December 22nd, 1915
Received by James Padgett.
Washington D.C.
I am here, your Grandmother.
I come, because I see that you have been much interested in the description of the various spheres of the spirit world as contained in the book that you have just been reading.
Well, my son, I have read the book as you did and I must say that I have grave doubts that any mortal ever had the experience of the Dr. (Peebles) as is related in that book. I, of course, will not positively say that he did not leave his body and visit some of the spheres of the spirit world, and attempt to give a description of what he saw, but I do not think it was possible for him to visit any sphere which is higher than his soul development would enable him to enter, and, as I am informed, not being a man with the soul development that would fit him for the higher soul spheres, I do not understand how he could possibly have entered a sphere higher than the sixth; and I doubt that he entered that, for from all the information that I have received, I have never heard of any mortal entering a sphere higher than the third, which Saint Paul says he visited.
At any rate, the descriptions of the higher spheres as contained in the book - and I mean by this the sphere above the third - are not correct in many particulars for, as I have told you before, the fifth and seventh spheres are not Intellectual spheres in the preeminent sense, and in them are not the great colleges and institutions of learning that the book refers to, and neither are the inhabitants engaged in any special study of the laws of nature with the mere intellect; for in these spheres the great studies and aspiration of the spirits are given to the development of the soul by obtaining the Divine Love, and to help in the work are teachers who devote themselves to instructing these spirits in those things which will lead to this soul development.
The mind or mere intellect is not given much attention to, but is subordinated to the soul development, for with this development and a part of it, comes a wonderful development of the faculties of what you might call the mind, but which we call and which really are the soul perceptions. I know it is hard for you to understand, but what we call the soul perceptions may be compared to the mental faculties as you commonly speak of them. These soul perceptions do not depend upon these mental faculties, and in fact the latter forms no part of the former, but they are entirely distinct and of a different order and composition from these mental faculties. These soul perceptions, as such, cannot be cultivated or made to increase in their powers or qualities by mere study, but they and their progress are entirely dependent upon and not separated from the development of the soul in Love. I mean the Divine Love of the Father. In other words, unless there be a development of the soul by this Divine Love, there will be no development of the soul perceptions. It is difficult to explain this to you, but you may possibly get some idea from what I have said.
The sixth sphere, as I have before said, is the great intellectual sphere, and in this are wonderful colleges and institutions of learning, and many spirits who were great men intellectually on earth are teachers in these institutions.
But you must not think that because certain spheres are preeminently intellectual, that there are not teachers of the higher truths pertaining to the souls and to the Divine Love, working in these spheres, for there are. And many great spirits of the Celestial Spheres are engaged in this teaching. But this I must say, that the work is more difficult and the effort to convince these spirits of highly developed intellectuality and knowledge is more strenuous than in any of the lower spheres. These bright minded spirits seem to think that the mind is the great thing to be cultivated and looked after, and while they in a way worship God, yet it is with the faculties of the mind merely. They do not think that there is any teachings in the truth of the New Birth and the Divine Love of the Father, in contradistinction to the love which they possess, which is only the natural love. I have been in all these spheres and have worked in them, and what I tell you I know from actual experience.
Well, he is mistaken, for in the Seventh sphere the spirits have homes just as they do in the lower spheres, only they are much more beautiful and bring more happiness and gladness because of the great number of additional things that are provided by the Father to increase the happiness of His children.
As to our clothing in that sphere, we are clothed in what you would say a modest and comfortable way. Our clothing is not so flimsy as to permit our forms to be seen as if we had on no clothing at all. This idea must have arisen from the fact that inhabitants of that sphere have no thought of immodesty or of what might result from the suggestions that a naked or half clothed body might give to mortals or even some of the lower spirits. But such an idea does not enter into the question of the nature of the clothes that we shall wear.
Our thoughts are all pure and free from mortal taint, and the character of our thoughts has no influence upon the character of our clothing. We wear clothes to cover our bodies because we think it proper to do so, and because we make our clothes by our own thoughts and will, and they are of the most glorious and shining appearances that you can imagine.
But as all things in nature have a covering, so in the spirit world, the spirits all have coverings, and this is even so in the Celestial Sphere in which I live. I have never seen such a thing as a naked or nearly naked spirit in these higher spheres. Of course, the spirit of Dr.___ may have entered some of these higher spheres, as I have said, but his information as the author of the book that was communicated to his mortal friend, was not correctly transmitted, for many things which he says are not true.
I would like to write more tonight but it is late, and you are tired.
I will say with all my love, goodnight.
Your own loving grandmother