part in the world's work — has to leave that

home and family, when one whom we have
loved all our lives is about to bid us the final
farewell, we stand by; utterly at a loss how
to help ; perhaps we even do the very things
most detrimental to the comfort and welfare
of the departing one.

152 THE BOSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

Probably there is no form of torture more
commonly inflicted upon the dying, than that
which is caused by administering stimulants.
Such potions have the effect of drawing a de-
parting spirit into its body with the force of
a catapult, to remain and to suffer for some-
time longer. Investigators of conditions be-
yond have heard many complaints of such
treatment. When it is seen that death must
inevitably ensue, let not selfish desire to keep
a departing spirit a little longer prompt us
to inflict such tortures upon them. The death
chamber should be a place of the utmost
quiet, a place of peace and of prayer, for at
that time, and for three and one-half days
after the last breath, the spirit is passing
through a Gethsemane and needs all the as-
sistance that can be given. The value of the
life that has just been passed depends greatly
upon conditions which then prevail about the
body; yes even the conditions of its future
life are influenced by our attitude during
that time, so that if ever we were our broth-
er's keeper in life, we are a thousand times
more so at death.

Post-mortem examinations, embalming and
cremation during the period mentioned, not
only disturbs the passing spirit mentally, but

LIFE AND DEATH 153

is even productive of a certain amount of
pain, for there is still a slight connection with
the discarded vehicle. If sanitary laws re-
quire us to prevent decomposition while thus
keeping the body for cremation, it may be
packed in ice till the three and one-half days
have passed. After that time the spirit will
not suffer, no matter what happens to the
body.

The Panorama of a Past Life.

No matter how long we may keep the spirit
from passing out however, at last there will
come a time when no stimulant can hold it
and the last breath is drawn. Then the silver
cord, of which the Bible speaks, and which
holds the higher and the lower vehicles to-
gether, snaps in the heart and causes that or-
gan to stop. That rupture releases the vital
body, and that, with the desire body and
mind float above the visible body for, from
one, to three and one-half days, while the
spirit is engaged in reviewing the past life,
an exceedingly important part of its post-
mortem experience. Upon that review de-
pends its whole existence from death to a
new birth.

The question may arise in the student's
mind : How can we review our past life from

154 THE EOSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

the cradle to the grave, when we do not even
remember what we did a month ago, and to
form a proper basis for our future life, this
record ought to be very accurate, but even
the best memory is faulty? When we under-
stand the difference between the conscious
and sub-conscious memory and the manner
in which the latter operates, the difficulty
vanishes. This difference and the manner in
which the sub-conscious memory keeps an
accurate record of our life experiences may
be best understood by an illustration, as fol-
lows : When we go into a field and view the
surrounding landscape, vibrations in the
ether carries to us a picture of everything
within the range of our vision. It is as sad
as it is true however, that "we have eyes and
see not," as the Savior said. These vibra-
tions impinge upon the retina of our eyes,
even to the very smallest details, but they
usually do not penetrate to our consciousness,
and therefore are not remembered. Even
the most powerful impressions fade in
course of time so that we cannot call them
back at will, when they are stored in our con-
scious memory.

When a photographer goes afield with Ills
camera the results which he obtains are dif-

LIFE AND DEATH 155

f erent. The ether vibrations emanating from
all things upon which his camera is focused,
transmit to the sensitive plate an impression
of the landscape, true to the minutest detail ;
and, mark this well, this true and accurate
picture is in no wise dependent upon whether
the photographer is observant or not. It will
remain upon the plate and may be reproduc-
ed under proper conditions. Such is the sub-
conscious memory, and it is generated auto-
matically by each of us during every moment
of time, independently of our volition ; in the
following manner.

From the first breath which we draw after
birth to our last dying gasp, we inspire air
which is charged with pictures of our sur-
roundings, and the same ether which carries
that picture to the retina of our eye, is in-
haled into our lungs where it oxygenates the
blood. Thus it reaches the heart in due time.
In the left ventricle of that organ, near the
apex, there is one little atom which is par-
ticularly sensitized, and which remains in the
body all through life. It differs in this re-
spect from all other atoms which come and
go, for it is the particular property of God,
and of a certain spirit. This atom may be
called the book of the Eecording Angel, for

156 THE EOSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

as the blood passes through the heart, cycle
after cycle, the pictures of our good and evil
acts are inscribed thereon to the minutest de-
tail. This record may be called the sub-con-
scious memory. It forms the basis of our fu-
ture life when reproduced as a panorama just
subsequent to death. By removal of the seed
atom — which corresponds to the sensitized
plate in a camera, — the reflecting ether of the
vital body serves as a focus, and as the life
unrolls slowly, backwards from death to birth
the pictures thereof are etched into the de-
sire body which will be our vehicle during our
sojourn in purgatory and the first heaven
where evil is eradicated and good assimilated,
so that in a future life the former may serve
as conscience to withhold the man from re-
peating mistakes of the past, and the latter
will spur us to greater good.

A phenomenon similar to the panorama of
life usually takes place where a person is
drowning. People who have been resusci-
tated speak of having seen their whole life
in a flash. That is because under such con-
ditions the vital body also leaves the dense
body. Of course there is no rupture of the
silver cord, or life could not be restored.
Unconsciousness follows quickly in drowning,

LIFE AND DEATH 157

while in the usual post-mortem review the
consciousness continues until the vital body
collapses in the same manner that it does
when we go to sleep. Then consciousness
ceases for a while and the panorama is ter-
minated. Therefore also the time occupied
by the panorama varies with different per-
sons, according to whether the vital body was
strong and healthy, or had become thin and
emaciated by protracted illness. The longer
the time spent in review, and the more quiet
and peaceful the surroundings, the deeper
will be the etching which is made in the desire
body. As already said, that has a most im-
portant and far reaching effect, for then the
sufferings which the spirit will realize in
purgatory on account of bad habits and mis-
deeds will be much more keen, than if there
is only a slight impression, and in a future
life the still small voice of conscience will
warn so much more insistently against mis-
takes which caused sufferings in the past.
When conditions are such at the time of
death that the spirit is disturbed by outside
conditions, for instance the din and turmoil
of a battle, the harrowing conditions of an
accident or the hysterical wailings of rela-
tives, the distraction prevents it from realiz-

158 THE ROSICEUCIAN MYSTERIES

ing an appropriate depth in the etching upon
the desire body. Consequently its post-mor-
tem existence becomes vague and insipid, the
spirit does not harvest fruits of experience
as it should have done, had it passed out of
the body in peace and under normal condi-
tions. It would therefore lack incentive to
good in a future life, and miss the warning
against evil which a deep etching of the pano-
rama of life would have given. Thus its
growth would be retarded in a very marked
degree, but the beneficent powers in charge of
evolution take certain steps to compensate
for our ignorant treatment of the dying and
other untoward circumstances mentioned.
What these steps are, we shall discuss when
considering the life of children in heaven, for
the present let it be sufficient to say, that in
God's kingdom every evil is always transmut-
ed to a greater good though the process may
not be at once apparent.

Purgatory.

During life the collapse of the vital body
at night terminated our view of the world
about us, and caused us to lose ourselves in
unconsciousness of sleep. When the vital

LIFE AND DEATH 159

body collapses just subsequent to death, and
the panorama of life is terminated, we also
lose consciousness for a time which varies ac-
cording to the individual. A darkness seems
to fall upon the spirit, then after a while it
wakes up and begins dimly to perceive the
light of the other world, but is only gradually
accustomed to the altered conditions. It is an
experience similar to thatwhichwe have when
coming out of a darkened room into sunlight,
which blinds us by its brilliancy, until the
pupils of our eyes have contracted so that
they admit a quantity of light bearable to
our organism.

If under such a condition we turn momen-
tarily from the bright sunlight and look back
into the darkened room, objects there will be
much more plain to our vision than things
outside which are illumined by the powerful
rays of the sun. So it is also with the spirit,
when it has first been released from the body
it perceives sights, scenes and sounds of the
material world, which it has just left, much
more readily than it observes the sights of
the world it is entering. Wordsworth in his
Ode to Immortality noted a similar condition
in the case of new-born children, who are all
clairvoyant and much more awake to the

160 THE ROSICRTJCIAN MYSTERIES

spiritual world than to this present plane of
existence. Some lose the spiritual sight very
early, others retain it for a number of years
and a few keep it all through life, but as the
birth of a child is a death in the spiritual
world and it retains the spiritual sight for a
time, so also death here is a birth upon the
spiritual plane, and the newly dead retain a
consciousness of this world for some time
subsequent to demise.

When one awakes in the Desire World af-
ter having passed through aforementioned
experiences, the general feeling seems to be
one of relief from a heavy burden, a feeling
perhaps akin to that of a diver encased in a
heavy rubber suit, a weighty brass helmet
upon his head, leaden soles under his feet
and heavy weights of lead upon his breast
and back, confined in his operations on the
bottom of the ocean by a short length of air
tube, and able only to move clumsily with
difficulty. When after the day's. work such
a man is hauled to the surface, and divests
himself of his heavy garments and he moves
about with the facility we enjoy here, he must
surely experience a feeling of great relief.
Something like that is felt by the spirit when
it has been divested of the mortal coil, and is

LIFE AND DEATH 161

able to roam all over the globe instead of be-
ing confined to the narrow environment which
bound it upon earth.

There is also a feeling of relief for those
who have been ill. Sickness, such as we know
it, does not exist there. Neither is it neces-
sary to seek food and shelter, for in that
world there is neither heat nor cold. Never-
theless, there are many in the purgatorial re-
gions who go to all bothers of housekeeping,
eating and drinking just as we do here.
George Du Maurier in his novel "Peter Ib-
bettson" gives a very good idea of this condi-
tion, in the life lived between the hero and
the Countess of Towers. This novel also il-
lustrates splendidly what has been said of the
sub-conscious memory, for Geo. Du Maurier
has somewhere, somehow discovered an easy
method which anyone may apply to do what
he calls "dreaming true." By taking a cer-
tain position in going to sleep, it is possible,
after a little practice, to compel the appear-
ance, in a dream, of any scene in our past
life, which we desire to live over again. The