January 17th, 1916
Received by:James Padgett.
Washington D.C.
I am here, Samuel - Yes, Samuel, the prophet.
Well, I will not write long tonight, as I merely want to say that you are much better in your spiritual condition, and the rapport between us is so much greater than heretofore.
Tonight, I desire to say one word on the subject of my knowledge of how a soul is born into the flesh and becomes an individualized person.
I heard what Luke wrote you, and I agree with him in his explanation of the character and qualities of the soul in its state before its incarnation; but I want to add one other thing to what he wrote, and that is, that when the soul first separates into its two component parts, and one of these parts enters into the physical body, the other part remains a mere soul, invisible even to us, but having an existence of which we are conscious, and hovers close to the earth plane seeking the opportunity to also incarnate and become individualized; and this happens within a short time after the separation from the half that has already incarnated. Of course, when I say a short time, I do not mean in a few months or even a few years, because sometimes there is a space of several scores of years between the two incarnations; but such time seems short to us who know nothing of time.
The soul which remains, as Luke has told you, as well as the soul that enters the human body, loses its consciousness of having been a part only of one complete soul, and of its relationship to the other part of that soul, and exists in the supposition that it is still a complete soul and needs no other soul to make it complete. This is a provision of the Father's goodness, so that the soul that continues in its pristine existence will not become lonely or unhappy.
You will naturally ask how I know this, as we have said these souls are not visible to us, and I can only answer that we spirits who have developed our souls to a high degree have acquired certain faculties, or what you may call senses, which enable us to know these things. It is not necessary that we should see these unindividualized souls in order to know of their existences and the qualities that they possess, any more than it is that we should be able to see the Great Oversoul of the Father in order to understand its qualities and attributes and existence. I know it is hard for you to understand this, and I cannot now satisfactorily explain it, for your senses of the earth life are not capable of comprehending the explanation, but what I tell you is true.
We often see the birth of the two parts of the souls into mortals and know that such souls then, for the first time, assumes a shape and form, for this invisible image of God fills the whole of the spirit body, and from that body assumes or receives its form, and thereby becomes individualized. The soul is the life of the spirit body and never leaves it during the earth life of the mortal; and comes with it at the death of the physical body, and remains a part of it during all the time of the existence of the spirit body in the spirit world. Whether it can ever become lost is a question upon which I shall write you later. You will remember that Jesus said, according to the Bible, "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?"
I will say this though, at this time, that a man may retain his soul as a fact and yet have a consciousness of having lost it, and he is then as if he had no soul.
I have said to you what I intended to write, because Luke had omitted to speak of the condition of that half of the soul that remained in the spirit world, after the other half had been incarnated.
Matters of this kind, though, are not important as regards the salvation of man, or the perfecting of his soul to such a degree that that soul may become at-one with the Great Soul, having what it did not possess before its seeking a dwelling place in the flesh - and that is, the Divine nature of the Father, and immortality, as an individualized, never dying person.
As we proceed in these writings you will understand the importance of the soul's becoming incarnated, and then leaving the flesh and again returning to the spirit spheres. And you will also learn that the doctrine of evolution is to an extent correct, but not as commencing from an atom or from an animal inferior to man. Back of and greater than this doctrine of evolution is the great and more Divine doctrine of involution*; for if the soul had not come from above and been placed in the physical man, there would never have been any evolution; and if the soul had never received its individualized existence by coming into the body of the human, it would never have evolved (evoluted) to the Divine nature, as well as to the individualized being that follows that incarnation.
When I say the Divine nature, I do not mean that all souls, either on earth or in the great eternity, necessarily receive that Divine nature, for many of them do not and never will; but all, no matter whether they come into the Divine nature or retain the nature which was theirs in their preexistence, will become individualized personalities, and which will be theirs so long as that soul and its spirit body shall continue to exist.
I have written enough for tonight, but will come again and write you other truths. So with my love and blessings
I am your brother in Christ,
Samuel