THE SPIRITUAL COUNTERPART
"There is a spiritual counterpart to all organized forms; and a spirit, or a circle of spirits, can reproduce
a materialized counterpart, that is, he can temporarily re-materialize the spiritual counterpart, by the aid
of laws that you see in operation, at what is called a materialization séance such as have been
frequently witnessed in the presence of mediums. The latter phenomena are simply the materialization
of the spirit body of persons who formerly lived on your earth in the flesh, and are enabled to re-clothe
themselves for the time being in matter borrowed from the mediums and the persons forming the circle.
When, therefore, you see a spirit form clothed in white drapery, you may assume it is an exact
materialized reproduction of the spirit matter composing the dress and body of the spirit who thus
shows herself or himself. As, however, the matter they are clothed in is taken from the bodies of
persons in the flesh, - principally from the medium, - it has, at first, a tendency to shape itself into
forms resembling more or less the person of the medium. Hence, every spirit who thus re-clothes
himself or herself through a new medium, bears a considerable resemblance to the latter - a
circumstance which investigators naturally regard as exceedingly suspicious. It is, however, no more so
than the resemblance which one person bears to another, whose garments he may have borrowed.
When the power becomes stronger, it is found that the resemblance to the medium diminishes."
"Spirit communion is practised in our world the same as with you, only we obtain higher and more
perfect manifestations. Should a spirit, who knows nothing of spirit communion, see a messenger from
a higher sphere, he is unable to comprehend the meaning of it, fancies he has seen an angel, and
becomes alarmed, or runs away with the idea that it is a ghost. This sounds very absurd to you, but
nevertheless it is true. There is as much superstition and bigotry on the subjects of spiritualism and
spirit-communion among spirits, as there is among those in the flesh; nor is it to be wondered at when
you consider with what prejudices people are sent out of your world into ours, and how little change
they experience in their mode of life and surroundings. The spirit world is so material to their senses,
that they cannot realize the existence of spirit at all, still less that they themselves are spirits.
"You are mistaken, therefore, in supposing that the higher and lower spirits are intermingled in your
thoroughfares, in a manner to be equally visible to all. Those who are on the earth-plane see only
earthly spirits; those from a higher sphere see both classes. It is entirely dependent on the spiritual
development of each man how much of the spirit world and its inhabitants he sees."
Immortality and Our Employments Hereafter
JM Peebles