Spirit world (Spiritualism)

History

By the mid-19th century most Spiritualist writers concurred that the spirit world was of "tangible substance" and a place consisting of "spheres" or "zones".{{Cite book

Another common Spiritualist conception was that the spirit world is inherently good and is related to truth-seeking as opposed to things that are bad residing in a "spiritual darkness". This conception implied, as in the biblical parable Lazarus and Dives, that there is considered a greater distance between good and bad spirits than between the dead and the living. Also, the spirit world is "The Home of the Soul" as described by C. W. Leadbeater (Theosophist), suggesting that for a living human to experience the spirit world is a blissful, meaningful and life-changing experience.

Yet, John Worth Edmonds stated in his 1853 work Spiritualism, "Man's relation spiritually with the spirit-world is no more wonderful than his connection with the natural world. The two parts of his nature respond to the same affinities in the natural and spiritual worlds." He asserted, quoting Swedenborg through mediumship, that the relationship between man and the spirit world is reciprocal and thus could contain sorrow. Though ultimately, "wandering through the spheres" a path of goodness "is received at last by that Spirit whose thought is universal love forever."

References

References

1. (2001). "Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology". Gale Group.
2. Hill, p.44
3. Hill, p.36
4. Carrol, p.17
5. Edmonds, p.123
6. Edmonds, p.136
7. Hill, p.168
8. Edmonds, p.143
9. Hill, p.208
10. Colville, pp.268–270
11. Edmonds, p.104
12. Edmonds, p.345