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July 8th, 1915.
Received: by James Padgett.
Washington D.C.
I am here, Socrates, the Greek.
I knew that you thought of me and I was attracted by your thought.
If such spirit is in rapport with you or has a similar soul quality;
the soul condition is the great medium of attraction.
I have been with you before, and there is a rapport growing out
of your soul qualities. I am now a believer in the Christian doctrine
of the soul's immortality, and in the teachings of Jesus as to the
way to obtain the Divine Love of the Father, as you are, and, hence,
our qualities of soul are similar.
I am now a follower of the Master and believe in his Divine mission
on earth, although he had not come to earth when I lived. After
I became a spirit I realized my belief in the continuity of life
after death, and lived in the spirit world a great many years after
Jesus came before I learned and believed his larger truth of immortality.
Of course, when I taught I had only a hope which was almost a certainty
that I should continue to live through all eternity, but I had no
other foundation for that belief than the deductions from my reasoning
powers and the observations of the workings of nature.
I had heard of the visitations of the spirits of the departed,
but had never had any personal experiences in that direction, but
I readily believed it to be true.
My conviction of the truth of a future continuance was so strong
that it amounted to a certainty, and hence when I died, I comforted
Plato and my other friends and disciples, by telling them that they
must not say that Socrates will die but rather that his body will
die; his soul will live forever in fields Elysian. They believed
me, and Plato afterwards enlarged on my belief.
And Socrates did not die, but as soon as his breath left the body,
which was not very painful even though the fatal hemlock did its
work sure and quickly, he went into the spirit world a living entity,
full of the happiness that the realizations of his beliefs gave
him.
My entrance into the spirit world was not a dark one, but full
of light and happiness, for I was met by some of my disciples who
had passed over before me and who had progressed very much in the
intellectual development. I then thought that my place of reception
was the heaven of good spirits, for there were good spirits to meet
me and carry me to my home. I was then possessed of what I thought
that I was in the home of the blessed; and I continued there for
many years and enjoyed the exchange of minds and the feasts of reason.
And as I continued to live, I progressed, until at last, I entered
the highest intellectual sphere and became a beautiful and bright
spirit, so they told me, and taught the things of a mind developed.
I met many minds of great power of thought and beauty; and my happiness
was beyond my conception when on earth. Many of my old friends and
disciples came over and our reunions were always joyous. Plato came
and Cato and others.
And the ages went by, and I continued in my life of intellectual
enjoyment and profit, with many spirits developed in their minds
and powers of thought, until our existence was a continuous feast
of bright and momentous thoughts interchanged.
I traversed the spheres in search of knowledge and information
without limitation, and found the principles of many laws of the
spirit world.
I found in many spheres spirits, who said they were the old Hebrew
prophets and teachers; and they were still teaching of their Hebrew
God, who they claimed was the only God of the universe and who had
made of their nation his favorite people; but I did not find that
they were much different from the rest of us - I mean what they
called the spirits of the pagan nations. They were not superior
to us in intellect, and they lived in no higher spheres than we
lived in, and I could not learn that their morality was any more
exalted than was ours.
But they insisted that they were God's favorite people, and were
in their own estimation, superior to the rest of us and lived in
a community all to themselves. I did not know just what the conditions
of their souls were, but, as I observed the condition of the soul
determines the appearances of the spirit, I did not perceive that
their appearances were any more beautiful or godlike than were ours,
and I concluded that their God was no better or greater than was
ours.
No one, that I could find, had seen any God and I had not; so who
or what God was became merely a matter of speculation, and I preferred
to have the God of my own conception to the one that they claimed
to have.
For long years my life went on in this way, until in my wanderings
I found that there was a sphere I could not enter, and I commenced
to make inquiries and was told that it was one of the Soul Spheres
in which the great ruler or Master was a spirit called Jesus, who
had, since my coming to the spirit world, established a New Kingdom,
and was the chosen son of God in whom he lived and had his being;
and that only those who had received the Divine Love of this God
could enter this sphere or become inhabitants thereof. I then sought
for more information and, continuing my search, I learned that this
Love had been given to men and spirits at the time of the birth
of Jesus on earth, and that it was free for all who might seek it
in the way taught by him. That he was the greatest true son of this
God, and that in no other way than the one shown by this son could
this Love be obtained or the Soul Spheres entered.
I thereafter thought of this new revelation, and let many years
go by before I became convinced that I might learn something, and
become benefitted by seeking this way and this Love; and after awhile
I began to seek; but you must know that I and spirits like me, who
lived in the spheres where the mind furnished our pursuits and enjoyments,
could not enter what was called this Soul Sphere, yet the inhabitants
of that Soul Sphere could come into our spherewithout let or hindrance.
And I sometimes met and conversed with some of these inhabitants;
and on one occasion I met one called John, who was a most beautiful
and luminous spirit, and in our conversation he told me of this
Divine Love of his God, and of the Great Love and mission of Jesus,
and showed me some of the truths taught by Jesus, and the way to
obtain this Divine Love, and urged me to seek for it.
Strange to me, there were not any of the intellectual qualities
required to be exercised in seeking for this Love - only the longings
and aspirations of my soul and the exercise of my will. It seemed
so simple - so easy - that I commenced to doubt whether there was
any reality in what I was told, and I hesitated to follow the advice
of this spirit, John. But he was so loving and his countenance was
so wonderful, that I concluded to try, and I commenced to pray to
this God and tried to exercise faith as I was told. After a while,
most surprising of all things, to me, I commenced to have new and
unaccountable sensations, and with them a feeling of happiness that
I had never experienced before, which made me think that there must
be some truth in what I was told. And I continued to pray the harder
and believe with more surety. I continued to make these efforts,
until, at last, the great awakening came that I had in me a Love
that never before was in my soul, and a happiness that all my intellectual
pursuits had never been able to supply.
Well, it is not necessary to tell you further in detail my experience
in getting and developing this Love. But I became filled with it,
and at last entered the Soul Sphere, and what I saw is beyond description.
I met Jesus, and had no conception that there could be such a glorious,
magnificent and loving spirit. He was so gracious and seemed to
be so much interested in my welfare and progress in the truths that
he taught.
Can you wonder that I am a Christian and follower of him? Thereafter,
I learned what True Immortality is, and that I am a part of that
Immortality. I see how far short my conception and teaching of immortality
were. Only this Divine Love can give to spirits Immortality, and
anything less is but the shadow of a hope, such as I had.
I am now in a Sphere that is not numbered; but it is high in the
Celestial Heavens, and not far from some of the Spheres where the
disciples of the Master live. I am still progressing, and that is
the beauty and glory of the soul development - where there is no
limit - while my intellectual development was limited.
I must stop now as I have written more than I should have done.
But I will come to you sometime in the not distant future and tell
you of some of the truths which I have learned.
Your friend and brother,
Socrates
the one time Greek philosopher but now a Christian.
A contemporary
message has been received from Socrates.
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