“Hullo my darling Mother. It is your beloved Donald, speaking. As my earth life was to be of such a short duration, I was allowed some advance knowledge of that fact; and in a childish way, tried to convey to you that I would not be with you for long… I loved you all very dearly and there was a special bond of affection between you and me. I enjoyed every minute of my brief stay. As you know, I was always busy and occupied, for I had a vague feeling that there was a great deal to be done and not much time in which to do it.
The purpose behind it all, I will not try to explain, for all will be unfolded in the fullness of time. I am only concerned, now, with telling you of my transition. I do not remember suffering any pain whatsoever, as a result of the accident. I just felt drowsy, and, as I told you, I wanted to go to sleep. I, simply, fell asleep and woke up on this side.
It did not seem strange to me that Leo [my spirit guardian] was with me. I seemed to have known him always, which, in reality, I have. My mind was still conditioned to my child life and Leo devised a game for me to play. He said I had become invisible. From that moment, the whole thing became a happy game, as far as I was concerned. Leo made no effort to wean me, immediately, from my contact with earth. I simply carried on with my normal routine.
The thing I enjoyed most was the 'hoax' I was playing on the teachers at school. That, really, did amuse me. I knew that my 'cloak of invisibility' had grown a bit thin, where you were concerned and that you, often, caught glimpses of me.
Often, they would bring other children to play with me. [My guides] had built up a world of illusion around me in which I could play happily without loss, for I was drawing spiritual energy from them. This is often done for children, depending on the circumstances of their passing, and the particular needs of parents and child.
Although none of you realized it, or, perhaps, you did to a certain extent, you were all being charged with spiritual energy from this source, to tide you over the period of shock and grief. Well, there I remained for a time, riding my bike to school and romping on the playground with the other children, feeling that it was an enormous joke that I had acquired a cloak of invisibility and that I could get up to all kinds of mischief and remain undetected. It all seemed perfectly natural. I was buoyed up with a wonderful feeling of great love and contentment.
It was not until Uncle Steve came over to this side that any move was made to loosen the threads that held me to my child life on earth… I was quite happy to go forward with him. Whatever role one has undertaken in an earth life, the cycle must be completed here [in the Afterlife] and I was taken to the Children’s sphere to unfold. As Grannie has already told you, it is a paradise of beauty and happiness. I know you have caught glimpses of my development over the years and shared my happiness. For this, I am deeply grateful.” — Letters From Mother
What is notable in the above account is that he was not immediately removed from his Earth family. While he was playing his game of “being invisible” and surrounded by a by a loving energy, “buoyed up with a wonderful feeling of great love and contentment”, he would be helping to lift the atmosphere in the family home by bringing a loving feeling to his family.
If you are grieving the loss of someone, and you have a feeling of uplift for no apparent reason, then just accept and feel it. It may well be your loved one helping to lift you up. No need to assume that a child cannot comfort their grieving relatives. A child has just as much spiritual power as an adult and sometimes more as they have less getting in the way. Also, the Guides and helpers of children will encourage them and show them what do in order to help you. Other members of your family who are Afterlifers may help you too – especially if you ask.
The Children's Sphere
"Ah, dear mothers of little children, I wish you could see these happy ones at play in these wonderful gardens! Can you not think of them so, rather than taken from you and borne to some far-away unknown place?” — Spirit World and Spirit Life.
“It is such dear work that it attracts a very loving class of workers, and if mothers on earth only knew what tender care they always have, there would certainly be less grief over the loss.” — Life Here and Hereafter
Many a person who had unfulfilled yearnings to look after children on Earth can find fulfillment of that yearning in the Afterlife, subject to special training and guidance from those more experienced. Children have their own sphere in the Afterlife especially suited to their development and education. They may also spend all, or part of their time, with suitable family members in the Afterlife and there is much visiting going on.
In the Children's Sphere, they are looked after by those well able to take care of them and who delight in doing so. Of course, the children can be visited by family members and vice versa. If appropriate, the child can be raised by their Afterlife family at least in part. However, all involved in the education of children in the Afterlife are given training to do so. If the child is of suitable age and there is some natural affection between them and the parents, the child may be taken to see what is occurring in their family back on Earth.
"Very young children do not suffer from shock at their transition, for they are still attuned to the world of spirit. For the first seven years of earth life, the spiritual body is very loosely attached to the physical, and happy children enjoy the best of two worlds. They are in fact undergoing a period of adjustment to their physical bodies. Spiritually, they are not as yet firmly established on the earth sphere. If their earth life terminates during this period, they have no difficulty in accepting their return to spiritual realms, which are more familiar to them than their earthly surroundings. There they are kept in contact with their earthly family and continue to enjoy the love of both realms.” — Letters From Mother
Descriptions of the Children's Sphere can seem very Disney-like to us. It is designed to encourage the growth and development of their hearts and minds. The older children are encouraged to use their minds to create out of the substance of those realms and wild and wonderful are some of the things they come up with. Though most of the Children's Realm is created and sustained by beings from the Higher Realms, and the adult helpers there, children are encouraged to play their part too.
"The children have a wonderful capacity for cosmic love, for sympathy and understanding of others and vie with each other in their efforts to make newcomers feel happy and at ease in their new surroundings. Their creative ability far surpasses that of adults, for they have the necessary faith in their creations and require very little help, or direction, in the molding of spiritual matter. The result may not always be perfect, according to architectural standards, but it is certainly picturesque and colorful. Towers and turrets are popular on houses. These are often placed at precarious angles, but that does nothing to detract from their beauty.” — Letters From Mother
"The children are surrounded with great beauty. Flowers, forests and streams abound and birds and animals are their constant companions. They are encouraged to develop their individuality and take great pride in the creation of their own little houses and gardens. These remain in being just as long as they give satisfaction. But they are constantly replaced, or altered, according to the desire of their creators. Thus, we have an ever shifting scene of kaleidoscopic color, for children quickly tire of their creations and are eager to replace them with others." – Road to Immortality
"The gardens devoted to children are far more beautiful than any known to you. The flowers are of exquisite beauty, many-hued, and with forms unknown on earth. There are lakes with water crystal-clear; fountains softly splashing; tree-shaded nooks and corners; and wide, open places for games or play. Can you imagine children playing in a lake or fountain without spoiling their beautiful garments, or catching cold? Can you imagine a sunshine that does not burn, or winds that bring no dust, or play and exercise followed by no fatigue?” — Spirit World and Spirit Life.
Of course, children have different needs depending on their experiences in the Earth life and on
their temperament and stage of development. Also, children who passed on before their actual birth have different needs from those who passed on later.
"Part of [the Children's Sphere] is for the reception of those that have actually lived on earth and part for those that have gathered around them the physical structure of an earth body, but have never used it for soul expression [such as the stillborn]. These latter souls are equally alive in the world of spirit, yet the development of their consciousness is fostered in a different way to those who have actually lived in [a physical body].” — Letters From Mother
Children who have passed over need to learn and grow, and do so at their own pace:
"Please do not entertain the idea that children are immediately transformed to the status of angelic beings on arrival into these realms. There are many who have suffered conditions of conflict, hatred and fear in their earthly lives and have built up mental barriers of mistrust that must be gently broken down and dispersed, before they can become adjusted to happy conditions.” — Letters From Mother
Naturally, there is much play, fun and laughter in the Children's Realm. Yet suitable older ones learn to get involved in helping others - especially when they can help other children who have suffered neglect, abandonment or mistreatment on earth. Skilled and experienced adults are also available at all times too, yet, the task of helping those wary, aggressive or fearful children who are New Arrivals is not always easy.
"Happily adjusted children play a large part in the rehabilitation of the maladjusted, for they have great capacity in expressing loving compassion; they yearn to dispel the darkness of fear [which they see in the newly arrived children. who have suffered mistreatment]. They are aided and encouraged in their endeavors by advanced beings from the Spheres of Light. They are protected as well, because, often, their efforts are viciously rejected, being regarded with mistrust by these unfortunate ones, who have been conditioned in cruelty and hate and seek revenge.” — Letters From Mother
However, ill-informed or mistreated children can also easily give up the attitudes they gained on Earth when they leave this environment behind them.
"Most of them leave their false impressions with their bodies. One of the children here was a child of criminal parents, and came over poisoned by wrong teaching; but the influence here were so good and so gentle that she soon outgrew the other impressions. I think she would have drifted into a criminal life if she had been left on earth; here, she is very dear and good." – Road to Immortality
A constant theme in the Afterlife is providing loving service to others and this is also true of the Children's Realm. As they learn how to use love to overcome fear, they are strengthened in their own skills and abilities to dispel darkness and bring in spiritual light.
"The process of winning [abandoned or mistreated] newcomers over to happier conditions is sometimes slow, for they are suspicious and doubtful of the intentions of the children that approach them. But love and truth always prevail in the end and there is great rejoicing amongst the other children when the task is accomplished. This is one of the most rewarding fields of service in which the children engage, for it is thus that they gain an insight into the minds of others and… understanding unfolds.” — Letters From Mother
"[We were playing a game to teach] a laughing, happy group. Then suddenly, one little girl said: 'I want my mama. Where is she?' For the little thing had come over alone. So we stopped our play, and all began comforting the child and leading her into happy thought. So, after all, the little game ended in sympathy and service. So, don't you think it was a lesson, after all?” — Spirit World and Spirit Life.
The children are encouraged to enjoy and celebrate their differences and explore the different cultures each have experienced on Earth.
"Children of all races play happily together, introducing the ideas and customs of their earth lives to others. An example of this recently took place when there was an influx of Japanese children. All the little girls in the group of which I am in charge, assumed the graceful kimono style of dress, and chrysanthemums became the popular garden flower.” — Letters From Mother
As mentioned earlier in the story of Phyllis, if there is some natural sympathy with the parents still on Earth (i.e. the child was wanted), then when they are ready, they are brought into the atmosphere of their earth family to get to know them and this is part of their education.
In any event, children at some stage in their development learn about the conditions and challenges of life on Earth for it is a vital part of their growth. They can experience some of this by interacting with the Afterlife levels close to the Earth, as many of the people there and the conditions they live in can be rather Earth-like.
"When young children come over here, they are first schooled in this life and [they] learn what experience they have lacked on Earth. The more training they have acquired in the Earth life, the sooner they are sent to complete it… Those who are stillborn have had no Earth training at all. Nevertheless, they are children of the Earth and, as such, they [need to acquire some experience of Earth]. Not until it is safe for them to do so, however, and then under proper guardianship… [The] ones who have lived a long and busy life on Earth have less to learn of Earth life when they come over here, and so can pass on to other and higher studies.” — Lowlands of Heaven
The education of children is an ongoing process in the Afterlife and they all have access to what they need in ways suited to their temperament. The mind operates much faster in the Afterlife as we no longer have a physical brain intervening in our thought processes. Our thinking is clearer and our memory is perfect. Learning can then take place very rapidly.
"Education is not the tedious affair it is on earth. Knowledge is absorbed without undue effort. The mind retains the impression it has received. You would be amazed at the extent of the knowledge of quite small children on this sphere. Yet they are in no way precocious. Laughter and happiness are the keynote of this life, for the children are one with the spiritual forces of nature, which they know and understand.” — Letters From Mother
They have their own versions of technology in the Afterlife used in education, and this includes the education of children. This story is from an adult visitor to the Children's Realms:
"We wandered over the grounds and looked at the various appliances for teaching children. One especially engaged my attention. It was a large globe of glass, about six or seven feet in diameter. It stood at the crossing of two paths, and reflected them. But as you looked into the globe, you could see not only the flowers and trees and plants which grew there, but also the different orders from which they had been derived in time past. It was very much like a lesson in progressive botany, such as might be given on Earth and deduced from the fossil plants of geology. But here we saw the same plants alive and growing, and all the species of them from the original parent down to the present representative of the same family.
We learned that the task set for the children was: to consider this progression up to this particular plant or tree or flower actually growing in that garden and reflected in the globe, and then to try to construct in their minds the further and future development of that same species. This is excellent training for their mental faculties, but the results are usually amusing…When they have thought out their conclusion, they have to make a model of the plant as it will appear after another period of evolution… wonderful some of those models are, and as impossible as they are strange.” — Lowlands of Heaven
These children will all eventually become adults in the Afterlife realms and need to be prepared for this. They will eventually take on some particular line of work, either something specific to the Afterlife, or something to do with helping those on Earth.
"Children are quick to perceive the field of service best suited to their individuality and they are encouraged to develop their spiritual qualities and to absorb the practical knowledge best suited to their needs in whatever line of progress they undertake to f
ollow.
They are not influenced by the selfish desires of others, to force them on to an uncongenial path, as so often happens on earth, when parents or guardians often endeavour to fulfil their own ambitions, or retrieve lost opportunities through the lives of others. Here, the individuality of the soul is recognized and children are encouraged to make their own decisions. In this way, they achieve fuller development because they open their minds to the forces of inspiration, without becoming clouded or confused by the conflicting desires and emotions of others.” — Letters From Mother
Abortion
I have met women who have had an abortion and regretted it and I have also met those who did not seem to mind. From the Afterlife perspective a spirit, once conceived, lives on. This can bring hope to those women who regret that circumstances caused them to terminate the physical life of that child. No woman does so lightly and this is understood in the Afterlife realms. Yet, it still leaves the issue of a spirit, who is alive growing and thriving in the Afterlife, and their relationship with their parents.
Much depends on whether there is any natural affection from the parents towards the child, busily maturing till reaching birth age and eventually into adulthood. If a parent is willing, sending kindly thoughts of welcome, or even having a small ceremony of welcome, can do much to build a relationship with the child. Thoughts can have very immediate effects in the Afterlife and kindly and loving thoughts can offset much, no matter what happened in the past.
Whether or not there is such natural affection from one or more of the parents (perhaps cultivated during the parent's sleep state), the child will be loved and cherished in the Afterlife by those who specialize in taking care of children.
Not Gone
The most important thing to realize is that no life ever ends, it simply changes its state. A child who has seemingly died, whether before birth or at any age afterwards, is still alive and thriving in the Afterlife.
Afterlife Adventures Page 11