our Saviour – only his
radiance.’
June 16th, 1784. “I was able to look at her dear
face again, to my heart’s content – after such a long
time. I asked her where she lived. She said:
SALOME I don’t know the name of the valley.
JOHANN Is that so? You live in a valley, and in
the country?
SALOME Yes.
JOHANN I thought you lived in a town.
SALOME Yes, I did live in a town. Oh, the work
there was so hard. (She looked towards another female
who was standing by her side).”
September 11th, 1784. “For three nights or
mornings in succession my maid Sara Coqu was warned
(by my wife) that something would go wrong with our
wine. This maid looked after the barrels diligently,
and yesterday she found that several hoops had snapped
off one of the barrels; and this morning the same
thing had happened to all the rest. We were able to
save most of the wine, but without Salome’s warnings
all four barrels of table wine from Dorlesheim would
have been lost.”
November 24th, 1784. “There stood my dear wife,
and I felt that I was now allowed to question her as I
had long wished to do. I asked her how she had fared
since her death. Where had she been? She was a
little confused, and appeared to have trouble in
finding answers that were sufficiently concise for me.
Then she said to me: ‘Oh, it has been much as it was
when we were living together. I have suffered, just
as at times you made me suffer. Now I am living with
girls of various ages who have been entrusted to my
care.’ I looked at her. She looked at me. We were
both weeping, yet there was happiness in our tears.”
November 2nd, 1785. “The extremity of joy through
the apparition of my wife showed me that I loved her
even more than I loved Jesus Christ!”
In the spring of 1785, Oberlin had to struggle
with severe temptation. In this fight he was greatly
strengthened by his wife, who appeared to him and
urgently warned him not to fall into sin. After this,
their ‘spirit marriage’ continued for another seven
years. Then, as Oberlin wrote to his minister friend,
Dr. C. G. Barth, “After nine years [in 1792] it
happened that a farmer from my other parish of
Belmont, a man who, like his family, had frequent
apparitions, informed me that she would no longer be
able to appear on earth. From that moment, I never
saw my wife again.”
These extracts are translated from the German
publication by Alfons Rosenberg, “Der Christ und die
Erde – Oberlin und der Aufbruch zur Gemeinschaft der
Liebe.” Otto Walter, Olten. 1953. This is a
biography of the minister, containing his diary and
letters: (The Christian and the Earth – Oberlin and
the Initiation into the Fellowship of Love).
Richard R.
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