Gather 'round children and give us a listen
sit back and watch the fire and stars glisten.
We bring you stories of new and old
about times of famine and times of gold.
So let us start with praise and applaud
because for us everything good is

God

Before the beginning, in the Infinite world apart from time and space, lives our Creator.  With an Essence of Pure Love and an Exterior of Pure Wisdom, God shines forth as the warm and brilliant Sun of Eternity.  The Divine Love is Spiritual Heat, which radiates pure affections of love throughout Creation; and the Divine Wisdom is Spiritual Light, which provides enlightenment.  These two aspects generate the Divine Activity which is God: the Divine Human; the Infinite Being; the Creator; the Source of Life - all Loving, all Knowing, all Powerful, all Substance.  And from this Substance, God creates Everything Good.
 

Humans

Now, fellow children, we should know that we are made in the image of God and endowed with two gifts that distinguish us from the rest of creation.  However, it is important to know that we are not life by itself, but are a receptacle of the Creator's Life.  We are a finite vessel containing life that comes from the Infinite God - Who is the Source of all Life.  And we, by ourselves, can neither generate unselfish love nor understand things relating to Infinity.  This ability has to be given to us by God.  Otherwise, we would be no more advanced than the wild animals.

The two gifts that separate humans from the beasts are the rational mind - which is capable of linking to the spiritual world and receiving wisdom to understand ideas about God; and the freewill - that is capable of choosing heavenly love from the Divine.  Without freewill, we could never change our ways and improve - nor could we admit God into our consideration.  We would be fixed in our daily habits without the freedom to find higher ground.  Some say that freewill is the choice between good and evil, but it is in reality an opportunity to reject our own self-focused nature - which we already possess - in favor of a life that will give us more peace and happiness.  The free choice comes by rejecting our own selfish nature and accepting what God is giving us.

The essence of our life is love - and the affections that come from this love: Love is the center of our life.  And each of us has a unique and individual pattern of love that is different from all other people before us and after.  This pattern is a combination of loves that partially come from our family and ancestors and is varied within the ruling loves of our lineage.  And it also comes from the loves that are implanted by God. 

Between these two loves, our freewill can choose whether to stay with our own inclinations and the resulting separation from God or to follow the heavenly affections that we each receive during early childhood.  But, more on this later.

If we were to follow a single affection within us, we could see certain thoughts springing out of it: We love, therefore we think.  And when the specific affection joins to its related thoughts outside of us, they combine to form some type of human use (or activity).  For instance, the ability to bake bread comes from a love for the bread or for those who will eat the bread, combined with the thoughts regarding how to go about making the bread.  If there was no initial love, there would be no motivation or thought concerning it - and the bread would never be made.  We do everything from love in this way - good loves and bad loves.

In other words, every affection has its own companion, a married partner as it were.  In a series, affections of natural love have knowledge, affections of spiritual love have understanding, and affections of celestial love have wisdom.  For an affection without its companion truth has no reality; or in different words: without love, wisdom has no activation and actions would not occur.  Hence it is that in every created thing there is something that is referable to the marriage of affection and thought or, more deeply, to good and truth or, even more deeply, to love and wisdom.

This structure in humans is in the image of God because it is analogist with how Divine Wisdom springs from God's Divine Love, and both join to form the Divine Human Activity [love, wisdom and activity as in "end", "cause" and "effect"].  But, even though we exist in the image of God and feel as though we have an independent life, we must constantly remember that we are only receptacles of God's Life - receptacles of love and wisdom from the Creator.  In fact, since all Substance is God's, then the only things that do belong to us are the unique loves selected by our freewill and the experiences and lessons we collect along the way.

  The Material World

The physical world is the result of the Creator's Actions and Substance.  But before we can understand this, we must be able to understand the difference between the spiritual world and the material world - between spiritual substances - which are infinite and living - and material substances - which are finite and only a shell of the living. 

The material world and the ideas influenced by the material world are made up of the things we see around us and that are directly revealed to our senses - material things.  But the spiritual world and ideas originating in the spiritual world are made up of things that are not material - although they may appear as material things or are clothed with material things.  These immaterial objects can be called abstracts or intangibles or spiritual ideas.  They are qualities apart from an object.   In the spiritual world, these qualities have form and substance - pure form and pure substance, resulting in what we can call spiritual objects.

A poem is something material: we can see it and even touch it - but poetry is an abstract quality - or that which gives the poem life.  In our world, it is seen and heard as a poem, but in the spiritual world, it is seen as an element of poetry.  To material people, the difference is not significant; but to the spiritual, this is visible substance. 

A sunset is material, but the beauty that causes inspiration is an abstract.  A song is something we can see, touch and hear; but music is an abstract quality - giving life to the song.  One can love a song or one can love music.  The first one loves the personal experiences and popularity of the song, but those who love music are affected by the pure beauty and quality of it – it’s spiritual substance.

Laws are a material quality; but justice is an abstract that give life to the laws.  Marriage can be seen and touched; but love fills it with life.  And Divine Love and Wisdom are Divine Substances that give everything life. 

Through our spiritual receptacles, we have awareness of these higher non-material things - these spiritual abstracts.  Animals do not have this.  And our own material senses can not detect them - but these things can be perceived and understood by our spiritual senses.  Through our God given abilities, we can learn about and ultimately share joy with the Creator. 

By this process, we are able to understand that the Divine Love and Wisdom are the spiritual substances that both make up the Infinite world and mold the physical universe; and that our Creator is the pure substance of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom.  Therefore, Love and Wisdom are the substantial substances of Creation and everything else is made by their combination - or conversely, by a human perversion of their combination.  Everything good that exists has elements of this Love and Wisdom in them.  But those things that are in opposition come from the evil and falsity that are generated by the freewill of humanity.
 

It also must be known that the very first law of God's Providence is that humanity's freewill is to be protected at all times.  This is key to understanding why the world seems so cruel and why it has progressed through what appears to be evolution.

Furthermore, we need to understand that the good desire of love is to share what it has with others and to receive love in return. Our Creator, who is the Divine Human, has created our world so that the Divine Love can serve this purpose.  Our purpose in life is to receive and share this Love with others and to freely love our Creator in return. 

Because of our spiritual freewill, the Creator will never compel us.  Compelled love is not true love, because compulsion is eventually resented.  So to ensure that we are not overwhelmed by the Divine Presence, the Creator has provided that our entrance into life would be into a world that appears isolated and without direct proof that God exists - so that spiritual freewill can be preserved.  This world, that appears isolated from God, is the finite world - the world of time and space, our world.

However, we are also born into the spiritual world at the same time - because we are in reality spiritual beings.  Birth marks the beginning of our spirit as well as our material body that temporarily contains our spirit.  We can not have our start in the Infinite world since it is a world without beginnings, therefore we begin our existence in the finite material world.  All of us – all angels, so called super angels, satans and devils come from the material world.

From our entrance into life, we have both our material body that lives in this world and our spirit that actually exists in the spiritual world.  In fact, our spiritual part is the real person - we can not exist without this part.  It is this internal spiritual person that possesses the rational mind, the freewill and the life that temporally resides in our material body.  We will know that this is true when our material body falls off and our spirit continues to live. 

To put it differently, our life process consists of entering God's world through the material portal.  This serves several purposes, including preparation for the more complex spiritual world as well as preservation of our freewill.  But during the initial process, we reside within this material body.  The material body in reality isn't us, but is the vehicle that carries our spirit through this world - the world of beginnings.

However, today we are not yet aware of the spiritual side of our life until our spirit fully awakens after what we call death.  A wise and famous early American once described our material body as a husk, covering our spirit and demanding most of our attention.  When the husk dies and falls off, our spirit fully awakens into the infinite world of God.

Our Creator has given us these receptacles of freewill and rational understanding so that we can receive the capability to see God's Infinite Love and willingly return this same love back to God.  Even so, we all have existence (both the good and the evil) because our Creator's Life flows into all of us, whether we choose to receive the Divine Love or not - the rain falls on upon both the evil and the good.  But this can be explained in more detail at another time.  For this portion of our story, just know that there are two worlds - one material and the other containing the spiritual substances that are the root of all material substances; and that these two worlds are conjoined through a spiritual action - such as how a certain quality of poetry corresponds and is conjoined to its material manifestation - a poem.
 

The next part of our story may not be as interesting to some of you.  If you understand that the material world was made from and is sustained by God's Divine Substance and that this material world is a reflection of the spiritual world, you may take a break until we reach the next part.  But if you would like to fill your imagination with ideas of how this process could occur and why, then sit back while the progression of our story leads us through the material creation, towards the emergence of humans.
 

Our creation began in this manner.  Emanating from God are spiritual atmospheres that form the spiritual world - each quality of God's Love and Wisdom forming different manifestations within different layers.  These layers have continuous changes within each layer, depending on ‘distance’ from the center; and discrete differences between layers. For instance, heaven is made up of separate, completely different (or discrete) levels, in progression towards God; and within each level, there are related and continuous progressions toward God. 

To put it more clearly, there are three heavens - with the first heaven being further from God - not in distance, but in state of life - and the third being closest. Each heaven is discretely different. One heaven (the first) is driven by natural good, those who do good actions from some type of fear or blind duty.  The second heaven contains those who do good actions because of what they have learned - from spiritual truth. And the third contains those who do good actions out of love - from celestial love.  Each is distinctly different from the other and can not commingle.

But within each heaven, there are continuous and related differences, some being closer to God and others further.  However, it is important to remember that all people in heaven (in any part of heaven) are living in their own highest possible level of happiness - because every person has different loves and enjoyments. So heaven to one person is the same as heaven to another because of the joy they perceive.

Each atmospheric layer is alive with abstracts, depending on their position around God, with each abstract making an appearance of something different within God's Infinite world - ultimately resulting in the beautiful world of nature appearing around us.  However, in the spiritual world, even though the images may seem to appear the same as in the material world, they are in reality purer, with colors and spiritual objects that are more defined and some that don't exist in the material world.

The more remote layers of this spiritual world contain simpler abstracts that can serve as mediums, with the ability to accommodate both spiritual and material ideas.  For instance, one can compare infinity to limitless space - thus holding both the spiritual idea of infinity and at the same time, the material idea of space. These remote abstracts are used to manifest God in the finite world.
 

The first to appear in our creation was limitless space.  It can be called the shell of Infinity.  This immense space came into existence from a constant Divine thought and the actions it excited in the remote layers of the Spiritual World.  It is an Idea of Space from the Creator - thus making it limitless.  And because outer space, by itself, is technically not material and cannot be scientifically proven to be limitless, it is an abstract - a spiritual idea.  It is essentially a limitless bottomless pit, presenting a sub-dimensional mirror image - or clue - of Infinity.  Even so, it is of the finite world since it contains space and time.

And then the first particle of matter appeared.  To understand how objects that are material come from spiritual abstracts, one should know that the first of an object in geometry is a point without dimension.  And since this point has no dimension, it takes up no space; therefore a point without dimension is actually an abstract - immaterial or spiritual - idea.  But after the point begins to move, space is occupied and a shape starts to appear and it can be proven by our senses.  Even so, fellow children, we must remember that substance itself is not the material that we see and feel here on Earth, but pure substance is the abstract to which the material object corresponds - the soul of the material.

Within this limitless space, the Creator began to vibrate a tiny portion of space and finite material had its first appearance.  Picture a pure black void with that “point without dimension” vibrating in all directions within its tiny spherical boundary. A particle would appear from what would seem to be nothing.  To put it another way, imagine this as if it were the first musical note emanating from God for the Song of Creation.  As it passes through the spiritual atmospheres, it takes on the characteristics of the atmospheric states through which it travels.  For instance, in the highest atmospheres, those closest to God, it could sound like a flute; and in the following atmospheres, it could sound like a trumpet, stringed instrument, voice, drum and so on.  When it reaches the more remote spiritual atmospheres, it generates movement in material space and becomes a material object - made real to material humans.

The spiritual idea that produced this first simple particle originated from the Creator's Mind like a seed.  The ultimate end of this particular seed (the Seed of Creation) is to establish a heaven from finite humans so that humans can share and enjoy the Love that God passes through them, while in return, they can give love and enjoyment back to the Creator.  Creation is intended to be the best friend of the Creator - a free and willing friend.  This is the intention of Creation.  In the process and as a result, humans can live freely in joy and happiness for Eternity.

Once this first particle appeared, it then began to exhibit its unique and constant behavior.  This core behavior would never change - because the particular purpose never changes.  And then this new vibrating particle began to vibrate itself - in all directions - forming a new discrete layer; and so on, layer after layer, until the particle had enough mass to allow it to interact with other particles.

And then other particles appeared, this time from rotation - instead of vibration - elliptically around the center in all directions, forming another spherical shaped particle.  Still others appeared moving with opposite rotation; or further with vibrations that are out of phase with the initial vibrations, modulating onto differing combinations of rotations and vibrations, and so forth - all being driven by the constant excitation of Divine Actions (like the Conductor of the Divine Orchestra).  Some say that there were twelve original particles. Others say that there was only one original particle that divided and changed - as cells divide and mutate.  What is important, dear friends, is the knowledge that spiritual substance makes up and is the soul of all material substance. 

And because the constant movement of the these particles is continuously fueled, sustained and kept in motion from spiritual forces - God - then it follows that the material world is being kept constantly alive by God's substance - spiritual Activity.  In fact, the material world would stop to exist if this constant spiritual Activity were taken away.  In this way, the Creator is always connected to Creation. 
 

So you see, fellow children, true substance is not what we see and touch, true substance is the force within those things that we see and touch.  The material world can not appear without that constant force.  So in musician's terms, our reality is made up of the universal hum caused by the creation of limitless space and the complex music that makes up all matter and the resulting objects.  Without the Divine Substance continuously generating this music, the material world would vanish and God would be alone.
 

These first particles also reflect the image of infinity because if we could see deeply into each particle, we would find layer after layer after layer of combinations and of various motions, one after the other, with the same limitless depth within in each particle as the limitless expanse of space.  Both are bottomless pits of the material world - reflecting infinity.  However, both are of the finite world since both contain space and time.

And when one type of vibrating particle came close to its opposite type, the particles attracted since one was moving out while the other was moving inward.  And conversely, when particles came close that were in phase with each other, they would both be going out at the same time, and thereby repel.  And other particles acted similarly and also neutrally, giving the material universe its motions, attractions and repulsions.

This process continued to build and gather in one location within limitless space and multiplied quickly until there appeared all the required mass of matter within that ball of particles to fill our known universe - every star; every planet; every speck of space dust; every quark.  Can you imagine the size of this?  Yet from a distance, it could appear like a tiny point of light in limitless space.

Instantaneously, evolution and the laws of nature were set in motion.  Without this beginning and apparent isolation from God, humans would not have their spiritual freedom.  To us, nature appears as if it exists within the random chaos of what we call evolution; but in the Divine Reality, everything occurs within the Divine Order of what appears to be chaos.  The appearance of chaos being the Mask of God.

Once in space, these particles were set in motion by their own attracting and repelling forces. They began to collide in many different ways and combine into new particles, destroying other particles and condensing to the center.  These new particles joined again, and so forth, into layers and combinations that eventually formed sub-atomic particles. In the course of time, the first atom emerged: Hydrogen - with one proton and one electron, each made up of a series of tiny particles.  All of this originating and sustained from those spiritual movements of abstract substances.

As time went by, one hydrogen atom after another came into existence until there was an immense cloud - held together by physics.  Once gathered in space, this hydrogen ball began to condense even more and react further.  And as this reaction progressed, the hydrogen atoms began to fuse (join together) and re-fuse, under the intense pressure at the core, eventually causing Helium to form.  This fusion also caused excess particles to fly off as a result and speed away from that sun, resulting in the release of energy in the form of material heat and light. 

Eventually, during the process of further collisions within this first sun, carbon was formed; and then nitrogen and oxygen - along with several other light elements.  This continued over a very long period of time until iron was produced.  Iron is made up of particle combinations that can not be added to nor subtracted from and therefore cannot be used as fuel for fusion.  As more iron was formed, this giant star began to lose its fuel and thus its internal reaction.  And then it suddenly collapsed - in seconds - and followed the process known today as super nova - in this case, the big bang.

When the first star exploded, it caused more violent collisions among its particles, creating all the remaining heavier elements, other suns, galaxies and the beginning of our physical universe.  Remember, this first sun and the cloud of particles from it contained all the material required to form the entire material universe and provide for its apparent independent evolution (isolating us from God).  And since matter cannot be destroyed, it will always be recycled into something new.

We should continuously bear in mind that even though the universe seems to be under an independent and chaotic evolution, each particle within it is energized and made living through the direct actions and motions of God; therefore it is under the direction of the Creator in all aspects.

This is the exterior of creation; the material universe; our world; the foundation of the spiritual world. It is a world that reflects the spiritual world in every aspect and serves as its finite shell while it covers and translates the living substances of the Infinite spiritual world.  It is not possible for anything to exist in the natural world out of connection with this spiritual world.  And if one could understand the language, we would see and hear God speaking through the actions and images of nature.  Order - in the universe - is God.  And by way of this material universe, we each emerge as a brand new and unique human life.

Our material body in this life is also a shell.  It is our spirit that contains our life - the body only houses our spirit while in the material world.  Our material sense organs don't actually do sensing, but the abstract function in our spirit does. For instance, our material eyes don't see - they are just the portal through which we receive sight; but our spiritual sight (an immaterial abstract) does see. 

We truly do live in both worlds at once, but we remain unaware of our spirit because we are spiritually asleep most of the time while we remain distracted with the heavy demands of our daily material concerns.  But even though we are mostly unaware of our spirit's life, we live and can rise above material thinking because of our spirit. Our material body is the egg from which our full spiritual awareness will hatch when we die. 

And since the Creator has infinite qualities, there can be infinite options and possibilities in the universe - including our Earth and the particles that make up its animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms.  So it follows that, on our Earth, as in the rest of creation, all materials are a manifestation of something in the living spiritual world; all coming from God - created, interconnected and sustained by His Love, Wisdom and Activity - each and every good thing reflecting some Quality of the Human God, and by representatives, reflecting some quality in us.  In other words, Nature is a reflection of the Divine Human qualities and, by a finite reflection, of our own human qualities.

So Earth was formed and developed: eventually growing plant life and animal life.   All under the direct influx of the Creator's Providence - all in the sequence and order required for the end purpose of populating the human heaven while preserving spiritual freewill.  Through this influx and this purpose, one line of mammals developed and approached the human form.
 

Beginnings

When the time was arranged for the first humans to enter the world, they were born out of the lineage of evolution: being directly connected to material creation but capable of understanding - through their rational gift - things that are not material. They were in fact spiritual beings, but they did not know this at first. 

When humans initially appeared on this Earth, they were only aware of the immediate world around them - just as we are when we were infants.  In all behavior, they were like the other animals around them - even though they were very different from all other creatures, including their parents.  At one single point in time, the mammal lineage that God prepared for the entrance of humans onto this Earth began to birth the new human.  This meant that the parents of the new humans represented the end of their species.  From this point forward, the new human lineage began to procreate rational people that would have the freewill to enjoy God's Domain.

These new humans found and grew attracted to one another and developed close bonds.  Some males and females united; and some of them began to have offspring.  But they all continued to live their day to day routines the same as those non-humans around them - although a difference was beginning to be evident. 

One small thing was their laughter.  Even their parents looked oddly at that behavior while the new humans were still infants.  These tiny babies would break out in an open laugh, often for no reason at all.  When they grew older, on some evenings, their sounds of joy could be heard far away from the camp.  And for good reason - life was full of joys.  They found out later that their laughter came from the gift of rationality.

Life for early humans was ideal in the sense that all of creation was friendly to them.  There was no threat of predation nor starvation since the Creator insured that all needs were taken care of and that no harm came to them.  Before humans perverted the Creators world, all was good.  This is not to say that the animal kingdom did not prey on each other and that predators, pests and disease did not exist.  It means that humans were not threatened nor infested with pests and disease in their early years.

As time went by, the grandparents and parents of these new humans began to grow old and die.  This seemed to happen rather early in the lives of these new humans since all of them still appeared to be rather young.  They didn't know that their human spirit allowed them to live longer.  In time, there was no one left in their ancestry who bore them into the world.  This circumstance brought the new humans even closer.

More years passed by and then that fateful day: one of the new humans died.  His friends were in sorrow.  They kept his body near out of love.  It began to stink, so it was taken away from the camp and covered so scavengers wouldn't get it - just as their parents had done before them.  As days went by, his friends went on with their lives, sadder than ever before - but their daily needs were pressing.

One day not long after, one of the friends was gathering food nearby.  She looked up and saw someone coming.  It was the one who had just died!  She was sure.  Running back to the camp, she signaled her mate to come quick.  She just saw the one who had died!  He was walking towards her!  Just then they looked where she came from and both saw him.  In unison, as if by instinct, they began to run to the place where they placed his body.  The rocks were still there and after removing a few they knew that the decaying body was still buried.  They looked at each other and thought that this could not be.  As they turned to look back toward their camp, he appeared again, and waved. They looked at each other and the woman nervously waved back. Approaching, they looked curiously at each other as if to say "How could this be?"  He that died was just as perplexed.  Slowly reaching out, they touched each other.  He felt real.  He was real.  What has happened?  Smiles came onto their faces, then tears of joy.

Soon the other friends started showing up - each expressing their own shock followed by delight.  What has happened?  How could his body be decaying in a hole in the ground and be here at the same time? 

As days went by, the one who died began to show some different capabilities.  He would disappear and then reappear with other friends who were hundreds of yards away.  He'd often appear when they were just thinking about him.   And he could communicate more deeply - making connection with the other friends' affections and perceiving things more sharply.

A few months later, another died.  And the same things happened.  As time progressed, more and more humans died and began to explore the 'new life', while also staying in contact with their Earth bound friends.  Or so it seemed.  Soon the friends in the material world started to see strange things.  Material objects like rocks and trees would appear to move and sometimes change shapes.  They appeared to be communicating with them.  A tree seemed to point to a new source of food.  And a rock appeared to change form, and when they investigated, they found water nearby.  And other objects and even animals acted the same.  The whole world seemed to be alive and communicating with them.

But how could this be?  They never saw things like this before until that first dead one come back to life.  Maybe they are able to see and live in the other world as well.  When they were in the first world, they seemed more restricted and vulnerable; but in the other world, they were freer, happier and strangely comforted.  And they also found that they had special abilities.  However, no one was too shocked by this since they all felt it was just a continuation of discovering new things that began in their childhood.  No one knew different.  In fact, this other world was starting to become far more attractive.

And then came the day of the visitation.  One of the people who had died appeared to a gathering, looking differently than he did before.  And then his whole face began to shine extremely bright like the sun - so bright that the others had to shield their eyes - and his body was suddenly covered with very bright garments.

And when he began to communicate, he taught those who were gathered some amazing things. And since they received joy in learning new things, they drew close with attention. He seemed to know why all these strange things occurred.  And he began to explain how the two worlds work together.  And then this person returned to normal, not quite knowing what had happened; but not feeling frightened because he knew that his new life after death was full of unexpected and wonderful surprises - and was never harmed.  He told the others that previous to this event, he had been receiving a strong influx of love in his chest from an unknown source.  It gave him the urge to share knowledge, but he didn't know from where this knowledge came.

And not long after, this happened again.  In time, they learned that this person who appeared before them was not who they thought when he appeared brightly and taught.  It was in fact the Creator, the person who made all this life possible.  They were to receive instruction directly from God - just as a parent would teach their children.  And since they took delight in learning, this was embraced with extreme happiness.

To facilitate communication, the Creator could adapt to the finite human character and teach the others directly through another willing individual.  From this method, they received instruction regarding God, the two worlds and how they could live in harmony with their Creator.  And they also learned that it was only the beginning of their education. 

In the process, the new humans discovered that they were special in all of creation although they were still part of creation.  They continued to learn about the Creator and the world around them and that their Creator loves them like a father and cares for them like a mother.  They also learned about their abilities in the spiritual world and why they could see and live in both worlds at the same time.  All this was taught to them gradually over the generations - and also to those who resided in the spiritual world at the same time. 

Humans start out by being born into this material world with both a material and spiritual body; and then cast off their material vessels to fully enter into their spiritual body.  But in the early days, they were able to experience both worlds at the same time because even though their material needs were demanding, their spiritual side was more important and compelling to them and brought them more joy.  And for all the materials objects they saw, they were able to relate them to their spiritual correspondence - thus enjoying a higher form of thought above the material.  So regarding abstract thinking, the most ancient people were far more advanced than we are today.  We measure success by the buildings we construct and the civilization we claim to have, but those who belonged to the First World - who today we call primitive - measured success in learning the abstract ideas that generate love and harmony.

We can not know this today, but imagine being able to live in this life and also be aware and live in the spiritual life at the same time.  The material world is created in the progression of time with every object coming from somewhere in time - our furniture from a forest of trees that grew for many generations, our fuel from millions of years of development underground and our metals from distant stars.  But the other world exists by ever changing abstracts altered by the affections of each spirit who receives them.  And what is wonderful, those abstracts appear the same as they do when turned into material in this world.  However, unlike the material world, objects are created instantly from the spiritual atmospheres of God. 

The abstracts that are freely available in the infinite world gather themselves around affections that agree with them.  These affections come from us in the next life and our immediate environment molds to reflect our individual affections.  Now, this could be good and this could be bad - it depends on a person's core affections.

In other words, our house in this life had to evolve from previous materials and once we have applied our touches, it ends up reflecting our personalities.  But our house in the next life will reflect our changing affections and personalities instantly.  Our core love will remain constant (the "house" will continually be there), but as our interests and moods change, so will our surroundings.  And to follow further, the next life has all things that are in this life, and more - mountains, trees, streets, houses, books and everything.  However, they are not made up of material particles, but from the pure substance of Love and Wisdom appearing to us in splendid variety.

Years went by in the First World and one day it was noticed that those who died were not growing older and some even appeared to be younger.  One of those on Earth asked the Creator regarding this.  They were then told that in the spiritual world, humans had no age, but reflected the state of mind that they happened to be in at the time.  In fact, some actually will appear to grow younger until they reach the age - or youthful state of mind - that suits their personality.  And they would never die again because once in the next life, they were in the Lord's World which is the Infinite world.  They then asked why they had not been told this before.  The Creator answered that they were not yet prepared to receive information like this until they were ready; and since they were now in a position to ask, they were ready.
 

The Golden Age

As generation followed generation their understandings grew by means of their teachings, perceptions, and experiences; and they became fluent in the interrelationship between the material and spiritual worlds.  Everything has a relationship and an inner correspondence.  A tree that we see is not just a tree, but is the living spiritual abstract to which the tree corresponds.  A person in all their particulars can be likened to a tree. In its seed lies hidden as it were an end in view, an intention and objective - to produce fruit. Here the seed corresponds to the will in a person. Next the seed is impelled by what it contains to sprout from the Earth, and clothe itself with branches, boughs and leaves, thus acquiring for itself the means to its ends, the fruit. Here the tree corresponds to the understanding in a person.  Finally, when its time has come and it is ready to release itself, it blossoms and produces fruit. Here the tree corresponds to a person's good deeds.  Those of the Golden Age could see both the material tree and the abstract tree while in this world.  Also, a rock that we see is not just a rock by the same approach; because it corresponds to truth or one's faith, depending on what kind of rock it is, where it is positioned and so on.  In fact all of nature - every particle - is a reflection of some kind of Divine Human characteristic, and in relation, some kind of human characteristic.  Nature is alive with knowledge of the spiritual world.

This was the Golden Age, the First World.  Humans lived in harmony with each other and with the world around them.  And God cared for them in every aspect.  And the Celestial heaven became populated.  The character of those first people was like that of a gentle and innocent child.  Always willing to follow the guidance of their Creator and always trusting this guidance - never a worry of harm and never a time without provisions.  And since their character was guided by love, their destination was the heaven of innocent love, which is the Celestial heaven - which is the heaven closest to God.  In later years, humans would become more influenced by truth and understanding - instead of love - and would lean toward the heaven of wisdom, or the Spiritual heaven.  But more regarding this later.

In the First World, men and women would join together for life and then continue on into eternity once they left this world.  In fact, this is the highest love that God can offer to humans.  The love that springs from the union of husband and wife surpasses all others and is the central life of Heaven.  And in the Golden Age, this love flourished.  And the things of the spiritual world remained far more attractive to the first humans than the things of the material world.
 

Transition

When humanity first appeared, their composition was quite different than today.  To put it in simple terms, their will and understanding - affection and thoughts - were inseparable.  This means that there was always agreement between what they willed and what they thought - whatever they did was considered right.  As a result, humans had no such thing as conscience and guilt because their understanding always agreed with their will and could never tell the will when it was doing something wrong. 

This was very similar to the composition of animals - from which humanity sprang.  We must remember, dear friends, that at the base of our lives is our animal nature.  This is our root, but is not our destiny.  But we must learn how the animal is composed in order for us to understand our own complex nature and why animals are very different from us.

Affection and knowledge in beasts act completely as one, and their affection cannot be raised above their knowledge, and their knowledge not above their affection.  If we consider the things that animals do, we know that they do nothing wrong in their own eyes - they only do what is in their best interest to survive.  In their world, survival is selfish and selfishness is expected.  A dog may do something bad, but this is under human rules.  Under animal rules, that pot roast on the table was part of their constant quest for food and survival. 

Since animals have no spiritual mind into which they can be raised, they do not have the faculty of understanding or rationality, nor the faculty of willing freely or liberty; they have merely natural affection with its knowledge.  The natural affection which they have is that of supplying themselves with food and shelter, of propagating their kind, of fleeing from and avoiding injury, together with all the knowledge which this affection requires; and this, not from their life in the natural world, but due to corresponding affections or abstract causes from the spiritual world. They each represent a living embodiment of something spiritual that can teach humans about their Creator and the Creator's world.

Animals, like minerals and plants, appear in the material world because of an abstract idea that exists in the spiritual world concurrently.  They are part of God's communication to humans.  They appear and share their message or affection and then the moment moves on and no longer exists - just as those things do in our own life.  We hold things in our heart or mind for a while, but sooner or later, the event must pass on - or die.  We must always move on to new and different thoughts and affections or we will never be elevated away from our own animal behaviors toward being human. 

Because of this state of life, animals do not and cannot think, "I wish this or I do not; I know this or I do not"; and still less, "I understand this, and I love this"; but from their affection by means of their knowledge they are borne along by instinct and nurture - without rationality and without liberty - as a manifestation of something spiritual in the living universe.  

This is a lesson to learn when a dear animal friend passes on.  Unlike human friends that can live forever, animals - and plants - are abstract friends teaching us things that we may never recognize without their influence.  When the affection passes on, another takes over.  It frequently hurts to leave an affection or thought behind.  Some of them become very close to us and we identify with them.  Losing them - or giving them up - often hurts for a long time. But we must move on so we can learn about other the aspects of our life.  The appearance of animals and plants are the same way.  They come, they teach and they die so new teachings can be presented.

But the non-human aspect of earth's creatures is no reason to cause them foolish harm.  Our conduct as human beings is etched on our hearts - while we are being kind or mean to anything.  Cruelty to nature is a reflection of the desire to be cruel to humans.

To this same animal nature, humans were given the gifts of rationality and freewill to allow us to be human and share joy with God.  But within the human community, we know that we - unlike the animals - are not able to do whatever we please.  We are here to do more than just supply ourselves with food and shelter, or propagate, or avoid harm.  Our life isn't about survival at the cost of others.

In addition to this first human composition - the inseparable link between the will and understanding - we also have three levels of life.  These are the life of the senses (sensual life, animal life or life outside of God), the life of the natural mind (civic life) and the life of the rational (spiritual life).  All three are distinct and necessary.  When humans live in order with God, their rational life is their highest point of interest, their civic life next important and the sensual life receiving the least of their attention.

But as time moved on, the human freewill got the better of them.  Some humans who passed into the spiritual world poked around until they discovered that they could actually enter the body of material humans - just like the Creator could do when they were being taught.  At first it was done without intention of harm and not to embarrass - more like an attempt to get the material people to laugh - humans loved to share laughter.  Remember, there were no strangers among these groups, but all were known at some time - most were family.  However, these mischievous acts planted a seed that would eventually germinate into bad results. 

In discovering this ability, they realized that they would be able to enter back into the sensual world and re-experience what life is like to be on their own - isolated from God by nature.  Unlike humans today, the first humans had the ability to explore anywhere in God's material and spiritual worlds.  They realized that they could choose between the wonders of the spiritual world - with the ever-present closeness of God - and material life, that gives the feeling of being individually powerful due to isolation from God. 

In time, spirits found that they could influence and control those on Earth anyway they wanted to by insinuating their own will into the mind of the material humans.  And in turn, they could receive the feelings of those who they possessed and enter into the external sensual life through their victim.  They could actually see, feel, hear, smell and experience the things of the material world.

And they could also use the mechanism of correspondence - the real connection between abstract spiritual ideas with their material manifestation - to project material images and influence harmful actions in others, often by appearing as animals or unimaginable creatures.

Although it first started out as mischief, eventually, the love of dominance (possessing others) and the love of worldly possessions and pleasures turned into to the most important things of their life; while spiritual ideas and joys became less and less attractive.  They enjoyed exploiting their own powers more than sharing the delights of friendship and love, thus inverting their levels of life: with the sensual life being the most important, civic life being less important and the rational (spiritual understanding) the least of their concerns. 

Imagine the magic that could have been present in those days - with the powers of the spiritual world in the hands of unchecked evil; and then imagine that this is the origin of so many fantastic legends and myths that have been passed on to us until today.  Those special capabilities gave people the impression that they were as powerful as God - because when they felt disconnected from God and also had powers that seem like God's, they could feel like God.  After all, they seemed to be able to do all the many things that they saw the Creator do.

Once the actions of early humanity became completely enveloped in self-centered motives - motives that were opposed to the Creator's love and harmony - there was nothing that could tell them that they were wrong since their understanding always followed their will.  Not even God could convince them.

But our Creator knew of this potential human weakness ahead of time and was prepared for it.  The first great judgment was upon humanity.  By reason of their rejection of God's World and their harmful actions toward each other, the early humans cast themselves (repeat: “cast themselves”) out of harmony with the Creator - or out of the garden - and away from spiritual thinking.  And the more humans removed themselves from spiritual thinking, the more remote they became to the spiritual world.  Lack of regard makes the appearance of distance in the spiritual world because the appearance of distance is in reality just a difference in people's state of life.  Similar states are close and opposite states are distant.  This is why hell can never come close to heaven.

In our ancient history, the gathering of people and the building of cities seemed to be the beginning of civilization, but this was not the case.  People gathered out of the need for protection.  In the most ancient times, humans could live without fear within their small family groups.  If families ever did decide to set up camp together, it was out of love for each other.  But when humanity fell from their spiritual position, the need to combine forces for protection became essential.  So the rise of what we call civilization is actually the main indicator of humanity's fall.

But the worse was yet to come.  As time progressed, the evil grew to unimaginable depths.  The knowledge of the link between the material and spiritual worlds was used for dark magic, and the most evil people could control others with subtle but compelling powers.  And the only thing that could guide them back to sanity was the Divine Truth, but this had no effect on people who felt that all they did was in accord with their will and was reasoned as being good for them.

And since humanity's freewill had to be protected at all times, God could do nothing.  No one could be disciplined because no rules of life could be established in their understanding.  To them, there was no such thing as Divine Truth - only the dictates of their own will.

This wave of false ideas regarding genuine good and truth swept over humanity like a great flood.  It destroyed everyone's chances for heaven and contaminated the human race with an evil that could never be removed from their individual and collective will.  Once the doors of experience are open to us, they can never be shut - we can never unlearn something.

In conjunction with this human tragedy and as a result of it, God changed the composition of all people.  A new human was born from the old humans.  From this point forward, humanity would have a conscience.  Since the will of men and women was forever lost to evil tendencies, and since their understanding was inseparably bonded to this will, it was necessary for God to break this bond and implant a potential "new will" directly into our understanding.  If we listen to our conscience (this new will - God's voice in us), we can then connect with God and it can teach our understanding to lead a heavenly life.   But more will be said later on this subject.
 

The First Great Judgment

As the new humans began to populate the Earth, the old ones died away; but not without using their dangerous powers to cause grave damage in the spiritual world.  During this transition, the Creator protected the new humans from harm.  He also gave them guidance and teaching from Divine Truth while setting up methods to insure that these teachings would be passed on to those who followed. As humanity backed further and further away from God's world, they would need these teachings imbedded in their history because their ability to learn this directly from the spiritual world was being closed off. 

At first, the teachings were passed on through verbal stories, told by those who were skilled in remembering the tales.  But in time, the art of writing came into existence and these teachings were transcribed for posterity.   And although the stories were told and written in material language, they also contained the abstracts of the spiritual world.  By understanding the relationship between the two worlds, stories could be told in material terms that would teach of spiritual things.  And since material things are distinct from spiritual things, the stories contained two meanings: the material relation and the spiritual teachings within the story.  In this way, spiritual ideas would survive the centuries, even though people would occasionally lose their interpretation.  And in this way, the deeper spiritual truths could remain unharmed during bad days, hidden from human misconceptions and ill intended falsities that were able to pervert only the material words.

When all preparations were complete, the antediluvians, who were all in the spiritual world, were separated from others and exposed to pure Divine Truth - a Reality to which no one can stand - and cast down below the lowest hell, never to be able to attack neither the material nor the spiritual world again.  All their powers over others - which were fueled by lies, deceptions and evil arts - were locked up in an inescapable and inaccessible place, generating noxious fumes in hell.  God only intervenes when the total destruction of a person's spirit is at hand.  If a person is clearly on the path that is unrecoverable, God will step in to work against further decline.  This is done by means of isolation and corrective punishments.

And in their place, a new genus of people began their quest for life.  But as said before, they now possessed a new composition.  This composition included a new method of regeneration (spiritual rebirth), and will be described briefly.
 

The Seeds of Spiritual Rebirth

Since the fall of humans in their First World, all who follow after possess a contaminated will. This is because once opened, the door of experience can never be closed. And during the days prior to the judgment of the antediluvians, every bad thing conceivable was experienced.  Since then, all human's who are born, continuing until today and as long as this Earth exists, contain strong tendencies in their will toward rejecting God in favor of their self-centered nature.  If this could not be corrected, humanity's destiny would be dark and finally extinct. 

With humanity's new composition, the Creator is able to implant Himself into the rational mind of each human - by-passing the corrupted will.  This is done by planting good affections and fundamental ideas about God - or truths - into our understanding very early in life, so that we can be gently guided by those ideas and activate the good affections related to them. Because of this, those with conscience know when they do something wrong - because God's truths implanted in them tells them it's wrong.  This is accomplished with what is called the "new will" and it works like this:

God begins by establishing good affections - heavenly affections - and knowledges of faith into every infant.  We are all introduced into many states of heavenly affections just after birth. This is partially done through being fully dependant on our mother's love and care.  And no matter how much this family care may be lacking in appearance, each infant does receive th