ABC of Spiritualism 88 & 89/100

88. Do the departed, according to Spiritualism, find heaven and hell as depicted by Church teaching?

Not at all. On the contrary they find a very natural world on a plane of vibration higher than this, but very similar in many ways, yet more beautiful. They deny any vision of a great white throne, any manifestations of a personal God, any appearance of Jesus, or any lake of fire and torment for lost souls. They do assert, however, that great moral distinctions are found in the spirit realm. That some of the departed may be truly represented as in heaven and others as in hell. They tell us that each soul entering spirit life brings his own heaven or hell with it. Some souls gravitate downward toward the spheres of darkness and suffering and find their “own place” by the operation of natural law. Some souls mount upward to spheres of light, love and beauty, and having peace and love within themselves find the happiness of the blest. They say there is, therefore, a fundamental truth in the doctrine of heaven and hell if the descriptions of the same in the Bible and church teaching are taken as figurative and not literalized.

89. What advantage has the instructed Spiritualist entering Spirit Life over the man who accepts church teachings?

The same advantage that a man who has studied his guide books and obtained reliable information about the strange country he is going to visit, has over the man who has acquired false concepts or has remained in complete ignorance on the subject. The instructed Spiritualist knows in a large measure what to expect. He is not mislead by false notions. He can find himself and his place and work more readily than the man who has had his mind filled with false, fantastic notions of the after life.