Gentola—Do you know if there is a limit to the number of spirit spheres surrounding any or all inhabited planets?
De L'Ester—I know there is no limit to the questions you can ask, and for the present I must end our conversation by saying that we know of no planet having more than seven spirit spheres, and by the time you or we shall have arrived at the highest, Ento and Earth will have been added to the list of dead worlds, and we may have become archangels.
Gentola—Please allow me to ask one more question. Am I to understand that there is a law compelling spirits to abide in certain spirit spheres?
De L'Ester—Spirits freed from the physical body, each according to his or her evolvement inevitably go to "their own place," the only place they are fitted for. No spirit can long remain in a sphere with whose vibrations he or she is not in harmony. Spirits from the higher may, and do, enter the lower spheres, but, speaking from experience, not with pleasurable sensations. You once were adventurous enough to descend to the lowest level of one of the deepest mines on your continent. You may recall the sense of oppression and difficulty of breathing which nearly overcame you. Well, that is the best illustration I can offer of the sensations experienced by spirits of higher spheres who, for instance, enter our Earth's First or Spirit Sphere. Why, then, do we return to mortal environments? Oh, my friend, you yet must learn many sad lessons. You, whose destined work is to serve as a teacher to spirits in darkness, will find the answer to your query. You will learn, as we are learning, that only through loving, unselfish service for those more needy than ourselves do we find the stepping-stones by which we shall ascend to the heights where are the exalted ones, who, through self-sacrifice and deepest self-abasement, have attained knowledge and bliss unspeakable. It is they who inspire us to strive for a like beatific state of being.
It occurs to me that of one feature relating to emanations I have not informed you. I have stated that all organisms throw off certain emanations, hence animal emanations are constituents of all First Spirit Spheres. After physical death the myriad forms of animal, indeed of all organized forms of life, for a time continue to exist within the limits of the First Sphere. Then, through the activity of natural law they in a sense become reincarnated, but not on the same plane of existence as before, but a step higher, and always in a species of their own order. That is to say, the soul of the horse never reappears in the form of an ox, or the soul of the ox in the form of the dog, and so on. No expression of life is ever lost. Thus the endless movement of evolution is continuous, and the bird of prey swooping down upon the finned beauty of lake or stream is quite oblivious of the fact that he desires to dine off a distant relative of whose family he is a highly evolved representative.
Genessano—With interest I have heard De L'Ester's lesson, and it reminds me of an experience of Inidora̤'s and my own. When we passed to the spirit side we were not sufficiently evolved to continuously exist in a sphere higher than Ento's first Spirit Sphere, and for more than half a century of earnest striving, assisted by the loving devotion of our parents and dear friends who were more highly evolved than were we, we were dwellers on the threshold of our second Spirit Sphere.
During this period of instruction and progress our condition was far more agreeable than that of mortals, but through brief visits to other spheres, we soon learned that the degree of happiness we were enjoying was but a promise of a more exalted state, and naturally we aspired, not only to greater joys, but to higher attainments, through which we might find closer association with our adored parents.
No, this period of instruction and progress did not appear to pass slowly. You do not yet realize that to freed spirits time and space are mere terms possessing neither value or significance. With us is only an ever present now. The terms past and future involve an idea of a beginning and an ending, and, as our friend Humboldt has stated, we cannot conceive of either a beginning or ending of what is termed time or a limit outside of which is nothing. No spirit of highest spirit spheres claims to have a realization of either time or space or a conception of the Infinite One, who ever has been, is, and ever must be the dimensionless, unthinkable all.
De L'Ester—To-day we will see and hear what may transpire in the classrooms. First we will observe what we may designate as an astronomical lesson. The apparatus which the young, intellectual looking instructor is arranging is unlike anything you have seen, and I imagine that the lesson will be quite as unique as the apparatus. I shall not attempt to give you more than a mere synopsis of it. Now he calls the attention of the class to the well known fact that Ento is not a perfectly globular body, but a somewhat elongated sphere, deeply depressed at its extremities and revolving in space as Andûmana̤ in the beginning decreed, that thus life giving beams of his abode might vivify all portions of the home of his children. He alludes to the Sacred Writings, which declare that in a very remote time Andûmana̤ revealed to certain holy men an account of the creation of Ento and of the living creatures who came into existence through the exercise of His Will, and that later, when Ento was prepared for their reception, He created His children, who should dwell upon it, and be the recipients of His bounteous provision for their happiness. Evidently this Instructor has no knowledge of the revolution of Ento around the Sun, for he talks of the marvel of atmospheric pressure holding Ento in position and also supporting the fair regions of Astranola̤, beyond which is the shining abode of Andûmana̤, which, with its foundations, fill all outer space. It would not serve a useful purpose to further speak of his lecture to his deeply attentive pupils, but it will please us if you will attempt a brief description of this scene.
Gentola—Around a massive table, on which is an object suggesting a globe, a number of boys and girls are assembled. The globe, if it may be so called, is quite elongated, and, as you have said its ends are deeply depressed. In the centre of the depressions are pivots which rest in sockets in the ends of two upright supports. The surface of the globe is divided into spaces by metal bands suggesting latitude and longitude. Midway between the extremities of the globe is a broad band with three narrower ones on either side of it. Extending from the central band at intervals are seven metal rods tipped with what appears to be diamond stars. Now the Instructor attaches to the ends of the two protruding pivots flexible wires covered thickly with some dark substance. The globe begins to revolve and now its velocity is so great that the star tipped rods appear to form a luminous, iridescent band about it, but I do not perceive what force makes it revolve. How beautiful it now appears. All the bands are luminous, and I now see that they are incrusted with different colored small jewels, and there is a soft singing sound, like the notes of some musical instrument. I do not understand where the sound comes from, and I cannot describe the scene intelligibly.