D5

02-74a

"They fall into a deep magnetic sleep, and under the influence are carried up by friends who have already gone. There is no more death. They know when it is time for them to go higher by their superior knowledge, and progress."

02-74b

"We are satisfied and that is what keeps us here. If we long for greater development and make the effort we might go sooner." [Yet, there seems to be no consideration of the possibility that the spirits inhabiting lower realms might feel the same way.]

02-115

"Progression to the higher spheres depends greatly upon the desire of each person, and also upon the effort to acquire knowledge. We will stay here perhaps thousands of years. We feel that this is good enough and that is what keeps us here. The higher one goes the more elevated he is in knowledge and goodness. We are satisfied in this, the second sphere, and must stay here as long as we are satisfied."

03–82

What [the spirit] cannot do is rise to a higher plane of vibration than it is fitted to respond to.

03-125a

"There is a similarity here to what you call death. We call it transition. In time, as we develop sufficiently, we pass on to another plane from which it is not so easy to come back to earth. This we call the second death. Those who have passed through the second death can come back and visit us in our plane, but we cannot go to them until we have passed through it also."

03-125b

"We can all come down, but we cannot go up beyond our own plane until we are prepared for the change."

04-136

"[The initial afterlife] is a state of becoming, for many will continue into other physical lives. Some … in different systems of reality altogether."

04-192

"Throughout your reincarnational existences you expand your consciousness, your ideas, your perceptions, your values. You break away from self-adopted restrictions, and you grow spiritually as you learn to step aside from limiting conceptions and dogmas."

04-241

"Those who have left [the reincarnational cycle] have … discarded material form. This group of entities still takes a great interest in earth. They lend it support and energy. In a way, they could be thought of now as earth gods."

06-124

My subjects state that souls end their incarnations on Earth when they reach full maturity.

07-88

You will always gravitate to your own level and be among your caliber in much the same manner that water will seek its own level. But you will not always have to remain in that particular consciousness if it is not of your liking. You will be given the opportunity of taking the initiative and aspiring to the higher. Thus through concentrated effort, you may then attain a still higher state or plane of consciousness if you so desire."

11-101a

"God has created all spirits in a state of simplicity and ignorance; that is to say, without knowledge. He has given to each of them a mission, with a view to enlighten them and to make them gradually arrive at perfection through the knowledge of the truth,"

11-101b

"Spirits acquire knowledge by passing through the trials imposed on them by God. … When a spirit has finished with any given trial, he has learned the lesson of that trial, and never forgets it. He may remain stationary; but he never degenerates."

11-184

"The necessity of advancing is one which is felt by every spirit, sooner or later. All spirits have to ascend it is their destiny."

12 - 57

"In order to complete our circle and return to Him, we must absorb the philosophy of the universe and come to understand its laws."

12 - 75

"When we grasp that each of us is as much a part of God as any other, then we are able to spread the good word that by helping these other parts of God we advance together to a higher plane of awareness."

12-152

"The higher planes that you ask about are essentially higher degrees of consciousness."

13-13

"Between each plane or new chapter in experience there is … an intermediate state [the astral plane or 'Hades' as Myers calls it], when the soul reviews his past experiences and makes his choice, deciding whether he will go up or down the ladder of consciousness."

13-23

"The more advanced souls--whom the Church may call the angels and whom I call `the Wise' - can exist in tenuous forms within vast vistas of space and lead within it an extraordinarily vivid existence."

19-41

"[Some spirits] move on a little from lower to higher, then drop back or slip back, to again take a step or two up the ladder, so that progress with such is very slow and tedious, requiring tact and patience in the teacher,"

20-158

"Many here are doing good work and have no desire as yet for higher knowledge which might even distract them from their present work. But it is only a question of time; they will presently feel the appetite for the higher things. The lesser things are both useful and necessary until one develops mentally and spiritually; remember how children outgrow their toys."

20-185

"There are new possibilities and developments which one is always anxious to experience, and we know there is still more beyond."

20-287

"By analogy, you might term me an ant in spirit life; for in my world there are developed beings who know as much more than I as you know more than the ant. In time I shall grow to their state of knowledge, but it must be a gradual evolution."

27-31

"To place a pure spirit in a situation where it would retrograde, would conflict with the nature it derived from God itself. If it could not progress, what would become of it? No spirit, even the vilest, can be placed in a situation where it is impossible to progress."

28 - 69

Can an entity, while advancing, fall further behind? "No."

30-51

"I thought I was real enough on earth. Now I realize that what seemed important and substantial and worthwhile was but a shadow of a shadow! I'm not really Real here! This too is merely the shadow which is but a shell, or covering, of something else. I'm on a journey still… I've only peeled off the outer shadow yet, the outer skin… rather like peeling skins from an onion. One goes on shedding; it seems an eternal process."

30-58

"Some souls settle down in one stage for years…even centuries!"

31-104

"I am sorry to say that the person who has a clear idea of the significance of life and its possibilities for development is about as rare here as on the earth."

31-168

"Who grieves that an acorn is slow in becoming an oak?...If a man were to become an archangel in a few years' time, he would suffer terribly from growing pains."

32-45

"When a person has fulfilled his purpose and development on the astral plane, he may then proceed permanently to enter the mental plane and the higher planes, in succession, to work and develop more fully there. In that case, the astral body is cast off, as is the physical body at death, and its particles disintegrate to be reused in the creative processes."

33-61

"Think of the whole man as being composed of four interpenetrating forms. The second of these is very near to the physical in substance and is very closely knit to it. It is the etheric or life-body and gives the power of sensory experience. It never leaves the physical body even in sleep but at death it parts from the physical along with the astral and ego bodies. It is too closely related to the physical to allow the higher bodies to pass clearly into their proper sphere, so it also has to be shed and this is the second death."

36-282

"The people who have been here long enough to advance to a higher plane or a high dimension can always come down to the lower plane to help us. But we who are just here have to earn the right to go up."

37~16

"I would urge that no fixed rule should be applied to our sojourn in each world or state."

37~39

"It is inevitable, that the man who dies suddenly in his prime, will linger longer in the intermediate world, will make slower progress towards the brilliant light."

37~43

"Souls are centers of imagination, but some are unable to enter the mind of the Creator, so the spirit of the Group — realizing that they are unworthy and unable to attain to immortality — condemns them to disintegration. … but nothing is wasted, nothing lost. Though the soul has been disintegrated its memories and experiences are retained by the group-soul and are of value to the members of that community."

.