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 (Star of the West, vol.2, no. 15, December 12, 1911)
