Message titled, Laws of the Spirit World, from The Gospel of God’s Love, page 386.
“The great challenge is to make a start. This principle applies to mortals as well as to spirits, if the start on a Truthful quest be made on earth, the mere fact of becoming a spirit will not halt the progress of the spirit. If the start be a false one, based on things other than Truth, instead of progress continuing when the human becomes a spirit, there will need to be a retracing of the way, and a new start made, in order to get on the right road.
“This applies to the progress of the mind as well as to the progress of the soul. The mind of a mortal learns many things which seem to that mind to be the truth, and which, in its opinion, must lead to progress and greater knowledge. But when earth life gives way to spirit life, that mind may find that its basis of knowledge was in error, and that to continue in the way it had been moving would lead to increased error; and consequently, that a new start must be made.
“Frequently, the retracing of that mind over the course that it had followed, and the elimination of errors that it had embraced is more difficult, and takes longer to accomplish than the learning of truth does after the mind makes its correct start. So the mind of great learning is more of a detriment, and retards more the progress of a spirit in the ways and acquirements of truth than does the mind that is a like a blank-that is, without preconceived ideas of what the truth is on a particular subject.
“This unfortunate experience exists to a greater extent in matters pertaining to religion than any others, because the ideas and convictions which are taught and possessed of these religious matters affect innumerably more mortals than do ideas and convictions of any other subject. A spirit who is filled with these erroneous beliefs, which he may have been taught from early childhood, and fostered upon by him until he becomes a spirit, is the most difficult to teach and convince of the truths pertaining to religious matters. It’s often easier to teach the agnostic, or even the atheist, of these truths, than the hide-bound believer in the dogmas and creeds of an earthly religion.” Amen