The spirit realm is the entire universe and not just the universe that we detect, but all of the universes. We are told the spirit universe was created first and our physical, denser universe was created after.

The Beginning of the Universe

Allan Kardec in the book, Genesis, tells us what he learned from various spirits on how creation began:

“After having gone back – human limitations notwithstanding – to the hidden fount from which worlds derive like drops of water flowing from a river, let us consider the progress of the successive creations and their development.

The primitive cosmic matter contained the material, fluidic and vital elements for all the universes that unroll their magnificence before eternity. It is the fertile mother of all things, the first grandmother, and what is more, the eternal generatrix. This substance from which all the sidereal globes have come has not disappeared: this power is not dead, for it still gives birth incessantly to new creations, and receives incessantly the reconstituted elements of the worlds that have been effaced from the book of eternity.”[1]

Our sun has a definite life, even our own universe, in which our galaxies rotate, has a life which at some distant future will run out of energy. Leaving only barren rock and a faint afterglow. This is what our science knows today.

What Spiritism teaches us is that our universe was born, probably from the matter left over from an extinguished universe, in a cycle that will flow forever. As immortal spirits we shall inhabit new universes.

The element that created the universe is called Universal fluid. From this all else flows. It is everywhere and fills everything. In different combinations and densities, it is responsible for all planets, suns and life.

Genesis tells us more:

“This fluid penetrates bodies like an immense ocean. In it resides the vital principle that gives rise to the life of beings and perpetuates it on each globe according to its condition, a principle which in its latent state lies dormant as long as no voice calls upon it. By virtue of this universal vital principle, every creature, mineral, plant, animal, or other – because there are many other kingdoms of nature whose existence you do not even suspect – knows how to appropriate the conditions for its existence and lifespan.”[2]

Nothing written in Genesis violates what we now know. String theory, multiple dimensions, even the statement that we do not know other kingdoms of nature, fit nicely into what we have been told by the spirit world. Genesis was written in the 1850’s, the vast discoveries about viruses and other types of microbes still remained in the future at that time.

Later pages tells how when nebula form, the energies released from that rough sphere, veer off to create solar systems, suns, planets and moons. Again, while not divulging specific new scientific facts, the broad outline of our creation is consistent to what we understand today.

Which brings me to an important point. The spirit realm only reveals to us what we are able to comprehend. They don’t send us radical theories. The spirit world will send advanced spirits to first plant the seeds, so at a later date we would be able to understand what they are presenting.

The Planet Earth

Earth wasn’t created in six days. It took billions of years. Spiritism doesn’t force you to ignore the mass of data which makes the case for a slow evolution of our planet and life upon it.

There are differences from what we have learned. The first and by far is the major revelation that while evolution certainty causes changes to life on earth over time, the process is guided and sometimes pushed along in a certain direction by the spirit world. Using the set of Divine Laws given to us by God, the spirit world is able to manipulate events and pathways to the creation of different forms of life.

In the book, On the Way to the Light, by Francisco C. Xavier, dictated to him by his spirit mentor Emmanuel, the origination’s of the earth and who guides us is revealed:

“The tradition of the spirit world say that, in the governance of all the phenomena of our system, there is a Community of Pure spirits, chosen by the Supreme Lord of the Universe, whose hands hold the guiding reins of the life of all planetary collectivities.

From what we have been told, this Community – made up of perfected, angelic beings, of which Jesus is one of the divine members – has met in the vicinity of the earth only twice in the course of the known millennia to decide urgent issues pertaining to the organization and direction of our planet.

The first meeting took place when the terrestrial orb detached from the solar nebula so that the demarcations of our cosmogonic system and the prototypes of life in the fiery matter of the planet could be set in space and time. The second occurred when the Lord’s coming to the earth was determined in order to bring the immortal lesson of his Gospel of love and redemption to the human family.”[3]

We are told that the earth was deliberately formed for the express purpose to use our planet as a place to incarnate spirits. The master of the entire operation, from setting our planet in orbit, the creation of the moon, manufacturing of the ozone layer to protect all organic forms, to the beginning of life until today is Jesus.

Chosen by God to be the Lord of earth. Jesus set forth the blueprints and utilized Divine Laws to construct an inhabitable oasis where humans could evolve and thrive.

How Life Was Manufactured

The creation of life was not left to mere chance. There was a plan and it was followed. On the Way to the Light lets us in at the beginning:

“Like modern engineering, which constructs a building foreseeing the tiniest requirements for it ultimate purpose, the artists from the spirit realm built the world of cells, initiating in primeval days the construction of the organized, intelligent forms of the centuries to come.

Regarding the earliest cellular constructions, the ideal of beauty was their main concern from the start.

That is why throughout time, beauty, combined with order, has been one of the indelible marks of all creation.

Forms for all the kingdoms of nature were studied and foreseen. The fluids of life were manipulated so they could be adapted to the physical conditions of the planet; thus, the cellular constructions were fashioned according to the capabilities of the earth’s environment. Everything, obeyed a plan pre-established by the merciful wisdom of the Christ in accordance with the laws of the beginning and of the overall development.”[4]

Models from other planets were used to form the basis of flora and fauna of earth. Next, they were modified to thrive in our conditions. As life forms evolved, throughout the various periods, starting with the Precambrian, small modification were continuously made to direct the evolutionary paths of creatures on earth.

What we call natural laws, which are in fact Divine Laws, established when the universe was created, were used in ways we have not yet discovered to facilitate the entire arc of the earth’s existence.

What is the Spirit World Around the Earth

The spirit realm is throughout the universe, but for us, we are mainly concerned about our immediate surroundings.

Roughly, the sphere of influence of the earth can be broken down into three areas.

First, at the highest level is what is considered heaven. Where good spirits ascend. Second, is the Lower Zone, where we, the incarnates, live. We live side by side with spirits who also reside in the Lower Zone. Thirdly, is the Abyss, or as we call it; Purgatory (not really Hell, since no one is condemned forever).

The Abyss

Let’s start from the bottom and work our way up, since that is how most spirits have traveled through their multiple lives.

The Abyss: It is where the opposite of the Golden Rule reigns, others do unto you as you have done unto others. The spirit realm doesn’t call it “Hell”, for that would imply a location where errant souls go and stay permanently. The spirit realm calls it the Darkness or the Abyss, sometimes I see it mentioned as a type of purgatory.

For spirits never are sent to unalterable situations. God wishes all of us to eventually ascend to be a pure spirit. Even though the journey may be torturous and painful. Whenever we find ourselves in real spiritual pain, it is usually because a nice suggestion wasn’t absorbed, hence we required a blunter object to attract our attention. The Darkness is a weighty sharp weapon which is specifically designed for those of us who just wouldn’t take the hint.

The Darkness starts at the crust of the earth and flows downward. Andre Luiz, in the book Liberation, travels on a mission to the Abyss, he describes the landscape;

“The sun’s light looked different.

A grayish haze clouded the entire sky.

Volitation (definition: ability to move by thought) was impossible.

The vegetation looked sinister and afflicted. The trees were almost bare and the nearly-dry branches looked like arms lifted in supplication.

Large, foreboding birds that looked sort of like ravens were cawing like little winged monsters eyeing hidden prey.

What was most troubling, however, was not the bleak landscape – it was somewhat similar to others I had experienced – but the piercing appeals coming from the mire. Humanlike groans came in every tone.”[5]

The scenes described could be out of any of the movies or books we have seen and read about hell. A desolate landscape, dry and populated with revolting creatures.

Andre also notices gangs, which are wandering around the landscape:

“From time to time, hostile groups of deranged spirit entities passed in front of us, indifferent and incapable of noticing our presence. They were speaking loudly in broken but intelligible Portuguese, their laughter betraying deplorable conditions of ignorance. They were dressed in sinister attire and carried implements for fighting and wounding.”[6]

What is the purpose of the Darkness? The question is answered in the book, Between Heaven and Earth, by Francisco C. Xavier, dictated by the spirit Andre Luiz.

Andre asks his team leader why are there areas of purgatory? Andre receives the following answer:

“The sickly bird does not stop being sick just because it escapes from its cage. Hell is a creation of imbalanced souls who have come together in one place, just as the miry bog is a collection of slimy nuclei that congregate together. When, with a consciousness inclined toward good or toward evil, we perpetrate this or that crime, we really can wound and harm someone, but more than that, we are wounding or harming ourselves. If we kill our neighbor, our victim will receive so much sympathy from others that he or she will soon be reestablished within the laws of equilibrium that govern us, and will often come to our aid before we can recompose the dilacerated threads of our conscience. When we harm this or that person, we actually harm our own soul first, because we lower our dignity as eternal spirits, delaying our sacred opportunities for growth.”[7]

There are many levels of the Darkness, none of them pleasant. Only those who are compelled to live with souls similar to themselves are sent there. And a spirit lingers only until the time he or she comprehends, from the bottom of their soul that love, not hatred, envy, revenge or any form of domination is the true path.

The Lower Zone

What exactly is the Lower Zone like? Andre Luiz, who woke up there after his death on the operating room table describes one small part of it:

“Actually, I felt like a prisoner trapped behind dark bars of horror. With my hair on end, my heart pounding, and scared stiff, I often cried out like a madman. I begged for mercy and clamored against the painful despondency that had taken hold of my spirit. But when the loud cries didn’t fall on an implacable silence, they were answered by lamenting voices even more pitiful than my own. At other times, sinister laughter rent the prevailing silence. I thought that some unknown companion out there was a prisoner of insanity. Diabolical forms, ghastly faces, animal-like countenances appeared from time to time, increasing my panic.”[8]

Doesn’t seem like a great place does it? The Lower Zone, or called the Umbral in Portuguese, is comprised of many areas. Not just a strange dark dimension that exists parallel to our own, but also right here, on the surface of the earth.

In the book, Memoirs of a Suicide, by Yvonne A. Pereira, the main protagonist of the book, Camilo Castelo Branco, who committed suicide when he was going blind because of syphilis, describes what it was like awaking in the graveyard where he was buried.

“Sobbing uncontrollably, I bent over the grave that held my wretched remains. Contorting myself in terrifying convulsions of pain and rage, wallowing in a crisis of diabolical fury, I understood that I had committed suicide, that I was in the grave, but that, nevertheless, I continued to live and suffer even more, so much more than before, superlatively, abysmally so much more than before my cowardly and thoughtless act!”[9]

Hence, Camilo, while his body, six feet underground, was deteriorating, felt he was alive, with all of the loneliness, pain and suffering it entails. Walking on the face of the earth, while incarnate visitors to familial graves passed through him, oblivious to his sufferings.

Camilo then left the cemetery, trying to ascertain what was this world that he had died into?

“I continued to roam around aimlessly, feeling my way along the streets, unacknowledged by friends and admirers, a poor blind man humiliated in the afterlife thanks to the dishonor of having committed suicide; a beggar in the spirit world, famished in the darkness; a tortured, wandering ghost without a home, without shelter in the immense and infinite world of spirits; exposed to deplorable dangers; hounded by malefic entities, criminals of the spirit world, who love to use hateful traps to capture individuals going through tormenting situations like mine in order to enslave then and increase the obsessing hordes that destroy earth’s societies and ruin men and women, submitting them to the vilest temptations with their deadly influence.”[10]

The Lower Zone is all around us, teeming with life, not of the benevolent kind. In the book, Nosso Lar, psychographed by Chico Xavier and inspired by Andre Luiz; Andre, after being rescued from the Umbral by the kind spirits of the heavenly city, Nosso Lar, asks why must there be a place like the Lower Zone. He receives an answer from his friend Lisias:

“Imagine that when we reincarnate, each of us is wearing a dirty garment that must be washed in the waters of human life. This dirty garment is our casual body, woven by our own hands during our past lives. As we share in the blessings of a new earthly opportunity once more, we usually forget our essential purpose, and instead of purifying ourselves through the effort of the cleansing process, we become even more soiled by going deeper into debt and thus imprisoning ourselves in genuine slavery. Now if we return to the world seeking a way to rid ourselves of our impurities because they are out of harmony with a higher plane, how can we expect to enter the sphere of light in an even worse state than before? Therefore, the Umbral is a region intended for the flushing away of negative mental residues. It is a sort of purgatorial zone, where one gradually burns off the refuse of the bulk of illusions acquired after having degraded the sublime opportunity of an earthly life.”[11]

Lisias explains to Andre, that the Umbral begins at the crust of the earth and continues higher until it reaches the boundaries of the celestial cities. A large area that contains all those who couldn’t successfully complete their mission, souls that retained their passions for material goods, hatred of their enemies, and a host of other obsessions that we are all better without.

Lisias emphasizes this point by describing the criticality of the zone.

“The Umbral is a region of profound importance for those still on earth, for it embodies everything that is useless to the more highly evolved life. Consider how wisely Divine Providence has acted in allowing the creation of such a zone around the planet. There are legions of irresolute and ignorant souls, who are not wicked enough to be relegated to the colonies of the most dolorous expiation, nor are they sufficiently virtuous to be admitted to the higher planes. They represent the ranks of the inhabitants in the Umbral, and they are close companions of incarnate human beings, separated from them only by vibratory laws.”[12]

The phrase, “embodies everything that is useless”, is the key. Useless are material goods. Useless are the passions we retain, the revenge we are plotting even up to our untimely death. Useless is our quest for a lavish lifestyle that compromised our ideals and forced us to ignore our conscience in order to gain a moment of wealth. Wealth, that is no longer with us while we reside in the Umbral.

Again, as in the Abyss, a spirit only resides in the Umbral until a personal decision to seek the way of the light is sincerely made.

Heavenly or Celestial Cities

The quest to learn what is heaven like, starts with Allan Kardec’s The Spirits Book. The idea of heaven is not a major preoccupation of the Spirits. They take it matter-of-fact, as a place where they still work and learn and hope to improve themselves.

Although, even the lowest rung of heaven is much superior to our planet. And yes, there are many levels, how many is not known to us. Therefore, we will concentrate on just the first level. Let’s start at that question at the end of the book:

1016. In what sense is the word heaven to be understood?

“Do you suppose it to be a place like the Elysian Fields of the ancients, where all good spirits are crowded together pell-mell, with no other care than that of enjoying, throughout eternity, a passive felicity? No; it is universal space; it is the planets, the stars, and all the worlds of high degree, in which spirits are in the enjoyment of all their faculties, without having the tribulations of material life, or the sufferings inherent in the state of inferiority.”[13]

Not the Elysian Fields, not the place where you leisurely waste away your days until infinity.

Another book psychographed by Francisco C. Xavier, is Nosso Lar, which means our home. The book was dictated by the spirit Andre Luiz, who was a doctor in Rio de Janeiro, probably in the early 1900’s. This was his first book, written in 1944. The story of Nosso Lar is the journey of Andre from his death to his arrival at the celestial city of Nosso Lar. He describes his first impression upon being outside of the shelter he was taken to during his recovery;

“The spectacle of the streets impressed me. Wide avenues bordered with trees. Pure air – an atmosphere of profound spiritual tranquility. However, there was no sign of inactivity or idleness, for the city streets were crowded. Countless individuals were coming and going. Some seemed to be thinking of far-off places, but others looked at me warmly.”[14]

In all descriptions we have read so far, there exists a sense of organization. Structures representing our organizations, such as well-planned roads, houses, people going about in a logical manner.

Heaven is a beautiful place to live, as Andre Luiz describes the countryside:

“The scenery in front of me was of sublime beauty. The forest was in full bloom and the fresh air was embalmed with an intoxication fragrance. It was all an extraordinary gift of color and mellow light. A large river wound its way leisurely between luxuriant grassy banks sprinkled with blue flowers. The water ran by so peacefully, so crystalline that it seemed tinted in sky blue, mirroring the color of the firmament. Wide pathways cut through the green landscape. Leafy trees were planted at regular intervals along them, offering friendly shade like pleasant shelters in the light of the comforting sun. Fancifully-shaped benches invited one to rest.”[15]

The description of the vividness of the colors and the natural beauty parallels other descriptions of heaven by people who have had near death experiences.

Just as there are many areas to the Abyss and the Lower Zone, there are many different celestial cites. Each one has its own distinct character and people who speak the same language usually group together in various heavenly cities.

In the higher levels of heaven, the differences in languages are not important, since communication is via direct thought.

The spirit realm is explained and discussed further in the book, Explore Your Destiny – Since Your Life’s Path is (mostly) Predetermined. Learn more about the spirit world and discover where you have been and where you are going and what your ultimate destination is.

The glimpses of the spirit world have been presented to us so we may decide for ourselves how we shall comport ourselves on earth. We have freewill to choose our ultimate path.

[1] KARDEC, Allan, Genesis, EDICEI, pp. 123-124

[2] KARDEC, Allan, Genesis, EDICEI, p. 124

[3] XAVIER, Francisco C. On the Way to the Light, EDICEI, pp. 19-20

[4] XAVIER, Francisco C. On the Way to the Light, EDICEI, pp. 25-26

[5] Xavier, F.C. Liberation, EDICEI, pp. 53-54

[6] Xavier, F.C. Liberation, EDICEI, p. 54

[7] Xavier, Francisco C. Between Heaven and Earth, EDICEI, pp.137-138

[8] Xavier, F.C. Nosso Lar, EDICEI, p. 17

[9] Pereira, Y. A. Memoirs of a Suicide, EDICEI, p. 46

[10]Pereira, Y. A. Memoirs of a Suicide, EDICEI, p. 47

[11] Xavier, F.C. Nosso Lar, EDICEI, pp. 74-75

[12] Xavier, F.C. Nosso Lar, EDICEI, p. 75

[13] KARDEC, Allan. The Spirits Book, White Crow Books, Question 1016, p xxx

[14] Xavier, F.C. Nosso Lar, EDICEI, p 53

[15] Xavier, F.C. Nosso Lar, EDICEI, p 64