IN THE LAND OF TWILIGHT

LET ME TAKE YOU a step into the Ethereal Realm, soul of man!

We will hurry through the Land of Shadows without stopping, for I have already spoken about this.

It is that plane where those must linger who are still too stupid to use their ethereal bodies properly, particularly those who while on earth considered themselves especially clever.

In the Ethereal Realm they are dumb, blind and deaf because the earthly intellect, as a product of their gross material body, could not accompany them into the beyond.

Being earthbound it remained in the narrow confines of the World of Matter, which it can never overstep.

The first consequence of this great error becomes immediately clear to a human soul after earthly death, for it stands useless in the Ethereal Realm, helpless and weak, much worse than a newly-born child on the gross material earth.

Therefore they are called shadows, souls which still sense their existence but which cannot be conscious of it.

Let us leave these foolish ones behind us – those who, in their conceited belief that they know everything better, prattled enough trivial nonsense on this earth, and who must now be silent.

We are now entering the plane of twilight!

A whispering reaches our ears, in complete accord with the dim twilight around us, in which we can vaguely recognize the outlines of hills, meadows and bushes.

Thus everything here corresponds to the state of twilight, which may be followed by an awakening.

This only may be so, not necessarily must be so!

No happy cheerful sound, no clear vision is possible here!

Only twilight or a restriction which conforms to the condition of the souls sojourning here!

These drag themselves sluggishly about, tired and indifferent, except for an indefinable urge driving them in one direction, towards a faint roseate glow which seems to rise in the distance and which, like a harbinger of light, affects these seemingly tired souls like sweet enchantment.

They only appear to be tired.

Actually they are indolent in spirit, and therefore their ethereal bodies are weak!

The roseate glow in the far distance beckons them onward, full of promise.

Hope awakens within them and they are stirred to quickened movement.

Their desire to reach this glow gives fresh strength to their ethereal bodies; their eyes reflect a keener consciousness, and they step out towards it with ever greater assurance.

We accompany them!

The number of souls around us increases; everything grows more active and distinct; the speaking becomes somewhat louder, swelling to a strong murmuring.

Soon we discern words, words that evolve into prayers uttered by those jostling forward, uttered unceasingly, hastily, feverishly!

The crowds now grow ever more dense.

The forward movement becomes spasmodic, and whole groups in front of us come to a halt.

They are being thrust back by those ahead of them, only to push forward again.

Thus the jammed masses surge To and FRO!

Cries of despair, frightened entreaties, timid demands, and here and there a suppressed whimpering of utter helplessness arise from the prayers!

Quickly we swing ourselves above this struggle of millions of souls!

We see that before them, inflexible and cold, an obstacle checks their advance; an obstacle against which they hurl themselves, and which they wet with their tears in vain!

A series of high, strong and closely-set bars relentlessly halts their forward movement!

More brightly gleams the roseate glow in the distance, and still stronger grows the longing for it within those who have made it their goal.

Beseechingly they stretch out their hands, still convulsively clasping their rosaries and letting one bead after another slip through their fingers as they continue to stammer their prayers.

The barrier, however, stands rigid and immovable, separating them from their beautiful goal!

We walk past the dense crowds, which seem to be endless.

Not hundreds of thousands, but millions!

All faithful “believers”, at least so they thought while on earth!

How different they had imagined everything to be!

They thought they would be joyfully awaited and welcomed with respect!

Call out to them: “Of what use are your prayers, you believers, if you did not allow the Word of the Lord to become active within yourselves, a natural conviction?

“The roseate glow you see in the distance is the longing for the Kingdom of God burning within you!

You carry this longing within yourselves, but you blocked the road leading there with the rigid forms of your false opinions, which are represented in the bars of the fence you now see obstructing you.

Discard all the false views you accepted, and those you yourselves built up in addition during your time on earth!

Throw them aside and boldly step out for the Truth as it is in its great and simple naturalness!

Then you are free to attain the goal you long for!

“But see, you dare not!

You are in constant fear that it might perhaps be wrong, because you have thought differently up to now!

But you only hinder yourselves through this and must remain where you are until it becomes too late to stride onward, and you are bound to be drawn along into perdition!

Nobody can help you with this unless you yourselves begin to leave behind all that is wrong!”

Call out to them!

Point out the way of salvation to these souls!

You will see it is utterly in vain!

The noise of their endless prayers only grows louder and prevents them from hearing a single word that might help them to stride forward towards the roseate glow and the Light!

In spite of many a good volition they must now perish as victims of their indolence, which prevented them from recognizing and absorbing anything more than the externals connected with their churches, temples and mosques!

Sad at heart, we want to move on!

But there before us we notice the soul of a woman, whose face suddenly takes on an expression of peace and calm; her eyes lose their troubled, anxious look and shine more brightly.

As she attains to greater consciousness her body becomes more erect and more transparent … a strong volition of purest hope helps her to raise her foot … and then, uttering a sigh of relief, she stands on the other side of the barrier!

To the soul of this woman the bars no longer formed any obstacle, for through deep meditation and delicate intuition she became convinced that all she had hitherto thought must have been wrong, and with a joyous belief in the love of God she fearlessly cast aside all her mistaken ideas!

Now she is astonished when she realizes how easy it was!

Gratefully she raises her arms, her supreme happiness makes her want to sing with joy!

But the magnitude of the experience overwhelms her and her lips remain mute!

She trembles slightly, her head sinks down upon her breast, and she closes her eyes as big tears course slowly down her cheeks.

She clasps her hands in prayer, but this time she prays in a different way.

A prayer of thanks, and a heartfelt intercession on behalf of all those who are still behind these hard bars because of the false opinions they refuse to surrender!

A sigh of profound sympathy swells her breast, and it is as if the last of her fetters falls away.

Now she is free, free to tread the path to the goal she inwardly longs for!

Lifting her eyes she sees a guide standing before her, and joyfully she follows him into the new, unknown land, towards the roseate glow which becomes ever brighter.

Thus many a soul still detaches itself from these masses which must wait behind the bars erected by their erroneous opinions for their own decision; for their own resolution which may lead them onward or which retains them till the hour strikes when everything that cannot brace itself to cast off that which was formerly wrong will be destroyed.

Few only will still be able to free themselves from the clutches of their false views, in which they are too deeply entangled.

The bars that prevent their progress toward ascent are as rigid as their own stubbornness in clinging to these erroneous views.

It is impossible to lend them a helping hand to overcome this obstacle, because it is absolutely necessary that the initiative should come from the souls themselves!

It is their inner personal experiencing which activates their limbs!

Thus an ominous curse falls upon all those who teach mankind wrong conceptions about the Will of God in Creation, which was at that time to be found in the Word of the Savior.

But it was not purely preserved in the Word of the Bible, still less in earthly explanations!

Let them in their rigidity continue to prattle their prayers under the delusion that the number thereof can and must help them because the church has taught them so – as if some bargain could be driven with the Will of God!

Let us continue our journey in the Land of Twilight!

The stronghold of bars seems to stretch endlessly into the distance, and the multitude it imprisons reaches far beyond our gaze!

But here we see other groups holding Bibles in their hands instead of rosaries, and desperately searching through the pages.

They gather round a few souls who try to give instruction and information by continually reading passages from the Bible.

Here and there various souls lift their Bibles in a demanding manner.

Others kneel and raise them as if in prayer … however, the bars remain immovable, preventing all possibility of advance!

Many souls point to their Biblical knowledge; others demand their right to walk into the Kingdom of Heaven.

But the bars do not budge!

Then we observe the soul of a man smilingly forcing his way through the multitude.

Triumphantly he waves his hand!

“You fools,” he cries, “why did you not want to listen?

I spent half my time on earth studying the other world, which for us is now this life.

The bars in front of you will quickly disappear through one act of your will – they are the product of your imagination!

Just follow me, I will lead you!

I am already familiar with all this!”

The souls around him give way!

He strides towards the bars as if they do not exist, but instantly staggers back with a cry of pain.

The impact was too hard and very soon convinced him that the bars were real enough.

He puts both hands to his forehead.

The bars before him stand immovable.

In a fit of rage he seizes them and shakes them violently!

Angrily he cries out: “Then the medium has deceived me!

And year after year I devoted to studying this!”

He does not realize that it was he who originated and spread these errors both verbally and through his writings, after interpreting the pictures transmitted to him by the medium according to his ideas, and without first studying the Laws of God in Creation!

Do not try to help this man or others!

They are all so wrapped up in themselves that they have no wish whatever to listen to any but their own perceiving.

They must first become weary of their plight, must recognize or comprehend its futility, for this alone holds the possibility of escape from the entanglement of wrong convictions after long wanderings in the Land of Twilight!

These are not bad persons, but those who in their seeking have merely clung tenaciously to false conceptions, or who were too lazy to ponder over everything thoroughly, when they should have examined what they accepted with the most careful intuition to see whether it could be considered correct, or whether it contained flaws which their own healthy intuition must reject as unnatural.

Therefore drop all empty superficiality!

The human spirit should reject all mysticism, because it can never be of any value to him.

Only that which he himself enters into with his intuitive perception, thereby bringing it to personal experience within himself, will be useful to him in the maturing of his spirit.

The word “Awake” which Christ used so frequently means “Experience”.

Do not go through life on earth sleeping or dreaming!

“Pray and work” means: “Make your work a prayer”, spiritualize the work of your hands!

In its performance every task should become a reverential worship of God, in gratitude that God has given you the chance to accomplish something extraordinary among all the creatures of this Subsequent Creation, if only you so wish!

Begin timely with this awakening, with this personal experiencing of everything, including what you read and hear, which is the same as consciously perceiving it, so that you do not have to remain in the Land of Twilight, of which I have explained only a very small part today!

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