Irrespective of the social echelon, man since the savage state has the innate feeling of the future. Intuition tells him that death is not the last word in life and the ones that we miss are not lost forever. The belief in the future is intuitive and infinitely more general than that of the nothingness. Therefore, how can it be that among those that believe in the immortality of the soul we still find so much attachment to earthly things and so much fear of death?
Fear of death is the effect of God’s wisdom and a consequence of the instinct of conservation that is common to all living creatures. It is necessary while mankind is not enlightened enough with respect to the conditions of a future life, as a counterweight to the tendency that, without that brake, people would be led to prematurely leave the earthly life and neglect the work here that must serve their own advancement. That is why future is only a vague intuition among primitive peoples, then it is a simple hope and later on a certainty, but still countered by a secret attachment to the corporeal life. As man better understands future life the fear of death diminishes; better understanding, at the same time, his mission on Earth he waits for the end with more calm, resignation and less fear.
The certainty of a future life gives another course to the ideas, other objectives to his works. Before finding that certainty he only works for the present; with that certainty he works with eyes in the future, without neglecting the present because he knows that his future depends on a more or less good direction that he might have followed in the present. The certainty of meeting his friends after death; of continuing the relationships that he had on Earth; of not wasting the fruit of any work and of growing incessantly in intelligence and perfection, give him the patience to work and the courage to withstand the temporary fatigues of the earthly life. The solidarity that he sees taking place between the living and the dead makes him understand the one that must exist among the living ones and from that fraternity has a meaning and charity becomes an objective in the present and in the future.
In order to free himself from the apprehensions of death he must be able to face it from its true point of view, that is, in his thoughts he must has penetrated the invisible world and made an idea as much accurate as possible, indicating a certain development to the incarnate Spirit and a certain aptitude to detach from matter.
In those that are not sufficiently advanced, material life still predominates upon spiritual life. Attached to the exterior, man only sees the life of the body whereas the real life is in the soul. When the body is precluded form life, to his eyes everything is lost and he meets desperation. If, instead of concentrating his mind in the terrestrial outfit, he turned his eyes to the very source of life, to the soul, the real being that outlives everything, he would be less sorry for the body, source of so many miseries and pains. For that, however, the Spirit requires a strength that is only obtained with maturity.
The fear of death, therefore, has its origin in the insufficiency of notions about the future life but indicates the necessity of living and the fear that the destruction of the body is the end of everything. It is therefore provoked by the secret desire of survival of the soul, still veiled by uncertainty. The fear weakens as the certainty grows; it disappears when the certainty is complete. That is the providential side of the issue. It was wise not to disturb the man whose reason was not yet strong enough to withstand the very positive and seducing perspective of a future, and that could have made him neglect the present that is necessary to his material as well as intellectual advancement.
That state of affairs is fed and prolonged by purely human causes that will disappear with progress. The first is the aspect by which the future life is presented, aspect that could be enough to little advanced intelligences, but that could not satisfy the requests of reason of thoughtful men. They say that if they were presented with principles contradicted by logic and the positive data of science as absolute truths it would mean that they are not true. From that stems the incredulity of some in many a belief stained by doubt. Future life to them is a vague idea, a probability instead of an absolute certainty; they believe in that, they wanted it to be so and yet they tell themselves: “
And if it is not so? The present is a certainty. Let us deal with that first. Future will come as a bonus.” They then add: “
Definitely, what is the soul? Is it a point, an atom, a spark, a flame? How does the soul feel? How does the soul see? How does the soul perceive?
To them the soul is not an effective reality. It is an abstraction. In their minds their loved ones are reduced to the state of atoms and in a way they are lost, and to their eyes they no longer have the qualities that give them the capacity of loving. They do not understand the love of a spark nor the love that one might have for that spark and they themselves are happy to be transformed into monads.
[2] Hence the return to the positivism of earthly life that is more substantial. The number of those that are dominated by these ideas is considerable.
Another reason that connects to the earthly life even those that strongly believe in a future life is due to the impression that they keep from the teachings that they received in their infancy. The image that religions makes of that is must acknowledge is not very attractive or reassuring. From one side one sees the contortions of the damned ones that eternally atone their momentary sins through tortures and flames. For these centuries are succeeded by centuries without any hope of mitigation or pity and what is even more impious is that regret is useless to them. On another hand one sees the languid and suffering souls of purgatory, waiting for their freedom that depends on the good will of the living ones that pray or send prayers to them, not depending on their own efforts of progress. These two categories form the immense majority of the population from beyond the grave. Above that there is the very restrictive category of the elected ones, enjoying a contemplative beatitude for eternity.
Such a state satisfies neither the aspirations nor the instinctive idea of progress, the only one that seems compatible with an absolute happiness. It is difficult to understand that the ignorant savage, morally obtuse, may be at the same level of someone that reached the most elevated level of education and practical morality, after long years of work, just because those received baptism. It is even less conceivable that the boy that died in his early years, before having conscience of himself and his actions, may enjoy the same privileges just as a consequence of a ceremony that did not even depend on him.
Such thoughts certainly agitate the most eager believers, however little they may think. The progressive work that we do on Earth having no value to the future life; the easiness with which they believe to acquire that happiness by means of a few exterior practices; the very possibility of buying that with money, without a serious change of character and habits, all that leave to the mundane pleasures all of its value. More than one believer say in their intimacy that considering that their future is guaranteed by the practice of certain formulas, or by post-mortem gifts that deprive them from nothing, it would be superfluous to impose sacrifices to oneself or some sort of trouble to the benefit of others since salvation can be found by each one working for oneself.
That is certainly not the way everybody thinks for there are great and beautiful exceptions but it is incontestable that this is the way the majority thinks and that the necessary things to be done to be happy in the other world has nothing to do with the assets in this world, leading therefore to egotism. We add to that the fact that everything in our traditions concur to have a missed earthly life and the passage from Earth to heavens to be feared. Death is only surrounded by lugubrious ceremonies that cause more horror than bring hope. When death is represented it is always in a disgusting way and never like a sleep of transition. All symbols of death recall the destruction of the body, showing it horribly and discarnate. None symbolizes the soul radiantly detaching from its earthly links. Departure to that happier world is only followed by the lamentation of the survivors, as if a great disgrace would happen to those that depart. An eternal good-bye is waved as if they were never be seen again. What they are sorry about for them is the termination of the enjoyment down here, as if they were not going to find better enjoyment beyond the grave. What a disgrace, they say, dying at such an early age, rich, happy and when there is still a brilliant future ahead! The idea of a happier condition only vaguely comes to mind because it has no roots. Everything then concurs to inspire the horror of death instead of giving rise to hope. Man will certainly take a very long time to leave these prejudices behind but he will get there as his faith is more solid and that a healthier idea is made of the spiritual life.
The Spiritist Doctrine changes entirely the way future is faced. Future life is no longer a hypothesis, but a reality; the state of the Spirits after death is no longer a system but the result of observation. The veil is raised; the spiritual world appears in its full practical reality. It was not men that discovered it by the struggle of an ingenious conception, but it was the very inhabitants of that world that came to describe their situation. We see them there in at all levels of the spiritual scale, in all phases of happiness and disgrace. We observe every activity of life beyond the grave. To the Spiritists that is the reason why they face death with calm and why so much serenity during their last moments on Earth. They are supported not only by hope but also by certainty. They know that future life is only the continuation of the present life in better conditions and they wait for that with the same confidence that they wait for sunrise after a stormy night. The reasons for such confidence are in the facts that they have witnessed and in the agreement of those facts with God’s logic, justice and benevolence and the internal aspirations of man.
Besides, vulgar belief places the souls in regions that are only accessible to thoughts, where they become kind of strange to the survivors. The Church itself places an unpassable barrier between them since it declares that all relationships are broken and every communication is impossible. If they are in hell there is no hope of seeing them again unless we go there too; if they are among the elected ones they will be totally absorbed in a contemplative beatitude. All that establishes such a distance between the dead and the living ones that the separation is seen as eternal and hence it seems preferable to keep them close, suffering on Earth, than seeing them departing even to heavens. Besides, is the soul in heavens really happy when that soul sees her son, father, mother or friends burning in eternity?
To the Spiritists the soul is no longer an abstraction. It has an ethereal body that makes it a defined being that can be conceived and embraced by our mind. That alone is a lot to point out the ideas about its individuality, aptitudes and perceptions. The memory of the loved ones rests on something real. They are no longer represented by fleeing flames that have no association with our thoughts but under a concrete form that better show them like living creatures. Besides, instead of being lost in the depth of space, they are around us. The visible and invisible worlds are have perpetual relationship and mutually help one another. Fear of death has no reason to exist since any doubt about the future is no longer allowed. Death is faced cold-bloodedly, as a liberation, like the door of life and not the door to nothing.
[1] Text inserted into the book Heavens and Hell, part I, Chap II
[2] Simple substances in metaphysics (TN)
