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The Rosicrucian Philosophy in Questions & Answers
HOW THE LENGTH OF EARTH LIFE IS DETERMINED
QUESTION: Is there any limit set to the Earth life before we are born?
(Vol. I, #47)
ANSWER: Yes, at the time when the Ego is coming to rebirth, it forms the
creative archetype of its physical form in the Second Heaven with the help of
the Creative Hierarchies. That archetype is a singing, vibrating thing, which
is set into vibration by the Ego with a certain force commensurate with the
length of the life to be lived upon Earth, and until that archetype ceases to
vibrate the form which is built of the chemical constituents of the Earth will
continue to live.
The law of cause and effect, however, is the arbiter of the way the life
is to be lived, and certain opportunities for spiritual growth are set before
the Ego at various points in its Earth life. If these opportunities are made
use of, the life will continue along the straight path, but if not, it
diverges, as we might say, into a blind alley where the life then is
terminated by the creative hierarchies, which destroy the archetype in the
Heaven World. Thus we may say that the ultimate length of an Earth life is
determined before we are born physically, but the life may be shortened if we
neglect certain opportunities. There is also the possibility in the case of a
few, where the life has been thoroughly lived, where it has been very full,
and where the person has endeavored in all cases to live up to his
opportunities, that more life may be infused into the archetype than had been
done in the first place, and so the life may be prolonged, but as said, that
is only in exceptional cases.
REDUCING THE INTERVAL BETWEEN EARTH LIVES
QUESTION: Is it possible to shorten the time between death and a new
birth, so as to hasten one's evolution, and if so, how? (Vol. I. #48)
ANSWER: Yes, it is possible for everyone who will take the pains to review
this life every day, in the reverse order, from evening until morning, judging
himself for the things he has done amiss, promising himself to rectify his
mistakes and doing it to the best of his endeavor. When he does that he or she
will eradicate the sins he or she has committed from his or her life and he or
she will steadily become a very much better man or woman than those who do not
perform this simple exercise. Thus the sins which would otherwise be
expurgated in Purgatory have been already dealt with in life and so the
Purgatorial existence will be materially shortened. When at the time of the
evening exercise, the man reviews the good he has done and promises himself to
endeavor to do even better in the future he is also assimilating the good he
has done each day, and will therefore make enormous strides in soul growth so
that he will also obviate the necessity for life in the First Heaven. Such a
man will then be definitely treading the path of initiation; he is then in
reality outside the ordinary laws which govern mankind, for he is a helper in
evolution and will, therefore, be given the opportunity to return to Earth in
that capacity much sooner than would otherwise be the case.
WHY CHILDREN DIE
QUESTION: Why do children die? (Vol. I, #51)
ANSWER: There are many causes for the death of children. We will give a
few of the principal ones. In the first place, when an Ego returns to Earth
life, it is drawn to a certain family because it can there get the environment
which is calculated to further its progress, and where it may liquidate a
certain amount of the fate generated by itself in previous existences. Then
when parents make such radical changes in their lives that the Ego would not
be able to get that experience, or liquidate that fate, the Ego is usually
withdrawn and sent to another place where it may get the right conditions for
its growth at that time. Or it may be withdrawn for a few years and reborn in
the same family when it is seen that the conditions can be obtained there at
that late time. But there is a cause that is responsible for infant mortality
which lies much farther back, namely, in previous lives, and to understand
this cause it is necessary to know something about what takes place at death
and immediately after.
When a spirit is passing out of the body, it takes with it the desire
body, the mind and the vital body, and the vital body is at that time the
storehouse for the pictures of the past life. These are then etched into the
desire body during the three and one-half days immediately following death.
Then the desire body becomes the arbiter of man's destiny in Purgatory and the
First Heaven. The pains caused by expurgation of evil and the joy caused by
the contemplation of the good in life are carried over to the next life as
conscience to deter man from perpetuating the mistakes of past lives and to
entice him to do that which caused him joy in the former life more abundantly.
When those next of kin to a dying person who are present in the death
chamber burst into hysterical lamentations at the time the spirit passes out,
and keep that up for the next few days, the spirit which is at that time in
exceedingly close touch with the Physical World will be much moved by the
grief of the dear ones, and will not be able to focus its attention closely
upon the contemplation of its past life, and thus the etching made in the
desire body will not be as deep as it would if the passing spirit were left in
peace and undisturbed. Consequently the sufferings in Purgatory will not be as
keen nor will the pleasures in the First Heaven be as great as otherwise and
therefore, when the Ego returns to Earth life, it will have lost a certain
part of the experience from the previous life. That is to say, the voice of
conscience will not speak with the same emphasis as would have been the case
had the Ego been left undisturbed by lamentations.
In order to compensate for this lack, the Ego is then usually brought to
birth among the same friends who lamented over it, and it is then taken away
from them while yet in the years of childhood. Then it enters the Desire
World, but, of course, a little child has not committed any sins that need to
be expurgated and so its desire body and mind remain intact; it then goes
directly into the First Heaven to wait until a new embodiment offers, but this
waiting time is used to school it directly in the effect of the different
emotions, both good and evil. And often a relative meets it and takes it in
charge, having the task of teaching it that which it had lost through the
lamentation that person indulged in, or else it is taught by others. At any
rate, the loss is more than made up, so that when the child returns to the
second birth it will have as full a moral growth as it would have had under
ordinary circumstances, had there been no lamentation at the time when it
passed out.
THE EFFECTS OF CREMATION UPON THE PHYSICAL BODY
QUESTION: Does the cremation of the dense body after death affect the
spirit in any way? (Vol. I, #53)
ANSWER: During life and in the waking state of consciousness, the vehicles
of the Ego are all together and concentric, but at death the Ego, clothed in
the mind and desire body, withdraws from the dense body, and as the vital
functions are at an end, the vital body also is taken out of the dense body,
leaving it inanimate upon the bed. One little atom in the heart is taken out
and the rest of the body disintegrates in due course. But at that time there
is an extremely important process going on, and those who attend the passing
spirit in the death chamber should be very careful that the utmost quiet
reigns there and in the whole house, for the pictures of the whole past life
which have been stored in the vital body are passing before the eye of the
spirit in a slow and orderly progression, in reverse order, from death back to
birth. This panorama of the past life lasts from a few hours to three and one-
half days. The time is dependent upon the strength of the vital body which
determines how long a man could keep awake under the most severe stress. Some
persons can work for fifty, sixty and seventy hours before they fall down
exhausted, while others are capable of keeping awake only a few hours. The
reason why it is important that there should be quiet in the house of death
during the three and one-half days immediately following death is this: During
that time the panorama of the past life is being etched upon the desire body
which will be the man's vehicle while he stays in Purgatory and the First
Heaven, where he is reaping the good or ill that he has sown, according to the
deeds done in the body.
Now, where the life has been full of events and the man's vital body is
strong, a longer time will be given to this etching than under conditions
where the vital body is weak, but during all that time the dense body is
connected with the higher vehicles by the silver cord and any hurt to the
dense body is felt in a measure by the spirit. So that embalming, post mortem
examinations and cremation are all felt. Therefore, these should be avoided
during the first three and one-half days after the time of death, for when the
panorama has been fully etched into the desire body, then the silver cord is
broken, the vital body gravitates back to the dense body and there is no more
connection with the spirit, which is then free to go on with its higher life.
When the body is buried, the vital body disintegrates slowly at the same
time as the dense body, so that when, for instance, an arm has decayed in the
grave, the etheric arm of the vital body which hovers over the grave also
disappears, and so on until the last vestige of the body is gone. But where
cremation is performed the vital body disintegrates at once, and as that it
the storehouse of the pictures of the past life, which, being etched upon the
desire body to form the basis of life in Purgatory and the Frist Heaven, this
would be a great calamity where cremation is performed before the three and a
half days are past. Unless help were given, the passing spirit could not hold
it together. And that is part of the work that is done by the invisible
helpers for humanity. Sometimes they are assisted by nature spirits and others
detailed by the Creative Hierarchies or leaders of humanity. There is also a
loss where one is cremated before the silver cord has broken naturally, the
imprint upon the desire body is never as deep as it would otherwise have been,
and this has an effect upon future lives, for the deeper the imprint of the
past life upon the desire body, the keener the sufferings in Purgatory for the
ill committed and the keener also the pleasure in the First Heaven which
results from the good deeds of the past life. It is these pains and plasures
of our past lives that create what we call conscience, so that where we have
lost in suffering we lose also the realization of wrong which is to deter us
in future lives from committing the same mistakes over and over again.
Therefore, the effects of the premature cremation are very far reaching. Sad
it is to say, that while we have a science of birth with obstetricians,
trained nurses, antiseptics and everything else necessary to the comfort and
well being of a little stranger, we sadly lack a science of death to help us
to care for the departing friends of a lifetime.
This article was adapted from "The Rosicrucian Philosophy in Questions
and Answers, Vol. I," by Max Heindel, published by The Rosicrucian Fellowship.