CHAPTER II Occupations

The old-fashioned and ignorant notion that we spend our time sitting on a cloud singing hymns to the accompaniment of a harp has almost died away, and if you were to ask a clergyman of average intelligence what are his idea regarding the future life, he would probably reply that do dies not know, and that these matters are mysteries intentionally hidden from man during his earth life. Some Spiritualists go to the opposite extreme, and regard our life in the Summerland as a material condition little different from yours. They are apt to shock the religious by mentioning cigars or whisky. The truth, as usual, lies midway between these extremes.

Newcomers who desire the pleasures of the earth can have them for the asking, and some, for a short time, do lead a life that differs very little from the one they have left. But soon they cease to desire these physical pleasures, and as they adapt themselves to this life, so they give up smoking or drinking or eating. I have been here a relatively short time, less than your own earth life, and I have never had the faintest desire to these things. Occasionally I smoke a cigarette with a newcomer, merely in order to make him feel at home. It is like a child playing with toys: a grown-up may play with a doll in order to amuse a child, but he does not do so when he is alone. So, as we progress, do we discard childish things.

You ask whether we communicate with one another entirely by thought, or whether we have posts or telegrams. We do not have the same complicated postal delivery that you have, but at first, before we have learned to transmit our messages in the new way, we do write notes and a messenger takes them and delivers them by his own methods of thought transport. But very soon we learn that the mechanical process of writing is unnecessary. We do not need to keep notes, as our memories are perfect, and we can always recall whatever we wish. The difficulty with names is not that we cannot recall them at will, but that they are hard to transmit through the physical organs of a medium. As to books, there are vast libraries here containing all the earth books, as well as others written over here. According to one’s literary taste, so one chooses the appropriate library. If you want theological works – and, strange to say, there are some who wish to study these monuments of dreariness – you go to the theological library. If you prefer fiction, you go to the fiction library, and so on.

With regard to painting, the pigments you use are crude as compared to ours which do not fade. But when an artist is tired of the pictures he had made, he eliminates them by the power of thought and creates others. But he thinks out his scheme just as carefully as you do. At first he uses brushes. He would not feel happy without his accustomed tools, and so for a time he uses them, as do sculptors and other craftsmen. It is very gradually that they learn that they earth tools are no longer necessary. The artists sit before their canvas or paper and think our the scheme of the picture, and little by little precipitate the particles of colour into the right places. It is something like the work of the Bang Sisters some years ago, when portraits were precipitated on to the canvas. These pictures never fade or tarnish, but sometimes the artist wishes to alter something, and this he can easily do.

Artists and musicians have special buildings where they can study the new conditions that affect their art. A painter, for instance, must learn all about the new colours that are available, otherwise his work will look dull, as a black – and – white sketch on your side appears to a colour enthusiast. At first the artist finds our scenery a flowers almost beyond his scope, but soon he passes on to other occupations that satisfy his artistic instincts, so that mere painting or modeling no longer interests him.

The same applies to the musician. For a time he is satisfied with the instruments to which he is accustomed, but soon he perceives that his music is like that of a street organ when compared to a Wurlitzer. When he hears the marvelous music that can be produced over here, he goes to school again in order to learn about the many sounds that are beyond the range of the physical ear. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, as the old saying expresses it. The same applies to all sciences and arts, and those who were great men on your side soon find that they must start afresh in the infant class over here.

You ask whether there is any joy in creating things purely by the power of thought. That is where you do not understand. Let us talk about this power of thought and I will try to explain. Everything is made by the power of thought, even on your side, and you could not type these notes without using thought. We need manual skill, and when you first arrive here, you will find it just as hard as ever to paint a picture. But as you learn to adapt yourself, so you find that you can create things more easily, though practice and training are just as necessary, and if you imagine that you will suddenly become a Mozart of a Cooper, you will disappointed.

With regard to paints and paper, your new powers will come into play, and eventually you will be able to create your own materials. You will find no shops, but you will always find someone who is willing to help you to obtain what you need. I myself have painted a portrait of you as I see you, and it hangs in my study, but there are so many things to do that I do not often indulge in artistic efforts. There is, of course, no commercial side to art, but there are places where works of art can be seen. The masterpieces of your world find their place here, and we can read any book we wish. The choice of these things depends chiefly on whether there is anybody who is sufficiently fond of a given subject to desire its presence. You, for instance, will find portraits of King Charles, just as others might wish for a picture of Oliver Cromwell. That is where education comes in.

The public galleries on your side enable the masterpieces to be seen and appreciated, and so love gives them immortality in a kind of way. If you earnestly desire to have a Van Dyck portrait in your home, you will have it, and so others who feel in this way. Values to not enter into the matter. It is purely a question of having so strong a desire to look at a work of art, that you can have what you would call a reproduction. No false admiration roused by a fictitious money value came into it. It is solely a matter of artistic appreciation, and as you progress, you care less and less for earth toys because there is so much beauty and melody over here. Earth masterpieces are like the efforts of a child when compared with the finished product of a master-mind unrestricted by such limitations as illness or fatigue.

You ask whether we have examinations over here. Not as you do, but we have teachers, and they often question their pupils in order to ascertain whether they have understood what has been taught. Here, again, do not run away with the idea that you become a fully­fledged genius the moment you die. This if a far fuller and bright life than yours, but you still have to work and study in order to move into a higher class. You have often been told that you are just the same five minutes after your death, and that death does not turn you into a saint of devil. That is true, and the main advantage that you perceive at first is that your physical disabilities have disappeared. The blind see, and the deaf hear, and at first they cannot make it out.

It is a very real difficulty for me to explain to you how we occupy ourselves, because so many of the things we do cannot be understood by you. There are games for those who like them, and swimming and riding and all sports that do not involve cruelty. I will try to describe to you what I propose to do to-day. Well, I have begun by talking to you in this somewhat difficult way. Then I shall probably go for a ride or swim. After that there is a meeting I must attend, where those who have been in communication with the earth come to report their successes and failures, and we discuss the best methods of avoiding such failures in future. Then I may perhaps work in the garden, where I am planning a new section that I am sure will please you, and then I shall rest and think in a shady corner, with the dogs around me.

Friends will come and go, but you must not imagine that we have no privacy, or that, by the mere power of thought, a bore can always intrude. We have means of ensuring privacy, and you might as well suggest that because you door is often unlocked, every street beggar can walk into your study. We have various ways by which we can keep our privacy intact. Then I may go on a journey and explore some part of your world or ours, the latter most likely; and then I see the news on the special machines we have and which I can liken only to television.

This brings be to another rest time; we do not rush about all the time, any more than you do, and leisure is a very precious thing. Part of each day I spend with the dogs that have arrived from your world. Arranging for them to be looked after, and finding homes for those that have nobody to welcome them. Then I often visit the astral, and try to give a helping hand to somebody. There are always so many in need of help; for instance, I went the other day to see what I could do for all those poor souls that came over suddenly when a Spanish battleship went down.

Now I hope I have made you understand that we, too, have busy days, and above all, that we are not dull.

One day, when I was wandering in the garden planning new schemes, I met some of the ‘wee folk.’ I had never believed in their existence, and I was astonished when I caught sight of a little man in the conventional goblin garb, swinging his legs as he sat on a harebell. In your world they are afraid of humans, and you seldom see them, but here they have no fear, and sometimes make themselves rather a nuisance with their silly chatter. But this was the first I had seen, and I was anxious to talk to him and find out who he was, and where he came from. The intelligence of the fairy folk is not very high, but they can speak, and this puts them on a grade a little higher than the animals. This little fellow was quite willing to talk, and he was a merry little soul. His vocabulary was very limited, and he kept on roaring with laughter, as if what he said were a huge joke.

It is only here that the beauty of nature can be fully appreciated. We have no storms, but rain condenses gently on the vegetation, though the weather is of no importance, since we are never too hot or too cold. We can have ice and snow if we wish. It is hard to explain, but an Eskimo who is used to intense cold can have his icebergs by the power of thought. The conditions are so different. Those who like icebergs gravitate together and live in icy surroundings. We can visit them if we wish, but most of us prefer a temperate climate with no extremes of heat or cold. Natives of tropical countries live in surroundings exactly suited to them, but the undeveloped races, whose pleasure consists mainly in killing, do not stay here long, but soon reincarnate on earth.

The fact you must try to grasp is that over here everybody can have the semblance of material pleasures for a time, but these soon cease to satisfy, and the individual who has not progressed sufficiently to be happy here returns to the earth in a new incarnation. That is what I meant when I told you of the earthward pull experienced by those who have died suddenly in their youth. Unless they resist it, they are drawn back more and more strongly until they reincarnate. The desire for earth conditions fades automatically as time passes, unless the individual is of so low an evolutionary grade that he cannot adapt himself to our life.

Some wander in the dark spheres for some time before reincarnating, for there are some souls who do not make any progress while on earth, and there are others who refused to take advantage of the light that has been accorded them, and so it is necessary for their evolution that they should undergo a kind of purgatory. Those who inhabit the dark spheres do not necessarily reincarnate. Some eventually listen to the teaching of those who go to help them, and as soon as they are fitted for our life, they automatically come here.

Soon after my arrival, when revisiting the South African battlefields, I was sometimes able to help my old friends. I remember warning a colonel just in time to save him from being killed by a shell. I shouted: “ Stop! Stop!” but at first he did not hear me. Fortunately, he had some psychic power, and when I shouted right in his ear: “ Stop at once!” he heard me, for he reined in is horse and looked around in a puzzled way. Then he saw and heard the shell burst just where he would have been had he disregarded my warning. “ By Jove, that was a narrow shave!” I heard him say. “ I could have sworn some fellow called to me to stop,” and he looked round to see who it might have been. “ Must have been my imagination, I supposed, “ he remarked at last. It is funny how people on your side always seem to prefer any explanation other than the correct one.

The houses here vary according to the development of the owner. There are no slums, but there are very small, dull houses in rows, inhabited by those who are only just fit to be in this sphere at all.

Some live in them for a relatively long time, but most of these tenants reincarnate quite soon, and so remain here only a short time. It is not quite true to say that the houses are built by the good deeds of the occupants when on earth; it is rather that, as in everything here, they are automatically suited to the tenants, so that in the case of an unselfish man, it means that he has reached a stage where a fine house is suited to him.

You will perhaps remember the case of the butler and his wife who recently inherited a mansion from their mistress, but lived only in the kitchen and in one small bedroom. They were not accustomed to live in large rooms, and the mansion was useless to them. So it is here. A man who is in a low state of evolution would be like a fish out of water in a castle, and here there are no misfits, everyone being automatically suited to his surroundings. Do you understand my meaning? It is not a punishment for selfishness or cruelty, it is an automatic result. The earth life enables you to progress in a way that is impossible elsewhere, and that is why an undeveloped soul goes back to school to learn another lesson. He will eventually evolve unless he is one of those who refuse to learn and remain so long in the lower strata that they go backwards instead of forwards, until at last they are reabsorbed into the essence of life. This is what you call eternal death; a sad ending to ill-spent lives.

I must repeat that everything here is solid to us. We should not like to be misty wraiths, and it is you who seem unsubstantial to us. It is all a matter or relative surroundings, and solidity is the result of the relationship of the body to the surrounding elements. You ask whether we can be bruised or injured in any way. It would be possible if we hit something violently, but we have a protective sense that checks us. We not fall from heights as you do, because we exercise the power of thought. In the dark spheres I have seen injuries, as in your world, due to the people there not understanding how to use this power, and there are hospitals with appliances for treating such hurts. I met your friend, Dr R., recently. He was organising a hospital to deal with the injured from the earth wars. Many of these men are of very low development and some come over with shocking injuries. They do not realise that they are dead, and for this reason many continue to be maimed, and need treatment for some considerable time. Then one day they grasp the truth and are healed.

We do not quarrel over here, not what you would call quarrelling, but of course we do not always agree in every detail. That would be very dull. Nor do we have wars. What would be the use, since we cannot kill one another, or destroy property as you do on earth? Anybody who still wished to kill or destroy would not be suited for the Summerland, but would be in a lower sphere for a time, and then reincarnate until he had lost his desire to injure others. We have no soldiers because they are obviously not needed, but there are what you might call overseers, who see that the laws of the land are not broken.

It is hard to explain about our laws. There are, for instance, laws as to the bringing here of friends from the lower spheres, when they are not suited to this plane, and might interfere with the peace of the inhabitants. We have no prisons or convict settlements the extreme penalty is to be sent to a lower plane, and that is not a punishment; it is the enforcing of the law that nobody can live in a sphere higher than his evolution warrants. He would not be happy, but it does sometimes happen that the great love of a relative brings an unsuitable soul over here in the hope of raising his standard. Very rarely this is allowed, so as to satisfy the great desire of the friend over here, but only for a time, and if the visitor does not settle down, as you would put it, he automatically returns to the lower sphere.

Sometimes the one who loves his sacrifices his higher state and goes to live with him in order to help his development. It is possible to live in a lower state than one’s development warrants, but not in a higher. More usually, the higher spirit merely pays visits to the one in the lower grade, and has his or her real home here. The higher spirit is just as unsuited to the conditions of the lower sphere as is the lower spirit to the higher life. Nobody steals or murders are exceeds the speed limit here, but there are certain rules governing our behaviour that must not be broken.

Much of my work is to help those who are coming over in the various wars. We can do more for Europeans, because the yellow races expect to see their own ancestors, and would not understand if a white man met them. There are not many Negroes who have progressed, and usually they must reincarnate. This has nothing whatever to do with race; it depends on the spiritual evolution, but it is a fact that the British are more highly evolved than other races and that is why the British lead in political matters. I believe it is correct to say that more British and Americans have reached the state where reincarnation is no longer necessary than the member of any other race. The Latin races are more backward than the British, but it is true that the whole world is in a dangerous state, and that if a universal war were to break out, civilization would be set back. That is what we are trying to prevent by every means in our power, and Spiritualism is at last permeating the world, and will help to check war.

You must remember that I have been here only a very short time as compared with some of the inhabitants of the Summerland, and I can tell you only what I myself have experienced. Others may have a different story to tell, their interests being other than mine. Those, for instance, who come over as very earnest Christians, spend much of their time in their places of worship, and I know of one congregation where everything is almost exactly as on earth, with the same church, the same clergyman and the same services, while the sermons are not more intelligent than those preached on earth. They even sing the same hymns: “ Weary of earth and laden with my sin, I gaze at Heaven and long to enter in,” and so forth, and this may continue for centuries of your time. The members of the congregation are perfectly satisfied with this state of affairs, and never ask any of the higher teachers to come and enlighten them. Those that seek find, but those who are satisfied with their ignorance remain in that state. Your parents were rather like that at first, but they met me through you, and it was able to help them to some extent, and now they are seeking more advanced teaching.

The fact that everybody is just the same after passing over cannot be too strongly impressed on the earth dwellers. So that they may seek the light while still on your side. The merry-makes who are fond of jokes often indulge their humour over here, and that is why you sometimes find that practical jokes are played at séances. At the same time, a heavy atmosphere may be lightened in this way. All types have their uses, and it would be a dreary world if we were all alike.

The whole of the etheric body is perfect and can very be out of order or cause pain. We wish our hair as we prefer it, and the same applies to beards and moustaches. At first most people like to be as they were on earth, and I still have a small moustache. Gradually these things lose interest, and the higher spirits that I have met had no hair on their faces. But we need no barbers or dentists; our teeth are perfect, and we use them for their original purpose. The most essential organ is the brain, and the other organs, I believe, gradually disappear as we advance. You must remember that it may be thousands of your years before we leave the sphere I am now in, and we are learning all the time. I can tell you only what I know from my very limited experience. I have a swim most days, but we do not get dirty or need soap; not do we cut our nails or have corns on our feet. We have what clothing we like, at first exactly as on earth, but it does not wear out, and when we want a new garment we think it out and make it. Women sometimes, at first, desire fashionable attire, but soon this ceases to interest them. The people here mostly wear clothes something like their earth garments from long habit. We are always clothed in some way, and the higher spirits wear robes coloured in accordance with their character.

We still have varying characteristics, and we may be angry or displeased, but not for long. It is hard to make you understand, but you must remember my old analogy of the fish that cannot understand how you can exist out of the water. We have faculties unknown to you, and it is impossible to explain them to you. There is no disgrace in being unclothed; that is merely an earth custom. For a time we still have reproductive organs, but through disuse all unnecessary organs atrophy like your appendix, and are replaced by higher organs adapted to purposes that you could not understand. The main difficulty in explaining to you is that condition here are so different, but they change so slowly that we do not notice the gradual growth any more than you realise that your body is growing day by day. So we grow, but in a different way, and nothing stands still in any sphere of life. We go on progressing for ever. You ask what I mean by the words ‘for ever’. I do not know; there are many mysteries that I cannot grasp yet. I am only a short way ahead of you, and can tell you only what I have been taught.

The physical body is not, as I have head you call it, an old coat. It is interwoven with the etheric body in a very intricate way, and that is why to two bodies are sometimes hard to separate. If it were a mere coat, you could put it on and discard it at will quite easily. You ask funny questions this morning! I can only repeat that those near earth life, as I still am, like to retain for a time the earth fashions. I cannot picture myself with long ringlets, but that is of course a mere question of custom. If we had been brought up with long, trailing hair, we should regard any other mode as an outrageous disfigurement. Habit accounts for much, and persists so long as we are in the same stage of development. The fundamental law is that we can have what we like by the power of thought. Those who were tailors’ dummies or mannequins on earth will have much thought to the adornment of their persons – for a time – and the time varies according to the evolution of the individual.

Yesterday I was working with another friend of yours, Dr. M., and we were trying to make contact with a murderer. He had been executed for murder, and after a sleep he woke screaming with terror. He knew he had to be hanged, and because he found himself still alive, he naturally supposed that the execution had not taken place and he was terrified. The only way we could convince him was by taking him to the prison door and showing him the notice of his death. It was Dr. M. who helped me. She is much better, and her great energy makes her a very useful colleague. She refuses to give in, however difficult or distasteful a task may be. I like her, and she is fond of you, though she did not approve of all you did.

I wish I could give you a really vivid idea of our life here. It is an advantage to have many interests when you come over, as you can develop them all. There are some people who seem to be little more than animated vegetables, and go about asking what they can do to occupy themselves. Then there are the people who have never been devoted to amusement. At first they continue to seek their accustomed occupations, but there are not many boon companions for them, and they soon reincarnate. It may sound strange to you, but it is quite possible to be bored and lonely over here.

The reaching of your youth was wrong. As for everlasting punishment for those who do not believe certain doctrines, it is strange that educated and thoughtful people could ever entertain a belief in so unjust a retribution, and I simply cannot understand the standpoint of those who teach that an un-christened infant goes to eternal punishment. It is as if you were to hang a child for playing with matches. The child receives the automatic punishment of a burn, but the un-baptised infant is not even responsible for the omission. If anybody should be punished, it should surely be the parents who neglected the ceremony. There are many other errors taught on your side by those in high places, and when they come over here, they suffer remorse for having been so unintelligent, and for having hindered the progress of those whom they presumed to instruct. God has been blamed for many things that are really the result of man’s ignorance and stupidity. The New Messenger will sweep away a lot of cobwebs from the Christian religion – cobwebs that have accumulated year by year until they have choked the original Christian teaching.

I have already told you that we are never ill or out of sorts, and the only work for doctors is dealing with the various forms of soul shock. The people who interest me are most of those who persist in retaining their old beliefs and disbeliefs. There is a man who has been here much longer than I have, and yet he still insists that he is dreaming, and that one day he will wake up to find himself back in his bed on the earth. He says it is rubbish to tell him he is dead when he is so obviously alive, and how could he be alive if his body were dead? I sometimes wonder whether It is not partly a pose. He is very obstinate, and becomes annoyed if one tries to argue with him. “ Don’t come any of your hallelujah stuff with me,” he said the other day when I asked him whether he realised yet that he had shed his body for ever. “ how could I talk to you without a brain?” he retorted. “ I may be suffering from sleeping sickness or some rare disease, but the fact that I can see you proves that I am not dead.”

It is often said that we ought not to be called by those on earth. Those who say this should be brought over here to see the numbers of those, usually recently arrived, who are struggling to pierce the veil and make contact with those they love on earth. You have often been told by the guides what a great number there are who are anxious to communicate and who are bitterly disappointed when the power is exhausted before they have had the opportunity to speak. If someone on this side has no wish to communicate with those on our side, these is no power that can compel him to do so. Often it is not that they have any real objection, but that they are completely ignorant of the possibilities.

What you were reading of the guide’s remarks about the harmfulness of creeds and dogmas is perfectly true. It is much easier to help the careless who have never troubled to go to a place of worship than it is to make the ecclesiastically-minded leopard change his spots or the positive agnostic realise his mistakes. The boundless self-confidence of both is hard as granite, but I would rather deal with the atheist than with the narrow religious devotee. It is a stage in the individual evolution, and one simply has to wait until he becomes more amenable to reason. It is useless to dash oneself against a brick wall. It is funny, though, when one tries to reason with a rationalist, for he is convinced that he is the very essence of logic. “ My dear sir, “ on of these people said to me the other day when I was trying to explain things, “ you will never convince me of anything so absurd as the assertion that I have died and come to life again. The idea is manifestly ridiculous and irrational. Once a man is dead, he cannot be alive. I am sure you mean well, but I cannot accept what you say save as the morbid imaginings of an unbalanced mind.” And he went muttering to himself. The religious devotees are even less tolerant, and take the ‘Get thee behind me. Satan,” attitude. Here, again, it is a phase in the evolution of the individual. Not all go through it, fortunately. You and I did not, thus showing our affinity even in this minor matter.

I was present at the coronation to-day. It was a grand ceremony in the Abbey and in the streets, and many of us were looking on. At the church ceremony all the old bishops of history seemed to be present, and some were critical as to details: for instance, they did not approve of the anointing being less thorough, and of course they noticed the absence of the regalia that Cromwell stole. At first I thought I caught sight of the Martyr King, bit then I found it was Prince Rupert, who cam to look on for a short time. In the Abbey, the ceremony was more attractive to the churchmen than to the soldiers. As the King was being crowned, I say King George the Fifth sitting beside Queen Mary. It was a wonderful sight, and we did not have to wait hours in order to secure a seat. It is an advantage of being rid of the physical body that we can attend any ceremony anywhere, and then you wonder what recreation we have! Naturally, our bodies occupy space in our own sphere, but actually there were not so many from our side as to cause an inconvenient crowd. To many, such things are no longer of interest, just as children discard toys, bit I still have a boy’s love of pageantry, shining helmets and silk-coated horses, with all the panoply and ceremonial. There were far fewer of us than of the earth folk, and I stayed to the end, and even watched outside the Palace for a time. I was specially interested, of course, in the gunners in the procession.

I will tell you where we go for our current information. There is a hall with pictures, something like your cine films. They are not operated by electricity, and we can turn them to and fro by the exercise of our will. We can look back on any of the facts of history: for instance, those who did not witness the coronation can see it just as you do on your films. For the future it is the same, but we cannot always see everything, and when you ask me a question about future events, I cannot always answer, but if I volunteer the information, it is sure to be correct because in that case I have seen it on the screen of the future. Owing to the difference in our way of reckoning time, it is difficult to give exact dates for coming events. I have to judge by the number of other events that unroll themselves, and sometimes I mistake two simultaneous for two consecutive happenings, and so my calculations are thrown out of gear.

Sometimes a definite date is given, as when I forecast to you the end of the Great War. It was given in the form in which I passed it on: II.II.II., and it may surprise you to know that I did not myself understand the significance of these figures. We are not always allowed to give dates, or even to forecast future events. It is not always desirable that certain things should be known, so that there is what you call a news censorship. It is interesting seeing the past and the future, and the actors are even more lifelike than yours, for they are not actors, but the thought-forms of the actual performers. For children, it is a wonderful way of learning the history of the past, and these halls are always well attended.

As to my many activities, you now know some of them, but there are many others connected with matters that I cannot explain because there is nothing comparable on your earth. I sometimes play the nonio, an instrument you do not know. It is not unlike a fiddle, and I play in an orchestra, but I am no great musician and so take only minor parts. As I have often said, there are no dull times here, and we can always find plenty to do, both useful and entertaining. My great pleasure is coming to you and giving you this script. As for those who are carnally-minded, they do find it dull over here, and so, automatically, they return to the earth until they have reached the stage where they are happy here. That is the test. It is not punishment or retribution; it is that you go automatically to the place for which you are suited.

All the teaching about punishment by an angry god is wrong; it is the man himself who prepares his future. Some are almost ready for this sphere and may return to earth only for a very short time. “ Those whom the gods love, die young” is a crude way of expressing this truth. There is a woman over here who spends most of her time, as some do, working among the grey spheres. She was a missionary when on your side, and her only interest is in this kind of work. This is because her affinity is a backward soul, and she tries to teach him to progress so that he may come over here without having to incarnate again. I doubt whether she will succeed, as the man is a backward type, but she spends most of her time trying to help him. He does not yet realise that she is his twin soul, and though he is fond of her, he is often tired of her efforts to improve him. She may be able to shorten the period of his next incarnation. Sometimes a soul from this sphere voluntarily reincarnates in order to help another, and if this man has to return to earth, the woman will probably follow him, possible as his twin, though this is not always allowed.