When the
souls leave the bodies they do not assume elemental bodies. Whatever man thinks
regarding this is but his own imagination.
When man
desires help and communication from holy souls, he puts himself in a condition
of self-unconsciousness and becomes submerged in a sea of meditation; then a
spiritual state, which is sanctified from matter and all material things,
becomes visible and apparent to him. Then he thinks he beholds a form. Its
appearance is like unto a vision.
Man beholds
in the world of vision various images, communicates with them and receives
benefits, and in that world of vision he thinks they are physical temples and
material bodies, while they are purely immaterial.
Briefly,
the reality of the soul is sanctified and purified above matter and material
things, but, like unto the world of vision, it manifests itself in these
material forms and visages. Likewise in the psychic condition, one beholds the
spirits like unto the physical forms and visages.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (From a Tablet;
Star of the West, vol. 2, no. 15,
December 12, 1911)
