The Afterlife - Continued

So you will find that a man with that mental outlook upon entering the astral world finds it very difficult to readjust himself to his new life. In such a case as this he usually enters one of the homes in the astral world and we endeavour to teach him. But like certain men in your world, he usually has his own ideas and is still allowed to think along those lines, if he desires to do so. But those who believe in the finality of death will not progress far in the mental world.

They usually stay in the first sphere, or shall I say in “the babies class” until they mentally desire to go a step further and explore the new life in which they live. They find themselves in a solid body, in a world of activity very little different from their earthly understanding and since it is very near the earthly expression of material life, they continue in the “babies class” without any desire for anything better. They are at liberty to do that; no one forces them. No one deprives them of their free will any more than we would deprive you who are in material bodies here and now.
That is the first state of the astral world. Some of you might question what they do in the astral world. What do you do in your material world? Firstly, there is great activity; so also is there in the astral world. Secondly, in your world you keep your mind and your hands fully occupied. So do they also in the astral world. What do you think they live in? You earthly folk use your mentality to fashion things with your hands; through your mind you take the attributes of the earth and with your hands you mould a ship. You mould guns; you mould weapons of war.

We do not teach them to do that in my world but we take the material and through the mind and hands of your fellow man in my world we weld things of beauty in the higher states of existence. Some of you might say, “But Red Cloud, a soldier who has always handled a gun could not be happy fashioning beautiful things!” To that I would answer that a soldier who handles a gun in the astral world dwells in the lower strata of the astral world, he also realises instantaneously that it is of no use because he cannot kill.