Grieving the death of a child is understandable. Yet we can do more. Whatever our connection to the child, be it parent, grandparent, sibling or simply someone who cares. We can send kindly thoughts to the child. If they lived long enough to experience things like birthdays, we can still celebrate these, discreetly or openly, as appropriate – though this should not be done if it is too poignant or creates morbid feelings. Their guardians in spirit will bring them to the event so that they will have an enhanced connection to their birth family.
Wherever this works to the good, children in the Afterlife are encouraged to love and care about their family left on Earth. This builds a bond and can help the family as the love from those realms can reach them via the child, who is naturally attuned to them and to the Angelic beings in the Afterlife. Even very young children can act as a conduit for the love of the Afterlife realms to reach Earth. Very literally these children can act as ‘our little angel’.
"You will have your little son’s love always surrounding you. He brought a great blessing into your lives, my dears. This, you will realize as time goes on. I do wish you could visualize him as he is here, so happy and contented. Children arrive here, sparkling with wonderment and joy.” — Letters From Mother
Much that is a heavy burden during life on Earth gets reversed into brightness and delight in the Afterlife. It is the Place of Compensation and even things that sound 'too good to be true' (See chapter: Too Good to Be True) can actually be very true and very real.
We are all part of a greater life and a greater purpose is at work in the world than we may realize. Life is about much more than the world we know. The more we can open ourselves and acknowledge this then the happier we will be during our life on Earth and the more easily we can transition to that greater life when the time comes. Many of the things when daunt, confuse or confound us during our Earth life only begin to make sense when we pass over.
We can begin to bring more of the knowledge and understanding of the spirit realms into this physical life. By guiding our own thoughts, actions and beliefs, we can play our part dispelling the darkness and ignorance about this greater life as it becomes more and more a part of our life in how we choose to live. Even if we do not say a word to anyone, and simply keep our own counsel, we help to dispel darkness by raising our mind to higher things, not being fooled by circumstance and raising our mind to the greater possibilities of life.
Various Messages
Here are a variety of messages from the Afterlife relevant to the theme of children there. We will start with the first message Phyllis (who was the stillborn we met earlier) gave to her family on Earth.
"Greetings, my beloved sisters and brother. It is Phyllis here. Forgive me if my first words sound a little formal. I love you very dearly and have often longed to share in your cheerful banter and camaraderie. But this I have only been able to do vicariously, as I touched your lives so briefly, living only in your minds as a puzzling memory of a babe that was expected, yet arrived and departed without drawing breath…
Yet a link had been formed and I was firmly established as one of your earth family group. I was encouraged to share your lives and view your world through your mortal eyes. This, I could not have done, had I not made the descent into matter….
My physical body had served its purpose of introducing me to the world of matter. I had acquired a family on earth and was soon taught to use this link to the fullest advantage.
For the consolation of all parents who have lost a beloved child, I have tried to paint an overall picture, so that they may visualize their loved one’s progress. The bond of love is never severed and the silver thread of memory is woven into the pattern of God’s perfect tapestry that transcends all time and space, until the picture is complete.” — Letters From Mother
"The lady who had received us was the Mother of the place, and those who had attended her were some of her helpers. I asked one of these about these children who looked so happy and beautiful, and so perfectly at ease in this grand place. She explained that these were stillborn children, who had never breathed the atmosphere of Earth. For this reason, they were of different character from others who had been born alive, even from those who had only lived a few minutes. They also required different treatment, and were able much sooner to imbibe the knowledge of these spheres. So, they were sent to some such home as this, and were trained until they had progressed in mind and stature to such a degree that they were able to begin their new course of knowledge. Then, strong in heavenly purity and wisdom, they were taken in hand by those teachers who were in touch with the Earth itself, and were taught what they had not been able to learn before.” — Lowlands of Heaven
"The education of children is conducted on lines of self-expression and service. If this method were to be used on earth, there would be far fewer cases of maladjustment. Your problems of juvenile delinquency would fall away. It is important to establish the knowledge that each soul is an individual idea of the Great Spirit of Creation; one who has been granted the gift of self-expression in this service and thus has a responsibility to God and the entire creation which can only be completed by the individual… Children quickly grasp this idea, and take pride in their responsibility. They are encouraged to develop the gifts and abilities that lie dormant… and as these are brought to the surface and take expression, so their personalities unfold.” — Letters From Mother
Chapter 8: Work! What’s That?
“The sight of so much activity on the part of my fellow inhabitants of this realm had set my mind to thinking about my own future work and what form it could take. I had no very definite ideas upon the matter, and so I mentioned my difficulty to Edwin [my friend and guide]… [My] old friend was not the least surprised; he would have been more surprised, he said, if I had felt otherwise. It was a sensation common to all, sooner or later - the urge to be doing something useful for the good of others.” — Life in the World Unseen
Many people, when they first arrive in the Afterlife, just want to wander around, catch up with friends and relatives and travel a bit to get to know their new conditions. This is all perfectly normal and understandable. However, there often comes a time when we start yearning for “something to do”. We want to engage on something more focused and more purposeful - some type of work. We may find ourselves wanting to use a skill we had on Earth, or start to explore new skills, or areas of study that we had no interest in before. Many of their activities over there are impossible to describe to us till we pass over; though many are somewhat familiar in principle but they use very different methods.
“You do not know, nor can you know, all the occupations of this life. We have given you those, or described those, more nearly resembling the occupations of earth life. But there are many, many others of which you cannot as yet form any conception.” — Spirit World and Spirit Life
There are many opportunities for satisfying and fulfilling work in the Afterlife. Since money is not an issue, as there is no need for it, it is simply a matter of doing what you find appealing. Of course, it can be more than one thing and many people have a number of different types of ‘jobs’ they take on. As travel can be instantaneous, people can easily move between tasks, between jobs, and between work and leisure.
“It is essential to understand that every occupation and every task performed by the inhabitants of this and higher realms is done willingly, for the pure wish of doing so, and never from the attitude of having to do it ‘whether they like it or not’. There is no such thing as being compelled to undertake a task.” — Life in the World Unseen
In the Afterlife, we don’t normally get tired, as the bodies we have will not be the same heavy material as an Earthly physical body. However, we still feel the need for change and variety. In the same way that in our time on Earth, we might get tired of reading the same types of books, or always going to the same cafe, or always working at the same job. When we get to the Afterlife, we will still enjoy having a variety of activiti
es; some of those can be deliberate and focused (which we might regard as our job - or jobs), and others may be more playful and spontaneous.
How is Work Done?
“We are free to choose our work; but, if later we find objections, we may change. Some are teachers, some are messengers, some welcome the new arrivals, many are caring for the little children, some study the other planets, and many will go to distant worlds to learn such new conditions as may be understood.” — Spirit World and Spirit Life
Every ‘thing’ in the Afterlife is created by ‘someone’. It all ultimately comes from God, yet, it is our function and delight to be allowed to act as intermediaries. We act as God's hands and feet and make things, create things, and later destroy things that no longer serve a useful purpose. Therefore, Afterlifers often call on God's power in their work. This fills them with a sense of delight we can only imagine till we can do so ourselves.
The substance of the Afterlife can be directly molded and crafted by using the power of the mind. There is a wonderful sense of fulfillment in bringing things into creation in this way, especially since it carries the feeling of doing the Will of God. This does not mean that such creative work is all dreadfully serious. Indeed not, it can be light and delightful. Happiness, playfulness and joy are also a part of the will of the Creator and so is an essential part of the creative process.
We will discover that our Afterlife body is much more responsive to things like beauty, art, music, and various types of subtle pleasure. Something that we might only mildly enjoy while in a physical body can send us into raptures of delight (if we want it to) when we experience the Afterlife equivalent. We are also much more responsive to the feelings of satisfaction and wellbeing that arises when doing something good and useful for others. Life is largely about becoming a well-rounded person who can express frivolity, fun and laughter when appropriate and can just as easily be serious and focused when that is appropriate.
Who Will Be My Boss?
Everyone works in accordance with their free will, therefore, in a sense everyone is their own boss to the extent that they want that. For practical reasons, usually people do their chosen work as part of a team, and certainly they will have someone who they can turn to when they need help and advice. The leader of a team will simply be the one who has most knowledge and experience and who enjoys passing on what they know. They will be skilled in handling people as well as the technicalities of the job. As people evolve, they usually move up to higher realms and someone suitable from within the team will take over the leadership role. The previous leader will usually be in contact with the new leader, for a while, to be available when required.
Developing Skills
"Many prefer to stay here [near the Earth]. We find abundant opportunities for service. We are attracted to the planet we came from and prefer to stay near it for a time. All go on some time, but the time of the change is indefinite and is decided by each individual for himself, at least after a certain degree of advancement is made.” — Spirit World and Spirit Life
Someone who is a New Arrival in the Afterlife may not initially have the skill to do purely mental creation work. Not everyone has developed their thinking capacities and is able to hold a clear and organized line of thought. Someone who is a builder and loves to build houses might not be able to build mentally in the beginning. It is only through training and experience that he/she could develop the mental skills to create designs and detailed plans, or create directly through thought. However, they could, if they want, carry on in that line of work by using more 'hands on' methods in the beginning and shift over to more mental methods as they develop those skills.
If they had worked in some creative endeavor on Earth, they may well have skills that can readily be adapted. As is true for any type of activity, some are more temperamentally suited to this kind of mental creation than others. Just about anyone can learn the basics if they want too; while others who have a natural gift for it become experts and work as part of a group to create large buildings, gardens, parkland areas, and other types of 'landscaping' work.
Mental creation can be used for anything from small intricate crafts to large tapestries, from small buildings to large edifices. It can be used to create all manner of works of art or toys, gadgets, mechanical and scientific instruments of different kinds. If you consider that everything created on Earth, including everything made by human hands, was originally conceived and created in the Afterlife and then given to humanity through inspiration and mental influence, you begin to realize the scope and power of mental creation. However, this is just the beginning as there are many things, which can be created in the Afterlife, that are not suited to the Earth.
Some people would not be content with purely mental work and so it is possible to create things ‘manually’ either as an alternative or while their mental skills are being developed. On the lower levels of the Afterlife, the substance is not so easily shaped by the mind. On those levels, the process of creation often involves more of the use of the hands and using tools, machinery and the like. However, as we go up the levels, this process can become increasingly a mental phenomenon.
Taking great delight in helping to delight others comes easily in the Afterlife as this kind of positive sympathy, or empathy, is one of the many gifts of the sensitive Afterlife body. Much of the delight we will experience in doing things, or creating things in the Afterlife is due to the delight it causes in others. We will feel their happiness and delight in something we have done as if it were our own. The effort to cultivate such feelings as empathy and caring about others while on Earth helps significantly to awaken these feelings in the body we will inhabit in the Afterlife.
Work Examples
“Remember always that, however you are placed, you can make an art of living and thus enrich the lives of those who are of your immediate circle.” — Beyond Human Personality
The work a person chooses may be specific to the Afterlife; such as helping New Arrivals to adjust, working with those in the lower spheres who are ready to move up. There is work as artists, musicians, performers, actors and so on. Some of this type of work is easy for us to understand, but many types are specific to the Afterlife and so will not make sense to us till we go over there.
Just like on Earth; some specialize in working with children and normally do so in the Children's Sphere. Some love to work with gardens, with growing things and plants, some like technology and the sciences and so on. Some may want to have a variety of work, or to do something completely different from what they did on Earth, as a way to balance themselves. If a job is no longer fulfilling, they can easily move onto some other type of work or study.
“On passing out of the body, you take up the work most suited to you, the work that is most congenial. You can select any work you prefer and, as it were, apprentice yourself to it, if you did not know how to perform it on your side.” — Secret of Death
Another type of work has to do with helping improve the conditions on Earth. This could include studying, individually or part of a team, a particular field in regard to its impact on Earth; such as in engineering, technology, science, religion, or a problem in society. The results of the study are then used to inspire one or more individuals with ideas so that these are brought through to the Earth. Such an idea might become a book, a poem, a song, an invention, a scientific discovery, a new form of plant breeding, or whatever best suits its manifestation on Earth.
“We were soon to learn many things, the chief was that the earth world has the spirit world to thank for all the major scientific discoveries that have been made throughout the centuries.
The laboratories of the world of spirit are many decades in advance of those of the earth-plane. And it will be years before many revolutionary discoveries are allowed to be sent through to the earth world, because the earth has not yet sufficiently progressed.
In the hall of science, every field of scientific and engineering investigation, study, and discov
ery is covered, and here are to be seen so many of those men whose names have become household words, and who, since passing into spirit, have continued their life's work with their fellow scientists with the full and immense resources of the spirit world at their command.” — Life in the World Unseen
The type of work we do when we pass over will, of course, depend on what our interest are and what we are drawn to. Someone who has no interest in art, science, philosophy or spiritual things is not likely to suddenly develop those interests just because they are in the Afterlife. However, if we have always yearned to try a certain type of work (or area of study), then that will usually be made available to us. We will be able to pursue those interests previously denied us to our heart’s content. This allows us to grow and expand our capacities and skills in ways that benefit everyone.
Usually on arrival, the person will have some kind of house and garden, if that suits their temperament. This will have been created by those who are skilled in such things and who delight in doing so. Similarly, when alterations to a house or garden are required, these can be handled by those with expertise in that area, who again will be only too delighted to advise and make it happen. There is obviously a huge need for private and public buildings. These are normally created by purely mental means. We might be so inspired by the results we see these people achieving, and the delight they spread, that we might decide to take on that type of work.
There are many jobs on Earth that have an equivalent in the Afterlife though they may take a very different shape. For example, in the Afterlife there is no need for doctors and nurses in the normal sense. However, there are equivalents. The same intention of being willing to attend to the need of others through healing can be expressed in many ways. For example, New Arrivals sometimes need the equivalent of healing for a short while, as their Astral Body has been distorted by very restrictive experiences in life, or through drug and alcohol abuse and so on. This does not really harm their subtle bodies but their attitude of mind can temporarily impact it till they are willing to receive healing and become fully healthy in the Afterlife. Also, those with long-term illnesses before passing over may also need some healing in order to fully let go of the attitudes and feeling they had around it if they suffered for a long time.
Afterlife Adventures Page 12