The fear of death by those persons who believe in the future life is altogether misplaced, but when people from birth have been thoroughly indoctrinated into the belief that there is a Hell as well as a Heaven, and that they will most likely go to the former, because whatever belongs to human life is a mortal sin for the soul, they are naturally afraid, if they retained their religious belief, of the fire that is to burn them forever without destroying them. But most of those who are thus indoctrinated in their childhood, if possessed of judgment, throw aside that belief when they grow up, and, being unable to assent to such a doctrine, become atheists or materialists; so that the natural effect of such teachings is to make them believe that there is nothing beyond this present life. "Death has no terrors for the righteous man, because, with faith, he has the certainty of a future life; hope leads him to expect an existence happier than his present one, and charity, which has been the law of his action, gives him the assurance that, in the world which he is about to enter, he will meet with no one whose recognition he will have reason to dread."

Inasmuch as death leads us to a better life, and since it delivers us from the ills of our present existence, and is therefore to be rather desired than dreaded, many may wonder why in man there exists this instinctive dread of death, but as I have told you man must seek to prolong his life in order to accomplish his task. To this end God has given him the instinct of self-preservation, and this instinct sustains him under all trials; but for it he would too often abandon himself to discouragement. The inner voice, which tells him to repel death, tells him also that he may yet do something more for his advancement. Every danger that threatens him is a warning that bids him make a profitable use of the respite granted to him by God; but he, ungrateful, gives thanks more often to his "star of good fortune" than to his "creator."

The carnally-minded man, more attracted by corporeal life than by the life of the spirit, knows only the pains and pleasures of terrestrial existence. His only happiness is in the fugitive satisfaction of his earthly desires; his mind, constantly occupied with the vicissitudes of the present life and painfully affected by them, is tortured with perpetual anxiety. The thought of death terrifies him because he has doubts about his future, and because he has to leave all his affections and all his hopes behind him when he leaves the earth. The spiritually-minded man, who has raised himself above the fictitious wants created by the passions, has, even in this lower life, enjoyments unknown to the carnally-minded. The moderation of his desires gives calmness and serenity to his spirit. Happy in the good he does, life has no disappointments for him, and its vexations pass lightly over his consciousness, without leaving upon it any painful impress.

The human soul after it has ceased to inhabit the physical body and at death passes to the Astral Plane still possesses the powers of perception which it possessed in earth life, and many others which it did not possess in that life, because its body acted as a veil which obscured them. Intelligence is an attribute of spirit; but it is manifested more freely when not hindered by the trammels of flesh. "The nearer the soul approaches to perfection the more it knows. Spirits of the higher orders possess a wide range of knowledge; those of the lower orders are more or less ignorant in regard to everything."

The life of spirits is exterior to the idea of time as perceived by us. The idea of duration may be said to be annihilated for them; ages, which seems so long to us, appear to them only as so many instants lapsing into eternity, just as the inequalities of the earth's surface are effaced and disappear beneath the gaze of the aeronaut as he mounts into space. Spirits take a truer and more precise view of the present than we do. "Their view, in comparison with yours, is pretty much what eyesight is in comparison with blindness. They see what you do not see; they judge, therefore, otherwise than you do. But I must remind you that this depends on their degree of elevation." Spirits acquire the knowledge of the past, and this knowledge is without limits for them. "The past, when spirits turn their attention to it, is perceived by them as though it were present, exactly as is the case with you when you call to mind something which may have struck you in the course of your present life, with this difference, however, that, as Astral Spirit's view is no longer obscured by the material veil which covers your intelligence, they remember things that are at present effaced from your memory.

But Spirits do not know everything; for example, their creation."

When spirits foresee the future it depends on their degree of advancement. Very often they foresee it only partially; but, even when they foresee it more clearly, they are not always permitted to reveal it. When they foresee it it appears to them to be present. A spirit sees the future more clearly in proportion as he approaches God. After death the soul sees and embraces at a glance all its past emigrations; but it cannot see what God has in store for it. This foreknowledge is only possessed by the soul that has attained to entire union with God after a long succession of existences.

Spirits require no light in order to see things that are transpiring on the earth plane, as spirits transport themselves from point to point with the rapidity of thought they may be said to see everywhere at the same time. A spirit's thought may radiate at the same moment on many different points; but this faculty depends on his purity. The more impure the spirit the narrower is his range of sight. It is only the higher spirits who can take in the whole at a single glance.