Robert Dale Owen Writes about His Book on the Phenomena of Spiritualism and Says He Never Heard of Divine Love

February 11, 1919
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Robert Dale Owen.

Let me say just a word, for I am interested in your work and in the phenomena of spiritualism. I have been with you as you read the book, which attempts to show the truth of spiritual manifestations, and the instances mentioned of spirits showing themselves in the garb of humans are true. I was then an investigator of the question and had only the knowledge, which I received from my own observation and, hence, was an outsider, as it were, of these spiritual phenomena. I mean that I was not one of the gifted ones of earth, who can have the power of receiving or communicating with spirits by reason of the fact that they possess the power of seeing or feeling or hearing the presence of spirits. I was not so gifted.

I am now an investigator of things spiritual, but not of the possibility of communicating with the spirit world, for this I know to be a fact, and beyond all question, and men who doubt the fact are in the condition of those who will not learn, because they do not believe in the first principles of the phenomena and are willing to let their prejudices or their indifference lead them away from the truth.

The phenomena, which I have portrayed in my book, are very simple and of the lower order of spiritual phenomena, and yet men will not believe because they fail to approach the subject with open minds and desire to learn the truth even though the search for the same leads them along lines of investigation that are so foreign to the course of study that they are pursuing in their various vocations. Of all the bigoted and hardheaded investigators of truth, the preachers are the most difficult to teach the truth of spiritualism, and their periscope is one that enables them to see only in a straight line that has been laid down to them for ages and holds them in its iron grasp.

I would like to come to you sometime and write you a long description of the spirit world and its phenomena, although it may not surprise you very much, considering what you have had revealed to you.

Well, you have asked me some questions, which I cannot answer in one breath. But I am in the Third Sphere, where many spirits are pursuing their studies of things which pertain to the laws of the spirit world, as well as to the laws of the earth.

I have not heard of the Divine Love, except as we call all love divine, and it must be so, for it leads us to the spheres where those who are sinless and in harmony with the Father reside. I am a true believer in the things of God and in the redemption of all mankind, sooner or later. My intellect is only part of my existence in the spirit world, and above and greater than that is the love that causes me to become in harmony with the laws of God, and at-one with him. These are the answers to your questions, and I should like to write you at length upon the truths of what I have so briefly stated. I know that you are very busy in receiving communications from the spirit world and have little time for communications from strangers, yet I should like to write at least one letter in reference to my condition and knowledge of things as I have found them.

I say what is true, for I have never heard of the Divine Love in the sense that you have spoken of. I have never talked with spirits who claim to have this Love, and to be better than are the spirits who are progressing in the love which they have, and as to immortality, I only know that death merely sets the soul of the mortal free and enables it to enter onto its progress towards the higher spheres, where truth and goodness are.

Let me wait a moment in my astonishment, for I see more spirits who seem to be of a different order of spirit from me, and are brighter and more beautiful, and are willing to tell me of the Divine Love, for they all claim to know it. But I do not understand and I am sure that if they are possessed of this Love, it is only another form of belief. I am all confused and cannot think for the moment. I will come again. I must go. Good night,

Robert Dale Owen

Ann Rollins Progresses to the Second Celestial Sphere and Writes There Are No Words Adequate to Describe the Glories of This Sphere

April 13, 1915
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

Well, my darling son, I am so happy to be with you and tell you that I am now in the Second Celestial Sphere, where everything is so beautiful and happiness exists to a degree that I cannot portray to you.

I am in my own home and what it is, I can scarcely describe, for you have no words which are adequate to give you an idea of what I may mean in attempting to describe the glories of this sphere. My home is of a material that you have no faint counterpart of on earth, and it is furnished with everything that is suited to make me happy and more thankful to the Father for His Love and kindness.

I am living all alone, but I have many visitors, and Love is the ruling sentiment among all its inhabitants. No spirit who is not filled with this Divine Love - of which I have so often told - you can possibly live in this sphere. The spirit who has all the most wonderful intellectual acquirements, and is without this Love, cannot enter this sphere, nor can the mere natural love of mortals or of spirits fit the spirit for inhabitancy here. Only the Divine Love of the Father can make a spirit so at-one with all the surroundings and atmosphere of Love that here exists.

When I left the First Sphere, I was taken in charge by a most beautiful and glorified spirit and carried from my home in the First Sphere up to the entrance of the Second Sphere where many other beautiful spirits were waiting to give me welcome - and such a welcome I never thought could be extended to a spirit who is progressing. But I was received with all the love and affection and evidence of joy that the spirits of this sphere have for a spirit who has progressed from the lower one. Oh, I tell you that my happiness was certainly beyond any conception of what I had in the home which I just left.

I thought that the beauty and grandeur of the First Sphere could not possibly be surpassed, but when I tell you that comparison cannot be made between the beauty of the two places, it is the best that I can do. My home was all ready for me, and I was carried by a whole host of spirits to it and told that it was for me, and that God had prepared it for my happiness and joy. It certainly is beyond description, and it would be useless for me to try to describe it.

The spirits here are so much more beautiful than those of any other sphere. They are more ethereal and their garments are all shining and white - not one little speck reminds one of the earth or the grosser spheres of the spirit world.

And here the music is entirely Divine and of such a great variety - all telling of the great Love of God, and sung in His praise and adoration. I have not yet seen all the beauties of this sphere, and I may later give you a fuller description of it.

Yes, I met some spirits whom I knew on earth, but not many; some of the truly Christian men and women who lived and loved and worshiped God, and passed over long before I did.

My own dear mother and father have progressed to this sphere and were ready to receive me, and how glad they were to welcome me and take me to their arms of love.

Well, I must not write more tonight as you are not in condition for extended writing. So with all my love, which is so much greater than when I last wrote you,

I am your own true and loving
Grandmother