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They begged for their help in the hunt, and in the birthing of a child,in all things.
rum aa we angeis peered into Sheoi, as we passed into it,invisible, our essence causing no disturbance in a realm that was purelysouls at that point . . . souls and nothing but souls ... we realizedthese souls were strengthened in their survival by the attentions ofthose living on earth, by the love being sent to them by humans, bythe thoughts of them in human minds. It was a process.
"And just as with angels, these souls were individuals with varyingdegrees of intellect, interest, or curiosity. They were hosts as well toall human emotions, though in many, mercifully, all emotion was onthe wane.
"Some souls, for example, knew they were dead, and sought torespond to the prayers of their children, and actively attempted toadvise, speaking with all the power they could muster in a spiritualvoice. They struggled to appear to their children. Sometimes theybroke through for fleeting seconds, gathering to themselves swirlingparticles of matter by the sheer force of their invisible essence. Othertimes they made themselves visible in dreams, when the soul of thesleeping human was opened to other souls. They told their childrenof the bitterness and darkness of death, and that they must be braveand strong in life. They gave their children advice.
"And they seemed, in some instances at least, to know that thebelief and attention of their sons and daughters strengthened them.
They requested offerings and prayers, they reminded the children oftheir duty. These souls were to some extent the least confused, exceptfor one thing. They thought they had seen all there was to be seen.""No hint of Heaven?" I asked.
"No, and no light from Heaven penetrated Sheol, nor any music.
From Sheol one saw the darkness and the stars, and the people ofEarth.""Unbearable.""Not if you think you are a god to your children and can stillderive strength from the mere sight of the libations they pour on yourgrave. Not if you feel pleasure in those who hearken to your adviceand anger at those who don't, and not if you can communicateoccasionally, sometimes with spectacular results.""I see, of course. And gods they seemed to their children.""Ancestral gods of a certain kind. Not the Creator of All. Humanbeings had distinct ideas on both questions, as I've said.
"I became greatly absorbed with this whole question of Sheol. Itraveled the length and breadth of Sheol. Some of these souls didn'tknow they were dead. They knew only they were lost and blind andmiserable and they cried all the time like infant humans. They wereso weak I don't even think they felt the presence of other souls.
"Other souls were clearly deluded. They thought they were stillalive! They chased after their kindred, trying vainly to get theoblivious son or daughter to listen, when of course the kindred could nothear or see them; and these, these who thought they were still living,well, these had no presence of mind to gather matter to makethemselves appear or to come to the living in a dream, because they didn'tknow they were dead.""Yes.""To continue, some souls knew they were ghosts when they cameto mortals. Others thought they were alive and the whole world hadturned against them. Others simply drifted, seeing and hearing thesounds of other living beings but remote from this as if in a stupor ordream. And some souls died.
"Before my very eyes, some died. And soon I realized many weredying. The dying soul would last a week, perhaps a month in humantime, after its separation from the human body, retaining its shape,and then begin to fade. The essence would gradually disperse, just asdid the essence inside an animal upon its death. Gone into the air,returned perhaps to the energy and essence of God.""That's what happened?" I asked desperately. "Their energywent back into the Creator; the light of a candle returned to theeternal fire?""I don't know. And that I didn't see, little flames wafted toHeaven, drawn aloft by a mighty and loving blaze. No, I saw nothingof the kind.
"From Sheol the Light of God was not visible. For Sheol, theconsolation of God did not exist. Yet these were spiritual beings,made in our image and His image, and clinging to that image andhungering for a life beyond death. That was the agony. The hungerfor the life beyond death.""If that was absent at the time of the death, would the soul simplybe extinguished?" I asked.
"No, not at all. The hunger seemed innate. The hunger had to dieout in Sheol before the soul would disintegrate. Indeed, souls wentthrough many, many experiences in Sheol, and those who hadbecome the strongest were those who perceived themselves as gods,or humans passed into the realm of the good God, and attentive tohumans; and these souls gained power even to sway the others andstrengthen them sometimes and keep them from fading away."He paused as if not sure how to proceed. Then, he went on:
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