Prince Hafed of Persia describes his own experience after parting from the body—
On waking up, I felt as if I had come out of a troubled dream.
The past few hours Appeared to me as a sort of dreamy unreality, and yet I knew that that which had taken place was altogether real—
A fact—
Not to be set down as mere fancy.
For a time, I felt in that dreamy, hazy-like condition.
I began, gradually, to consider—
I could observe no difference in myself—
Not even in the clothing with which I was covered.
This is something for you to think about.
Whence came these clothes?
The spirits did not bring them along with me into the spirit-land.
How then?
But—
As the scales fell from my eyes—
As I began to realise the fact of my translation—
I perceived that though my clothing was like that which covered me on earth, it was not the same.
I, then, began to examine my frame, and in that likewise, all appeared as usual—
There were my hands—my feet—the shape of my body—the very bones—aye, even the swollen blue veins in my arms and hands, and the nails on my finger ends—
All there!
But—
As I wondered, and gazed, all became transparent—
There was no density in that on which I looked.
I continued to look at myself, and my surroundings, and as I looked, I ruminated—
Is this, then, the grand change that has absorbed the attention of philosophers of all ages and countries?
Has the veil at last been drawn aside?
Now, I see things as they really are.
Now, I stand out in enduring form—
Solid and more substantial than are the everlasting rocks—
These may, in the lapse of ages, crumble into sand—
The mortal body may be dissolved into the elements and be blown hither and thither by the winds, but here is the indestructible body.
Man may—and, alas! how often does he destroy his earthly body, but this spiritual frame shall never be destroyed.
O glorious change! from earth—with all its sins and sorrows and sicknesses—to heaven—with its enduring rest and peace and joy!
Thus, I meditated, and thus, I wonderingly mused, and as I did so, the truth—like rays of light—darted into me.
That which I had been accustomed to look on as substantial realities, even earth's great rocks and mountains and seas, now appeared to me but as shadows when contrasted with the grand and magnificent objects on which my vision rested.
It was not, however, until the forms of my wife and son, with my beloved parents, and friends and companions long passed away stood round about me that I realised the fact of my transition—-
I had indeed passed from death to life—
From the mortal to the immortal.
Besides, I could now perceive the hearts of those dear ones with whom I came in contact.
Of course, I do not refer to the body-heart—that great force-pump of the blood (if you carefully examine that blood you will perceive the magnetic spark so necessary to the proper action of the heart)—not that, but something different from, and yet corresponding with that important organ of the body—I mean the spirit-heart—
The affections—The thoughts projected from the innermost of the Inner Man.
Observe, the spirit has what I may call an Inner spirit.
If you could but understand it!
You look on man encased in his wondrous human form and you behold in that form only the temple of the spirit—the dwelling-place of the man—so beautifully adapted to all his requirements, as an inhabitant of earth—
You turn your eyes to the spirit-form—
The heavenly body, but that is not the man—
That is not the all—
There is, in that celestial body, the Inner Man—
The thinking—feeling—acting being—the divine part—
The eternal indestructible offspring of God.
Do you see it?
There is—first—the body—Then—the spirit—And then—the divine part—All these go to make up the individual—the Man.
In earth-life, the inner, or God-part—the soul—may be so obliterated—so defaced by worldliness and sin that there seems to be nothing left, but the spirit.
Man by transgression of law shuts out God.
Coming here, in such a condition, he is driven—
He cannot help being driven into the dark regions of despair—
There, he abides without hope, and abandoned of God, as he thinks.
But still, there is hope, for he is not forgotten—
The angels of mercy and love are on the watch for an opening by which they may operate on the inner part of this darkened immortal, and when this opening does take place, as a result of the discipline undergone—
When the little chink appears, then is the door thrown open for the influences of the ministers of love and truth—
The light flows into the dark cells of his being—gradually and slowly at first—but ever increasing, and as the light comes in, so does the degraded one emerge from his miserable condition, and rises—
Ever rises upward and onward.
We, in our loved missions, are ever on the watch in such cases, and when the opportunity occurs, it is our joy and delight to work for goodness and truth—
To lift the poor helpless, hopeless one up out of the foul waters of his sins to God's pure stream of truth, and thus to float him on into our sphere of light and love.
In those who come here in a renewed condition, the divine part of their nature becomes the thinking, acting part, and as they continue in this course, so do they become more and more like unto Jesus who is the Image of the Invisible God.
—Hafed, Prince of Persia
