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The Life Beyond Death2220
but successive phases of its continuous life, succeeding each other like day
and night, summer and winter. Therefore, what is true of a particular soul’s
feelings and emotions in earth-life is almost equally true of the same things
in its life in the Astral. We mention this that you may better understand that
to which we have been leading up in the previous pages of this chapter.
Accordingly, what we might naturally expect to find (according to reason
and in equity) regarding the religious experiences of the disembodied
soul, is so in fact. That is to say, on the Astral Plane each soul finds itself
surrounded by a religious environment in accordance with the best of the
beliefs entertained by it in its earth-life. It will not only find the particular
heavens, or hells, which it expected to find, but it will also find itself in contact
with other souls of a similar belief, and with the prophets and sages and
founders of its own religion. But this environment will be of the nature of a
mirage, for it is a product of human thought and has no counterpart in the
absolute facts of nature. The thought-forms of a particular form of religious
thought gather great strength on the Astral Plane, and endure with all the
appearance of permanent reality to the perception and understanding of
the believer and devotee—although entirely invisible to those of a different
faith. The presence of prophets and founders remains with the environment,
though the souls of these individuals have long since passed on to other
planes of life. The Astral Plane is a realm of ideals, and each soul finds its
ideals realized thereon.
The good Christian finds a manifestation of the best in his own creed and
beliefs, and rests fully assured that he has had the true faith, and has reaped
the reward he expected. But, the same is true of the good Brahmin, or the
good Mohammedan, or the good Confucian. Moreover, each particular
sect or division of religious belief finds a corroboration of its own beliefs
on the Astral Plane. But there is no warring of sects or religions. Each soul
finds its own, and is oblivious of the rest. But, note this apparent exception:
the soul which has advanced far enough to realize that there is Truth in all
religious beliefs, and which has manifested a tolerant spirit in earth-life, is