Free Will

Greetings in the name of the Lord, my friends. Blessed is this hour; blessed are all of you. It is not easy for some people who have found their way here for the first time to understand that a very different personality is speaking through this human person. It will take study and openness to believe that such a thing is possible.

Since every time new friends join us, it is difficult to present my lectures so that clear understanding may be derived from them for everyone. Were I only to consider the newcomers, I would not do justice to all my friends who attend the lectures regularly. On the other hand, if the lectures were conducted solely for my regular friends, newcomers could not follow them at all. So there is a complication not easily overcome, as you can well see. However, I will do my best under the circumstances.

At this time, I would like to stress once again that even for the most regular attendants repetitions are essential. Not only do you human beings forget so many things which are important for spiritual progress, but even what you are aware of you may only know with your intellect and not also in your heart. There is a vast difference between intellectual knowledge and  what is termed enlightenment. You may not attain a deep and all-pervading knowledge while listening to the same thought twenty-five times perhaps, even if it is tackled from new angles, until you hear it for the twenty-sixth time:  then suddenly you attain enlightenment in this one respect.

The subject I will discuss tonight is free will. People are forever and ever debating this subject. One group claims there is no free will whatsoever:  everything is fate or destiny. Another group says, more or less, that there is only free will. According to a third group, some things are determined by free will while others are not. Now which is actually true?

Let us examine this subject together from the spiritual point of view and from the point of view of absolute reality. For a person who believes only in this present life, and not in an existence before or after it, for one who cannot believe in the spiritual world or in divine law and order, the logical third alternative is that some factors are determined by fate and others by a person’s free will. Such a person would be convinced that one has no choice in determining where one is born, as what one is born, where, when, and how one is going to die, and even how certain definite phases within the present life span will unfold. However, for the person who feels, knows, and has experienced the truth of the law of cause and effect and of reincarnation, this point of view could not possibly be correct. In the overall picture, each individual has complete free will, even though temporarily the free will cannot manifest because the factors you cannot control in this life were actually determined by you in your previous lives. Those factors are only effects brought about by causes you yourself have set in motion.

Let me give you an example. Suppose a murderer, a man who has committed an act not only against divine law but also against your human law, is apprehended and put in prison. Let us further assume that he has lost his memory and has had amnesia since having committed this act. So he finds himself in prison without knowing why, because he does not remember what he did. The murderer may be told he has done such and such, but he has forgotten it. However, this does not alter the fact that he has committed the crime. Whether or not he knows and remembers it does not make any difference. Due to his loss of memory and his failure to believe what he is being told, the murderer will be convinced that being imprisoned is indeed a very unjust fate because he only sees one part, the present part, and ignores the connections and chain reactions from the past. The past action that has led him into the present state is hidden from his view, but it exists nevertheless as a reality. The imprisonment is the creation of free will working through cause and effect.

Wherever your free will is hindered in working for your immediate apparent interests, this is due to causes you yourself have brought about, even though you cannot remember them. By the same token, wherever you now have the possibility to use your free will to your actual or apparent advantage, you yourself set the respective causes in motion; whether in this same lifetime or in a previous one does not change the workings of the law. Your present freedom, or lack of freedom, depends entirely on your past actions, thoughts, and inner reactions.

The fact that this law applies to one’s present life is noticed and recognized by more and more people today. Many, many causes of what is happening in your life can be traced to some outer or inner action of yours earlier in this same incarnation. Only a short time ago, humankind did not have the means to delve deeply enough into the human soul to find such hidden causes, whether good or bad, favorable or unfavorable. As I said, there are a number of causes stemming from this same life which you do not remember; it takes a great deal of time and effort to uncover them. It would not occur to you to claim that you are not responsible merely because you have forgotten them. At one time you freely chose to act and think in a way that brought about a certain result.

There is no action, thought, or even feeling that does not produce a result. Some effects occur quickly, so their causes are easier to trace. Others take a longer route, but the fact remains that nothing happens in your life for which you are not responsible. You all know that. Therefore, the idea that free will exists only part of the time must be wrong, or is at best a half-truth. Whatever you do or think today and however you react now must affect tomorrow, the next month, next year, and in many instances also your next life. So you actually have complete free will, my friends!  Only wherever or whenever you human beings cannot remember or recognize the seeds you have sown, do you say that fate is at work.

Many people think that having free will means they can do or think anything they please without causing any effect. This conception of free will is of course a gross error. God has created the Universe, which is governed by an infinite number of laws. He created His children and gave them free will so they could choose to keep or not to keep the laws long before this earth and this material world came into existence. The keeping of these laws entails happiness, love, harmony, light, and supreme wisdom, because God, who is perfect, cannot create anything but perfection. Yet, if any creature were to be forced to stay within the framework of these laws, as if they had no free will, the laws would neither be what they are, nor would they be in accordance with the nature of God. There would be a discrepancy between the basic law of free will and its application in Creation. Beauty, harmony, wisdom, bliss, and love cannot be if the experience of these states is forced on the individual against his or her will or against the individual’s own recognition of the wisdom and perfection of the laws. Then God would not be a god of freedom, but a god of slavery, even if His creatures could be happy in an enforced system. Thus each creature—human or spirit—has the possibility of choosing to live according to the laws or not. There lies the key to this question; not only the key to an added understanding of free will, but also to an understanding of the coming into existence of evil, darkness, and cruelty—in short, the fall of the angels. So many people wonder how a god of love could have created evil. But God did not create evil. As you may understand now, He gave each creature the opportunity to freely choose or not choose to follow His laws of perfection.

You may say that it is difficult to abide by the divine laws, and indeed it is, in some respects. Whoever has at one time or another left divine law indeed finds it difficult to abide by it again. But for those who have never left it—and there are a great many to whom this applies—it is not difficult. The difficulty lies solely in purifying yourself, step by step, until you reach the state that was once yours, where the keeping of the law did not present any difficulty for you. Here I should like to stress that you did not choose to leave divine law because it was too difficult to keep. In whatever aspect of your personality you have not deviated from divine law—for this did not happen necessarily in every aspect—or in whatever aspect you have succeeded in purifying yourself in previous incarnations back to your original state, it is not the least bit difficult for you to keep the laws.

The difficulty varies with each individual. For one person it may be difficult not to steal. For another, this presents no difficulty whatsoever, while not losing her temper does. For a third, it may be difficult not to be envious, and so on. It is your aim, through spiritual development and progress, to reach a state where you are able to live within divine law in every conceivable respect without any difficulty at all. And this state, of course, can only be accomplished through your own choosing and your own free will.

All this will perhaps also clarify for you the idea of “punishment,” against which so many of you revolt. There is no god who dishes out arbitrary punishment. God has created perfect laws and perfect conditions for His children to follow freely or not. If you choose the word “punishment” for that, it is your affair, but you will admit that this gives an altogether wrong slant on the facts as they truly are. God’s creation is so perfect and His laws are of such supreme wisdom and love that whatever individuals do—even those who have deviated from His laws—they must ultimately find their way back to His laws and thus to a state of utter bliss and perfection. The equation must come out even in the end. It must happen one way or another. To understand this is perhaps one of the greatest difficulties for humankind. However, I will try to give you an explanation though it is difficult for me, having to use human speech, which represents a very great hindrance for us spirits.

It appears at first sight that the further you move away from God and His laws of perfection, the more difficult it is to find your way back. In a way this is so, but only in a way. I might say that the “technical” difficulty increases, for you have to work your way back step by step to the state of perfection you once possessed. Yet the further away you are from God the unhappier you are, therefore the more assuredly must you ultimately come back to God through this very state of unhappiness. In breaking the law and experiencing the resulting unhappiness lies the remedy itself and the means to alleviate your unhappy state. To do that is what really counts. You can grasp this truth only if you view life and the world not just from your human and present perspective, but from the overall point of view of creation and absolute reality. All this represents a very good subject for meditation.

Think of the many people who live in a state of mediocre contentment with no particular problems and conflicts, yet lack real happiness, people who never pull themselves up to search for more and deeper wisdom, truth, and fulfillment. They do nothing to further their spiritual progress. Yet, when they experience a crisis or some unhappiness, that becomes the starting point for them to do something toward reaching a higher degree of consciousness and therefore also of happiness. This example may make it easier for you to understand that unhappiness is the remedy. It is a very important motivation that has not been generally recognized by humankind, except maybe by a few great people.

As long as you are dependent on outer happenings over which you have no control, you will never know happiness. You may feel temporary contentment, but you will be constantly afraid to lose it because you cannot control other people and their power over you or over your circumstances. The only happiness that is durable and cannot be taken away by anyone, the only sure footing you can possibly have, comes about when you develop yourself, when you purify and cure your soul of all the sick and wrong currents that deviate from divine law. That is when you find the inner causes responsible for your trials and hardships. Unfortunately, you will not do that most of the time, unless unpleasant events occur in your life.

Now God is not sending you these unpleasant occurrences willfully. Due to your deviation from divine law at one time or another, whether in this life or a previous one, you have prepared the conditions that take effect at this very moment. It is by no means necessary for you to know where and how you lived your last life in order to find the roots of your present hardship; for as long as a trend has not been purified it exists in you and is thus available for your recognition, if you are willing. When you know your faults and weaknesses, you must find either directly or indirectly the roots of everything that is not to your liking about your present life. If you go about finding your deviations from divine law, you will be able to begin a purification process and, on a long and upward-winding path, you will walk out of all the darkness into which you have put yourself by choice; no one else has put you there.

This leads me to the subject of will direction and willpower:  where to employ willpower and where not. Let us start out from the premise that you will wish above all to fulfill the will of God. I have already discussed at length how to go about finding out what the will of God may be in any given circumstance. Apart from the willpower to make single decisions or take a certain course in one’s life, there are many subtle inner will currents one should become aware of and learn when and how to use.

It is true, as many people claim, that you can accomplish almost anything by willpower. The inner psychic forces, once utilized, are much more potent than anyone of you realizes at present; but when, and how, and in what direction it is advisable to use these powers is another question. When should you accept God’s will and not press against it?  When is it right to utilize your dormant powers?  Many people are confused and not aware of the possibilities.

Thus the first step is to find out whether this confusion exists in you. If it does, formulate your thoughts clearly and concisely. Become consciously aware of what you desire. If there is a question in you whether what you wish is in accordance with the will of God, first go about finding it out in the manner I always prescribe, namely by putting into clear-cut and concise thought-forms anything for which you strive. Once this question is settled within you, you will have gained more inner peace. Anyone who has attained something in this life, whatever it may be, has done this. People who do not put God above all else may accomplish things that do not correspond to his will. But you have forever the opportunity to find out God’s will out from the start.

Whether your desires pertain to earthly things which do not deviate from divine law or to your spiritual progress and self-purification, you could use willpower more often or with greater strength. A number of my friends who desire to follow this path in a general sense have not yet used this inner power when encountering the many particular details of the journey. There are certainly many difficulties to overcome in your own personality, many faults to become aware of and cast off, and many things to learn. All this could be accomplished more easily if you would use the proper power in the proper way.

You can want and will both out of your intellect and out of your soul. The intellectual willpower may be a strong one, but it will never have the strong effect of the soul’s willpower. You can use your willpower in two very distinct ways. One creates a pressure and tension that will rob you of your peace; it leads you away from the state of detachment so necessary for attaining spiritual and emotional maturity. The other flows freely, strongly, and vitally and will never hamper your serenity; it works deep inside and yet quite consciously; it wills strongly and yet patiently; it leaves you free and detached, yet never passive and resigned. One will-stream comes out of your higher self, the other out of your lower self. If you will something that is against divine law and divine will, it will never give you peace. However, it is also possible for you to will something that is utterly right for you, but to do so in the wrong way, thereby mingling in wrong currents or wrong motives.

Let us assume, for instance, that in your profession you want to do your best. This is certainly a legitimate wish. To be without desire in this respect would be wrong because your spark and your vitality would be missing. There is a danger in being too desireless and detached, for you might then move slowly and unnoticeably first into a state of resignation and then into a state of not caring or not being fully alive. Here, as in everything else, the right middle path is so difficult to attain and to maintain.

The right middle path between extremes can be found and adhered to if you meditate daily and test your inner motives in complete honesty. Do you wish to do your best because you desire gratification for your vanity?  Is your desire to do your best diluted by selfish and vain reasons?  Once you have given yourself the answer to these questions, you can begin to redirect your motivation in consciousness and the inner willpower can flow freely. Once your motives are clean, you will not have any unconscious or subconscious pangs which hamper the free flow of your willpower. The higher your development, the stronger your subconscious handicaps your willpower if your desire is not clean and right. So, here again, the first step is to make conscious what has so far been unconscious within you. In that way you can examine where to let go and relinquish your willpower, and where you can and should use much more of it than you have done in the past. When you encounter the strong pressing of your ego, you should learn detachment from it. By viewing again and again the drive of your ego you can gradually learn to let go of it. Once you have separated these two trends in yourself—the selfish or vain one from the one that wishes to serve others in your profession, whatever it may be—you can develop the willpower in the right direction, for then you are cleansed of all masks and wrong motives.

You can train your willpower to flow out of your solar plexus and not out of your brain. There is a very subtle and important difference in this. I know that as long as you have not experienced this difference to some degree, my words will be merely words for you, perhaps even meaningless words. However, you can experience the difference if you keep trying, and once you have experienced it, you will know and understand very well what is willing from the brain and what is willing from your soul. The two trends often mix; the clean trend is diluted and spoiled by the unclean one. A confusion of the soul arises because you are not entirely clear which is which, or do not even know that these two very distinct and different trends exist in you. Separate them. After making this separation, let go of the ego-will that acts against divine law. It can only bring you disharmony. Revive the vital spark and revive the willpower deep within your soul, so that the clean will that does not put your ego in the center of the world can take over.

I know, my dear friends, that this is indeed difficult. For some of you these words may be Greek, but those who have a deeper understanding may grasp a little bit of what I am saying. Real and deep understanding has to be worked for. It cannot come by merely listening to a lecture once. This will never be sufficient. What I have described is one of the many keys to your liberation from the prison into which you have put yourself. It is a loosening of the chains you have put around yourself. As long as you do not begin to liberate yourself from these chains, you will feel frustrated, unhappy, and discontented with your life. Begin to act now so that in every inner stream you go with divine law, instead of against it. Divine law comprises that you should not kill, steal, or commit recognized crimes or sins. These are the broader and more extreme cases. But those of you to whom such more extreme laws may not apply anymore because you have overcome these trends during your past incarnations, must begin to apply divine law within your soul, in your inner trends, in your soul currents, in your emotional reactions, and not only in your outer deeds. Changing your thoughts is not sufficient. Your feelings have to be changed too, and this cannot be accomplished unless you view yourself as you really are.

And now, my dear friends, I am ready for your questions. Before you turn to the planned questions, are there perhaps any pertaining to this subject?

QUESTION:  I think of all those people who have made great careers for instance in the theater or business. They are filled with their own ego and don’t develop spiritually. Can you comment on that?

ANSWER:  A person who nurses a wrong, sick, or ignorant current and who does not fulfill the destiny which is the reason for his present incarnation, may still advance spiritually in some respects of his personality, though perhaps in quite another compartment of his soul. Perhaps such a person overcomes another fault, even though he has not lived his life according to plan and even though he furthers a wrong current. This life may still not be entirely wasted from the spiritual point of view.

QUESTION:  What do you mean by solar plexus as opposed to the brain?

ANSWER:  A wish can come from the intellect or the brain, or from what is sometimes referred to as the soul. In the region of the solar plexus, in radiant matter not visible with your human eye, is the spiritual magnetic field, where not only all emotions exist, but where all factors pertaining to the entire cycle of existence of an individual are marked and deeply inscribed. The significance of previous lives, merits, and so-called sins are contained in this field, as well as the whole book of life. Feelings, wishes, or thoughts evolve not only from the brain region, but also from this part. Many people have not experienced this yet. When they want something, or when they think or form ideas, they believe it happens in the brain. But once a certain stage of spiritual development is attained, you will feel that you can wish and even think in the region of your spiritual field. When thoughts come from there, they have a very different quality and character from thoughts coming from the brain.

The same applies to willpower. Will coming from the brain region will lead to tension, unless it is substantiated by will coming from the spiritual or magnetic field. Of course, even a right idea can take root first in the brain, but as long as it remains in that region alone, it will never have the power to penetrate all of the human personality. Wishing or thinking from the spiritual field involves a person’s higher self or divine spark. Whoever has experienced this will confirm it. Whoever has a thought, an idea, or a wish evolving from the spiritual field will be completely filled with happiness and certainty. That person will know beyond the shadow of a doubt that the thought is true and that truth is living within the soul at this moment.

Faith can never come from the brain. If it is merely a question of intellectual conviction, it is weak faith. But faith coming from the spiritual field and the divine spark is the conviction and experience of truth. Therefore, people who have no faith are wrong when they think that having faith in something is a matter of personal preference. Faith in its true meaning is always a certainty that has been personally experienced, although the experience cannot be conveyed to others who have not yet had this experience. The fact that many people have the wrong kind of faith does not mean that faith in the true sense does not exist.

By the same token, an emotionally unstable and immature person can have strong and even compulsive inner wishes that may be either partially or entirely in the unconscious. These wishes do not come from the brain, but they do not come from the spiritual field either. In the process of uncovering a person’s unconscious, not only do sick, wrong, and twisted currents become apparent along with ignorance and shortsightedness, and not only do faults and weaknesses manifest which I term the lower self. One also encounters the higher self. Sometimes it is way down, deeply hidden, first under protective masks of falseness that have really nothing to do with the person’s true nature, and then hidden under the lower self. At long last, the part of the higher self that was so far not allowed to function emerges. In this higher self or divine spark, which is to some extent free in everyone, lies wisdom, truth, and love to a very large degree. So there is a very important difference between thinking and wanting in the brain or in the spiritual core. The latter has to be cultivated, of course, and cannot function unless the person goes through a rigorous developmental process of self-purification.

QUESTION:  Can some cooperation be achieved between your method and our way of doing psychotherapy?

ANSWER:  Of course there can!  Any person who is really interested and open can achieve this. I will be very happy to give you the ideas and the system I employ. And I may say that this could be beneficial not only to you but also to anyone else who is interested. At some time in the future I may have the opportunity of working with a group of psychiatrists, psychologists, and therapists. We may arrange such a course in the future. Perhaps you also wonder whether it will at all be possible for a human doctor, who cannot see into a soul as a spirit can, to use that system. Certainly, the fact that we can see through a person helps tremendously and shortens the way to success. But still, this system can also be used by human beings, and there is no doubt that human doctors using it will have considerably more success and attain better results.

QUESTION:  I asked last time about the difference between the mystic and the occult and black and white magic, but there was no time to answer. Can you do so now?

ANSWER:  Well, you all know very well the difference between black and white magic, I am sure. So I will answer the question concerning the difference between mysticism and magic. You see, we do not have these exact words or terms, but I understand what you mean by them. Even among human beings there is confusion when it comes to these terms. One person may have a very different idea of the meaning of such a word than another person. Therefore, to use these words may lead to misunderstanding.

The true meaning of mysticism is to reach and experience God to the extent possible for an incarnated being. The mystic way, therefore, means complete purification, and the goal remains utterly and solely God, fulfilling His will, and experiencing Him. But the true mystic will not even want to have this highest of all experiences as the ultimate goal because this again would be a selfish goal, and selfishness is diametrically opposed to mysticism. Therefore, the goal of the true mystic in our eyes is service. To reach perfection and to reach that state of happiness where you can be of best service to your fellow-creatures is the goal. And only a very healthy, very integrated, and very harmonious person, a very happy person can really give, love, and help. Thus the goal of the mystic is God, not because the union with God means inexpressible happiness and unimaginable bliss—though this is a wonderful byproduct, so to speak—but service to God through service to one’s fellow-creatures through the utter fulfillment of God’s will in every particle of life. Magic merely explores the psychic forces. The goal of the magician, even the white magician, is the exploration and the use of certain psychic forces. True, white magic will use these forces for a good purpose. But magic will not go further than the control of psychic forces. The mystic will, on the way to his ultimate goal, also encounter some of the same psychic forces and may even use them occasionally, but his goal will always remain clear in his mind. The mystic will not be sidetracked by the fascination of magic which represents a great temptation and the grave danger that he may lose his way or misuse the powers he has learned to use. He will not be taken in by often very astounding and revolutionary experiences. Many people have started out on the mystic way, but abandoned it because they were too impressed by magic forces which, at one point or another on this path, would become available.

QUESTION:  What about occultism?

ANSWER:  Occult means “hidden.”  The word merely refers to things you do not know yet or which have not yet been proven scientifically, or where the curtain is still drawn between your world and ours. Twenty years ago atomic energy was occult.

QUESTION:  What is the state of ecstasy?

ANSWER:  In the state of ecstasy a person experiences divine forces, divine beings, or even God. That cannot happen very easily. But when people seriously work on the mystic path, the time comes when this must happen too.

QUESTION:  Can it be induced by drugs?

ANSWER:  Not in that way; that is false ecstasy. You have certain little and insignificant “ecstasies” in your world. You may call it an ecstatic experience when you eat a good meal, for that matter, or when you drink a good wine, or when you enjoy anything. It is only a question of degree. Ecstasy in that sense can never be induced by artificial means. And only a person who has experienced it can confirm the vast and tremendous difference between the ecstasy of experiencing God and anything else on earth or in heaven. This ecstasy has nothing to do with imagination or the subconscious, neither can it be reproduced by artificial means. That would be completely senseless, illogical, and against any law in the universe. You can only have very poor substitutes, very poor ones. Only through personal endeavor, development, purification can real ecstasy happen. When your higher self becomes free of the layers of your lower self, it shines through to such a strong degree that it can mate with divine forces; it is thus prepared in quality for the influx of divine currents. Then the real ecstasy can happen, not otherwise.

QUESTION:  Isn’t the proof of the real ecstasy a steady and permanent improvement of the life of the ecstatic?

ANSWER:  Yes, certainly!  But this permanent improvement often and mostly begins much before ecstasy is reached. Anyone who seriously walks the path of purification and perfection must, after a comparatively short time, even short in your human estimation, come to the point where this improvement is felt. This happens first in one’s state of mind, later also in all outer manifestations, permanently and definitely, in spite of certain occasional stumblings and tests unavoidable at the beginning. On the whole, a steady, permanent, and very real improvement must be noticeable long before reaching a state of ecstasy and even before the exploration of psychic forces.

QUESTION:  I would like to know whether people who have gone to the beyond still have feelings of love for their children or relatives.

ANSWER:  This is not a question that I can answer with a “yes” or with a “no.”  So much depends on the individual. You cannot generalize. There are some spirits who, provided of course that love has existed during their lifetime, feel bound to their relatives for a very long time. But this is not necessarily a very good state to be in. The further spiritual development goes, the more a being will learn to detach itself from its relatives and from its old bonds. That does not mean that their love ceases, but spiritual growth means that gradually all creatures are included in one’s love, not only the near and dear ones. The spiritual infant has to learn to love gradually. The more the growth proceeds, the more beings can be included in that love. To love more people in the right way does not diminish the love one feels for a few. And then you must consider also something else:  When you return to the spiritual world, you will meet first of all your dear ones of this life. And according to your own will and wish, you will remain in the state you have been at the time of your so-called death. But when you begin to develop further, you will meet many other spirits, some of whom you will recognize as having been very close to you in former lives, or in lives on different planes, not only on the earth plane. There you will rediscover contacts, loved ones, old friends. And when reincarnation is no longer necessary, the love you are at present only able to extend to some people, you will then have for all creatures. So, some deceased people still feel very much bound to their relatives of the last life. Others also have this love, but they are not bound by it anymore. They go on to other tasks. And this state is infinitely better to be in.

QUESTION:  I would like to know whether spirits in the spirit world are still tied to their country and their names?

ANSWER:  The same answer would apply here as to the last question. It depends very much on the individual. Of course, earthbound spirits, or spirits who are not very developed yet, often hold onto their past earthly bondages, whether this bondage concerns a fanatic patriotism, family pride, a profession, or whatever else it may be. You must not imagine that when you die your state of being will be altogether different merely because you have left your shell behind. Your whole personality, your thinking, your feeling, and your opinions if they are very deeply rooted, your idiosyncrasies and your fixations, all this is not part of your body; it is part, however, of your subtle bodies which live on. And whatever your personality makeup is now, it will be after death. So when a person dies with a fanatic feeling of patriotism, he or she will not feel any differently after death, and may thus be bound. But if a person has begun to detach himself and takes a wider vision on things, he will be able to progress spiritually much better once in the beyond. He or she can be guided more easily and thus live a more pleasant life. If you die, for instance, in a state of fear, you will be in a state of fear afterward. If you die in a state of serenity, you will be serene afterward. Whatever you are at the time of your death, you will feel, experience, and live afterward, and this will be your world because your thoughts, opinions, feelings, and attitudes create the world around you. I might say it is a psychological world, which does not mean it is a world of fantasy. It is real. For you, abstract ideas are formless. In the spirit world all abstract ideas have form and substance. That is how individuals build their worlds by their personalities.

QUESTION:  I’d like to know if that would apply to a person who is a genius but who is born…let us say, for instance the man who invented Sputnik. I mean for a cause that may not be a good one.

ANSWER:  It applies to anyone, my dear. If a genius invents something great and uses it for a bad purpose that is another issue. It will be taken into consideration eventually. His real and innermost motives will be bare, no pretexts and false justifications will exist. He will be judged in a much more exact and profound way than you humans could ever do. But what we were discussing now was the state of being after death. This applies here too, of course, as it applies to everyone. In such a case the person might have convinced himself that he had different motives from those which actually guided him. Such falseness will also create a corresponding form. But what and when and how a person will be judged in the beyond is quite impossible for human beings to determine. Sometimes you may have a vague idea, but even then you cannot possibly know what plays into these considerations. You cannot really look into the soul of a person. You do not know their overall development, their past lives, their present inner and outer obstacles, their merits, etc. You only see a small, small part of a person; all the rest of the story is hidden from you.

QUESTION:  Will a person who may be attached to his country come back to the same country?

ANSWER:  As a spirit, you mean, or in a next incarnation?  [Both.]  That depends. As a spirit he may. If he is an earthbound or an unorganized spirit, so to say, if he does not belong to the divine world, he may to some degree have the freedom to go where he wants and he may then choose the place he is bound to. Whatever is strongest in him will determine his fate in the beyond. If his love for God is stronger than all else, he may through this love overcome his attachment to his country. But if his love for his country is strongest, this will determine his fate. There may also be cases where, for some reasons, this freedom of motion cannot be given. It is too complicated to go into now. If a spirit finds himself back in his old country, it will again depend on his attitude as to how long he will stay there. Whenever he changes his attitude, he may go on to better things. It is, of course, different if a spirit belonging to the order of divine forces has a task to fulfill in connection with a people or a country. But if a spirit is so attached that he goes there on his own, he will not be very happy. As far as reincarnation is concerned, it is very unlikely that a spirit will be reincarnated in the same country. This may occasionally happen if there are some good reasons for it. But precisely in such a case there is more reason that such a person live somewhere else, perhaps in the country he hated most in his last life. The reason of the cycle of reincarnation is spiritual development and perfection, and wherever this is still lacking, a harmonization has to take place through varied experiences.

Be blessed, my dear ones, be in God.