Message from John, in The Gospel of God’s Love, on page 458.
“I want to tell you tonight about the things that the spirits in the hells (who have not received God’s divine-love) do, or have done to them, as you might say, in order to get out of their darkness and suffering, and progress to a happier condition.
“Well, when spirits who lived an evil or sinful life on earth first come to the spirit world, they enter what is called the earth plane (and when I say earth plane, I mean those portions of the Earth Sphere which are nearest the earth and partake very largely of the material). They are received by their friends who may have been with them at the time of their passing, and are by them comforted to some extent, and made familiar with their surroundings.
“This may last for a longer or shorter time, according as the spirit is capable of understanding their changed condition from mortal to spirit. After this condition of consciousness is assumed by the spirit, these friends leave, and some guiding spirit, whose duty it is to perform the task, shows or conducts the spirit to the plane and place which they are fitted to occupy; and which, by the workings of the law of compensation, they must occupy. In this plane they are surrounded by and must associate with spirits of a similar condition of develoment as their own, until some change comes to them which fit them for a higher place.
“This change again may come in a shorter or longer time – this dependant upon the spirit realizing what their condition is, and that there is a possibility of progressing. Of themself, there is little they can do to bring about this change, and it is brought about primarily through the influence of other spirits who are in a more enlightened and higher condition than themself. These influences do not necessarily come from spirits who have received the new birth, but may come from spirits who know nothing about it, and have only the natural love. And they may not even be of a high order of development of either intellect or soul; but they must be in such condition that they know and are able to tell the lower spirit of the possibility of progress, and the way in which it can be made.” To be continued…