The Doctrine of Spiritism first revealed to the world that heaven wasn’t a destination of eternal leisure. No luxurious gardens to wander around with other angels, strolling aimlessly forever. Instead heaven is a place of work and constant learning.

While those of us who are currently using a physical body to run a marathon of planned trials, all for pushing us onwards for our spiritual growth, others, in spirit form, proceed with their daily tasks of assisting us poor students. A part of spirit life, just as in our lives, is continuing education and training.

When we die, we don’t emerge like a butterfly from a cocoon, full of all required knowledge and experts at whatever job we choose. As on earth, we must go to school and learn to become proficient in our intended profession.

In the Reverend Owen’s book, which is a collection of four of his books, Life Beyond the Veil, in The Lowlands of Heaven section, his mother enlightens us about a colony for the expressed purpose of music.

She describes a series of buildings and towers on the shore of a lake. There were gardens and forests extended for miles around. The entire self-contained city was built for the expressed purpose for the manufacture of music and musical instruments. Much like a university town, whose sole reason for being is the college itself.

Rev. G. Vale Owen’s mother describes one great building:

“One house – or college, for they were more like colleges than manufactories, when I come to think of it – was devoted to the study of the best methods of conveying musical inspiration to those who had a talent for composition on earth; and another house gave attention rather to those who were clever at playing music, and others to singing, and still others made a special study of ecclesiastical music, and others concert music, and others operatic composition, and so on.”[i]

We aren’t only being watched by our spirit mentors to assist us in our personal spiritual growth, but also we are being groomed to higher cultural elevations. As in any good school, students with special talents are encouraged and led to greater heights. Vale Owen’s mother describes how the information is sent down to us:

“The results of their studies are tabulated, and there their duty ends. These results are studied again by another class, who consider the best method of communicating them to composers of music generally, and then another body do the actual work of transmission through the veil into the earth sphere. Here are pointed out to them the objects of their endeavors, namely, those who are likely to prove most ready of response to their inspiration. These have been carefully selected by others who are trained in selection of such. All is in perfect order; from the colleges round the lake to the church or concert hall or opera house on earth there is a chain of trained workers who are constantly active in giving to earth some little gift of heavenly music. And that is how all your best music comes to you. … Yes, you are quite correct. Much of your music is not from us; and much is sullied in its passage. But that is not the fault of the workers from those spheres, but lies at the door of those on your side of the Veil, and those on this side who are of the gloomy regions and to whom the character of the composer gives a foothold to tamper with that which comes from us here.”[ii]

I will let the reader determine which type of music and from which composer is divinely inspired. I have read that music in the spirit world is composed of natural sounds, which serve to uplift and calm those who hear it.

When Vale Owen’s mother talks of “those on this side who are of the gloomy regions”, she is describing the effects of the Lower Zone, or the Umbral as the Brazilian Spiritists call it. The Lower Zone is populated by errant spirits who have not accepted the love and light offered to them.

In the same manner that good spirits work on our minds, by the power of suggestion, ignorant spirits, with ill intention, attempt to influence our actions. The image of the cartoons, we all watched as children, with the angel on one shoulder telling us to do good, and the devil and the other, telling us to do whatever give us the greater pleasure is actually a reality.

We are on earth to accumulate the necessary wisdom to be impervious to such unscrupulous suggestions. Much like an elementary playground, where the bullies love to tease and harass those who react to their machinations, so do ill-mannered spirits find great pleasure to those who listen. Once, they find their frivolous ideas completely discarded, the fun fades away and so do they.

A Concert

The towers that Vale Owen’s mother alluded to are placed around the lake. When a concert is planned, each college will have selected people rise to the towers and perform to their specialty. One type of instruments may be in one tower, others will have different instruments, or vocals of different classes. Some towers also played a part in harmonizing or moderating the volume of the combined effort.

Vale Owen’s mother then describes the concert:

“We were taken to an island in the midst of the lake, and there, in a beautiful scene of trees and grass and flowers and terraces and arbors of trees and little nooks and seats of stone or wood, we heard the festival.

First there came a chord, long and sustained, growing louder and louder, until it seemed to invade the whole landscape and waterscape and every leaf of every tree. It was the key given to the musicians on the various towers. It died into silence and all seemed very still. Then, gradually, we heard the orchestra. It came from many towers, but we could not tell any single contribution apart. It was perfect harmony, and the balance of tone was exquisite.

Then the singers took up their part. It is of no use for me to try to describe this music of the heavenly spheres in earth language, but I may perhaps be able to give you some idea of the effect. Briefly, it made everything more lovely, not only beautiful, but lovely, too – for there is a difference in meaning of those two words as I use them here. All our faces took on a more lovely hue and expression, the trees became deeper in color, and the atmosphere gradually grew into a vapor of tints like a rainbow. But the vapor did not obscure anything it seemed to bring everything nearer together rather. The water reflected the rainbow tints, and our clothing also became intensified in color. Moreover, the animals and birds about us also responded. One white bird I remember especially. Her beautiful milky white feathers gradually grew brighter, and when I saw her last, before she flew into a grove, she shone like gold burnished and glowing, like transparent light or fire. Then, as the mists slowly faded away, we all became, and everything became, normal once again. But the effect remained, and if I could give it a name, I should say it was ‘peace’”.[iii]

Many have described heaven as earth made perfect, we have been given a description of an immaculate musical experience. The concert is but a small peak at what awaits us and why our ordeals are worth the cost to honorably complete.

There are many more revelations to learn about that are presented to us by the Doctrine of Spiritism. If you wish to discover the extent of the invisible world for yourself, read my book, 51 Disclosures from Spiritism – The 3rd Revelation.

Author:

Brian Foster has a BSCS degree and a MBA. He has worked in R&D for medical device corporations and in IT for large financial institutions. Brian Foster has a blog at www.nwspiritism.com.

Works Cited

Owen, R. G. (2012). The Life Beyond the Veil. Pahrump, NV: Square Circles Publishing.

[i] Owen R. G. Life Beyond the Veil, Squares Circles Publishing, p. 28

[ii] Owen R. G. Life Beyond the Veil, Squares Circles Publishing, pp. 28-29

[iii] Owen R. G. Life Beyond the Veil, Squares Circles Publishing, pp. 29-30