After our transformation from our physical bodies to spirit form we exist for a time in the Lower Zone. Since this is the area we resided in while using our dense bodies. After our souls are separated we travel to where the Law of Affinity places us.
The Lower Zone, which shall be discussed in the next chapter is not a nice place to be, one where you are constantly in danger from marauding gangs and living in semi-darkness. A place designed to push you off your previously constructed pedestal that you could live without faith, fraternity and honor.
There is a worse place. And it’s not meant to merely change your attitude. Since the people who find themselves drawn down into the abyss don’t just have a problem with their approach and outlook, but their entire belief system. Where might makes right and the big stick can whack the heck out of anyone who only possesses a little stick.
It is where the opposite of the Golden Rule, others do unto you as you have done unto others, rules. The spirit realm doesn’t call it “Hell”, for that would imply a location where errant souls go and stay permanently. The spirit realm calls it the Darkness or the Abyss, sometimes I see it mentioned as a type of purgatory. For spirits are never sent to unalterable situations. God desires all of us to eventually ascend to be a pure spirit. Even though the journey may be torturous and painful. Whenever we find ourselves in real spiritual pain, it is usually because a nice suggestion wasn’t absorbed, hence we required a blunter object to attract our attention. The Darkness is a weighty sharp weapon which is specifically designed for those of us who just wouldn’t take the hint.
Whereas the Lower Zone starts at the crust of the earth and rises above until it meets the boundary of heaven, the Abyss, hence its name, is beneath the Lower Zone. It descends from the lowest altitude of the Umbral toward the center of the earth.
Andre Luiz, in the book Liberation, travels on a mission to the Abyss, he describes the landscape:
“The sun’s light looked different.
A grayish haze clouded the entire sky.
Volitation (definition: ability to move by thought) was impossible.
The vegetation looked sinister and afflicted. The trees were almost bare and the nearly-dry branches looked like arms lifted in supplication.
Large, foreboding birds that looked sort of like ravens were cawing like little winged monsters eyeing hidden prey.
What was most troubling, however, was not the bleak landscape – it was somewhat similar to others I had experienced – but the piercing appeals coming from the mire. Humanlike groans came in every tone.”[i]
The scenes described could be out of any of the movies or books we have seen and read about hell. A desolate landscape, dry and populated with revolting creatures.
Andre also notices gangs, which are wandering around the landscape:
“From time to time, hostile groups of deranged spirit entities passed in front of us, indifferent and incapable of noticing our presence. They were speaking loudly in broken but intelligible Portuguese, their laughter betraying deplorable conditions of ignorance. They were dressed in sinister attire and carried implements for fighting and wounding.”[ii]
Again, a passage that could be directly lifted from the Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. One begins to perceive that our culture interprets the images of purgatory similar because of the inspirations from the spirit world conveys to us the essential truth of the Darkness. From Dante’s books, Inferno and Purgatorio, to Hieronymus Bosch’s pictures of hell, we are fed a vision, designed to warn us of what may lie ahead.
Whereas, we in the modern world have discarded such childish notions, because we can’t prove beyond a shadow of a doubt the existence of purgatory, we fail to notice the evidence of people’s near death experiences. Those minority of people who instead of reuniting with family or feeling part of a universal love and intelligence, are taken to a place where they glimpse what is awaiting them if they remain on their current path.
Organization of the Abyss
Seeing the strange landscape and the characters which inhabit it, Andre Luiz ask whether this dark region has some sort of organizational structure. The leader of the expedition, Gubio, explains:
“Why wouldn’t there be? As in the corporeal sphere, the Higher Powers have endowed this domain with a form of leadership for the time being. This great emporium of regenerative suffering is led by a satrap of unbelievable ruthlessness, who has given himself the pompous title ‘Great Judge’. He is assisted by political and religious advisors who are as cold and perverse as he is. A huge aristocracy of implacable spirits controls thousands of idle, morally delinquent, sickly minds.”[iii]
Hence, there is no commanding devil, but fiefdoms led by individuals who have managed to control small areas of the underworld. Those who were hungry for power and domination in their physical life continued on after death. Climbing the ladder of power in a society designed to punish, albeit temporarily, transgressors whose actions and thoughts drove them to the level on par with their peers. Where the conscience of these poor souls could seek the punishment to eventually rid themselves of their wrongs, only to find themselves in a place worse than they could imagine.
Doesn’t this sound, look, and fell like “Hell”? One could ask, why does God allow this? Gubio supplies the answer:
“For the same instructive reasons that God does not exterminate a human nation, when, insane with a thirst for domination, it unleashes cruel and destructive war; instead, he hands it over to the expiation of its crimes and to the misfortune it has brought upon itself, so that it can learn to become part of the eternal order that presides over universal life. Over the course of many centuries, the matter used by those intelligences is worked and restructured, just like in the earthly circles; but if the Lord visits humankind by means of sanctified individuals, he also corrects spirits by means of hardened or beastly ones.”[iv]
The inmates are in charge. The most hardened criminals who descended here exist to demonstrate that where people who share the same anti-beliefs, meaning anti-love, anti-charity, anti-selflessness and anti-fraternity conjugate, would create a society founded upon only the most base principles. The result of such a culture of hate and selfishness is the perfect location to learn how the world would appear and function if everyone followed the same ideals.
In one of the Cities of the Darkness
As Andre enters the city, he begins to record the sights as he heads toward the center:
“A short time later, we entered a vast agglomeration of narrow streets lined with sordid and unkempt dwellings.
Loathsome faces eyed us furtively at first, but as we continued on our way, we were scrutinized by hostile and dreadful-looking passersby.
A few miles of public streets filled with heart rendering scenes unrolled before us.
Hundreds of emotionally imbalanced entities, along with disfigured ones with all sorts of deformities, made up the horrifying picture.”[v]
Andre is aghast at the legions of people with obvious imperfections. He inquires how so many have acquired such deformities. His team leader Gubio tells him the sad truth:
“After death, millions of individuals run into dangerous enemies due to fear and self-shame. In the sphere of our actions, words and thoughts, nothing is lost, Andre. The records of our lives works in two distinct phases: outside of us through the effects of our actions regarding our neighbors, situations and affairs as individuals, and within the archives of our conscience, which mathematically records all the results of our good and bad deeds. The spirit acts amid its own creations. Dark imperfections and praiseworthy qualities both envelop it wherever it may be. People on earth, on which we journey, hear arguments alluding to heaven and hell, and they vaguely believe in the spirit life that awaits them after death. Sooner than they might think, they lose the physical body and realize they can no longer hide behind its mask like a turtle in its shell.”[vi]
We are what we are inside. Every thought, every action we take is recorded by our spirit. Nothing is lost, when we lose our physical shell our true nature exposes itself for all of the universe to see. Most probably, we have all walked the streets of a dark city at one time or another. For we have been primitive souls, ignorant of how to behave and believe. But we have learned through the suffering we have endured that the path of complete selfishness and unbridled passion and greed never pays enough for the price incurred.
Suffering is the Key for Future Advancement
Why must many suffer so much and for so long? Because not just some of us, but all of us are on the path to perfection. To be perfect means that any anomaly, no matter how infinitesimal, shall be removed. There are always times when we are able to learn by a simple discussion and we take the advice offered to us to heart, but at other periods in our life we remain closed to any suggestions. Secure in our minds that we know better. Suffering scrubs through that layer of obstinacy and cleanses the blemish, that we were unable to remove ourselves.
Allan Kardec’s book Heaven and Hell, sums up the process, in Chapter VII, Future Punishment According to Spiritism:
“33) In spite of the diversity in the kinds and degrees of punishment that imperfect spirits suffer, the penal code of the future life may be summed up in these three principles:
1. Suffering is inherent to imperfection.
2. Every imperfection as well as every wrong resulting from it brings its own punishment in natural and inevitable consequences. Hence, sickness results from excess, and boredom from laziness, without there having to be some kind of special condemnation for each wrong or individual.
3. Since all people can free themselves from their imperfections by their will, they can annul the ills that result from them and can ensure future happiness.
To each according to his or her deeds, in heaven as well as on earth – such is the law of divine justice.”[vii]
Therefore, we are now armed with the knowledge that firstly, our deeds are recorded within our spirit memories; secondly, we react to our exploits by the governing process of our conscience. From which, highly evolved spirits are able to read our memories with exact precision; thusly we have nowhere to hide from others the actions we performed. Lastly the divine laws categorize us to the level where we belong.
There is no shortcut, no absolution in our journey of eternity. We have a choice, we can spend eons in denial, fighting the process every step, or we can accept the inevitable and commit our heart and labor to the lesson at hand.
An example of the consequences of taking the easy path is in the book Heaven and Hell. It is a transcript of a session with a spirit who appeared to a medium group without any bidding. He said his name was Benoist and that he had died in 1704. He announced that he was in great agony.
“1. What were you when alive?
‘A faithless monk.’
2. Was disbelief your only imperfection?
‘It was enough to lead to others.’
3. Could you give us some of the details of your life? A sincere confession would be counted in your favor.
‘I was poor and lazy. I entered the order not because I had a call, but in order to have a position. Being intelligent, I found myself one. Being influential, I abused my power. Being corrupt, I corrupted those whom I had the mission of saving. Being cruel, I persecuted those who seemed to disapprove of my excesses. Those at peace were disturbed by me; hunger tortured many of my victims, and their screams were often silenced through violence. Since then, I have been making expiation and have been suffering all the tortures of hell; my victims stir up the fires that devour me. Lechery and insatiable hunger pursue me and thirst burns my parched lips, without a refreshing drop of water ever falling on them. All the elements hound me. Pray for me.’[viii]
The Way Out
Unfortunate Beniost will have to spend his allotted time in his personal torture chamber, but he made the first step in recognizing that his deeds caused the consequences that befell him. Once he starts his introspection, he signals that he is ready to reincarnate to pay his debts. Others who are hopeless causes are also sent to be reborn, but in even more dire circumstances.
Unlike the intricate planning for reincarnation for those spirits who reside in the celestial cites, where they take an active part in planning their life and body down to the last detail, those in the Lower Zones and the Darkness have not earned that privilege.
Andre Luiz, in the book Workers of the Life Eternal, learns from a worker in the Lower Zone, how reincarnations are planned for those less fortunate.
“Expiatory reincarnation involving unspeakable suffering follows due to the crushing vibrations of hatred and punishing humiliation. In the fortunate realm in which you reside, there are institutions that take into account suggestions involving a spirit’s personal choice. Free will – that guarantor of natural credit – may request changes and present fair demands, but here the conditions are different … Uncivilized, indebted souls cannot be satisfied with regards to their preferences concerning their own future due to the deliberate ignorance in which they have taken pleasure for who knows how long. And in accordance with those who guide them from the upper realms, they are compelled to accept the itineraries set by the authorities responsible for their individual cases.”[ix]
All are allowed an end to their painful warning and are given another chance to return to the physical world where a series of events shall again test their mettle. Can they use their free-will to make the choices which illustrate they have learned the divine lessons presented to them, or will they once more prove to be unworthy to ascend to an advanced level?
Only time will tell, after all there is an eternity waiting for them in which they can either waste life after life in obstinate denial or begin to improve, step by step, up the ladder that is in front of everyone. Steps to perfection and a happy productive life in the service of others is the light at the end of the tunnel.
If you would like to learn more about the Dark Abyss and what is waiting for those ignorant spirits, read my book Explore Your Destiny – Since Your Life’s Path is (mostly) Predetermined
[[i]] Xavier, F.C. Liberation, EDICEI, pp. 53-54 [[ii]] Xavier, F.C. Liberation, EDICEI, p. 54 [[iii]] Xavier, F.C. Liberation, EDICEI, p. 56 [[iv]] Xavier, F.C. Liberation, EDICEI, p. 57 [[v]] Xavier, F.C. Liberation, EDICEI, p. 58 [[vi]] Xavier, F.C. Liberation, EDICEI, p. 59 [[vii]] Kardec, A, Heaven and Hell, EDICEI, Part One - Chapter VII, pp. 131-132 [[viii]] Kardec, A, Heaven and Hell, EDICEI, Part Two - Chapter VI, p. 437 [[ix]] Xavier, F.C. Workers of the Life Eternal, EDICEI, p. 95