Souls who have passed on do not really leave us. They remain with us as more than mere memories. The souls of people whom we loved on earth continue to seek our welfare us much as they are able.
The souls of people we wronged on earth harbor resentment against us and would avenge themselves if given the chance. Thus, the dead are not really dead.
They may be living with us. Sometimes sensitive people can call them down to earth, as in the Bible when Saul employed a medium to call up the ghost of the prophet Samuel. Most people are ignorant of spiritual influences on the living, yet they are real.
The philosopher Immanuel Kant once said, “The human soul stands even in this life in indissoluble connection with all immaterial natures in the spirit world, that it reciprocally acts upon these and receives impressions and help from them.” They include not only spirits of the dead, but also nature spirits—sprites, fairies and their ilk.
The first peoples know them well, and their shamans are trained to sense their presence and employ them for human benefit. Their influence can be benign, or it can be beneficial, as the muse that inspires great art or the sudden insight that begets scientific discovery and invention.
Spiritual influence can also be destructive; for example, the passions that inflame age-old conflicts into modern-day ethnic violence. Intercourse between heaven and earth works both ways.
Spirits can be mobilized to assist earthly people for a righteous cause; conversely, spirits need help from earthly people to resolve their difficulties.
Many religions promote the idea that the living should make offerings to benefit the dead; the Latter-Day Saints even promote baptism for the dead as a way to bring them closer to the perfection of the end times.
In this regard, Father Moon teaches a doctrine of “returning resurrection,” by which spirits descend to assist the living, and the living in turn assist the dead by shouldering the burden of their unfinished business and resolving it.
1. Spirits among Us
Do not say, “They are dead!” about anyone who is killed for God’s sake. Rather they are living, even though you do not notice it. Qur’an 2.154
The scent of the sakaki leaves is fragrant; Drawing near, I see countless kinsmen Assembled all around, assembled all around, Kagura-Uta (Shinto)
The light which these souls [of departed saints] radiate is responsible for the progress of the world and the advancement of its peoples. They are like leaven which leavens the world of being, and constitute the animating force through which the arts and wonders of the world are made manifest… These souls and symbols of detachment have provided, and will continue to provide, the supreme moving impulse in the world of being.
Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh (Baha’i Faith)
Then the woman said, “Whom shall I bring up for you?” He said, “Bring up Samuel for me.” When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice; and the woman said to Saul, “Why have you deceived me? You are Saul.” The king said to her, “Have no fear; what do you see?” And the woman said to Saul, “I see a god coming up out of the earth.” He said to her, “What is his appearance?” And she said, “An old man is coming up; and he is wrapped in a robe.” And Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground, and did obeisance. Then Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?”
Samuel 28.11-15
Those who are dead are never gone: they are there in the thickening shadow. The dead are not under the earth: they are there in the tree that rustles, they are in the wood that groans, they are in the water that runs, they are in the water that sleeps, they are in the hut, they are in the crowd, the dead are not dead.
Those who are dead are never gone: they are in the breast of the woman, they are in the child who is wailing, and in the firebrand that flames. The dead are not under the earth: they are in the fire that is dying, they are in the grasses that weep, they are in the whimpering rocks, they are in the forest, they are in the house, the dead are not dead. Birago Diop (African Traditional Religions)
“The path of the hekura is visible, luminous; there arises from it something like a fiery breath that makes the air heavy and almost unbreathable. One does not see the hekura, one feels the wind they raise when they move. During the hunt from which I just returned, I scattered the hekura who were in me.” “Ordinary men are unable to recognize them.
Yet the wind tells us that they are there.” “I see them only at night, when I close my eyes.” “One can see them only then.” “Their paths become luminous for me. I am sleeping; they approach and summon me to answer them. They suddenly wake me by shaking my arm or pulling on my ankle.” “Those who are not truly shamans do not hear them. He who is really a shaman hears a kind of buzzing, ‘bouu…’ during his sleep, and this song echoes, rebounding off the celestial vault. He opens his eyes and says to himself, ‘I am going to see them now!’
The parrotlets sing, ‘bre, bre, bre,’ he knows that it is they. A cool breeze then glides along his legs…” “I saw the hekura walk on a rotten branch; I was passing right underneath.” “Indeed, it was they; but they were not friendly toward you. The strong odors of the smoking grill, the smell of singed hair, of scorched meat near the fire, all this drives them off.
Yet they did seem inclined to approach you.” “They give off a heady perfume; it comes from the dyes and the magic plants they carry with them. Suddenly, I stopped smelling these aromas, my nostrils no longer perceived them.”
“Therefore when one is at the end of the initiation, it is advisable not to hunt. If a flock of toucans takes flight and one of them lands near you, then all the others immediately follow suit. Be sure not to frighten them: stare at them fixedly and continue on your way; you be sure that they are hekura.
Of course, there are those you drove away during the hunt; but don’t be overly concerned, I foresee that those were not the good ones. The others remain, who came into your breast while you were lying in your hammock. Those are truly yours, they are in you.” Yanomami Shaman’s Instruction (Native American Religion)
And when the last Red Man shall have perished, and the memory of my tribe shall have become a myth among the white men, these shores will swarm with the invisible dead of my tribe, and when your children’s children think themselves alone in the field, the store, the shop, upon the highway, or in the silence of the pathless woods, they will not be alone. In all the earth, there is no place dedicated to solitude.
At night when the streets of your cities and villages are silent and you think them deserted, they will throng with the returning hosts that once filled them and still love this beautiful land. The White Man will never be alone. Chief Seattle
(Native American Religion)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
You are ignorant of the original life of God’s creation. You are unable to speak with confidence in the presence of the Creator, the spirits in heaven and all things on earth. Yet even at this hour, God and some spirits in heaven and on earth are helping you. (8:43, November 1, 1959)
At the peak of your spirituality, if you resolve and act upon your resolution for God, good spirits will descend from the spirit world and assist you. However, if your spiritual level drops, those spirits that had been assisting you will begin to leave, one by one.
As they depart they are sorrowful, mournfully thinking that they might never again descend to the earth and assist earthly people. Indeed, once they leave you, it is hard for them to return.
Act, therefore, to increase the number of spirits who can assist you. Then your work will make smooth and rapid progress, and heavenly fortune will be with you. (161:273-74, February 26, 1987)
Spirit people cannot come here and work just as they wish; their way is blocked. Only a few particular spirits can return to earth, unless earthly people, through their religious life build a bridge enabling more to cross. (102:29, November 19, 1978)
When our ancestors entered the spirit world, they were judged guilty. Unable to make progress in the spirit world, they should again descend to earth and make restitution. It would be better for you not to follow the same path. (146:224, July 1, 1986)
In the past, a person who prayed and made numerous conditions of devotion could meet the deceased founder of his religion for a short time, but then they had to separate, because the religious leader had to return to the spirit world.
However, now is the time when all spirits can descend to earth, to the people of their respective religions. (161:199-200, February 3, 1987)
2. Helping the Spirits and Gaining Spiritual Merit
Choosing an auspicious day and making purifications, you prepare the sacrifices. You present them filially, in spring, summer, autumn and winter, to your ancestors, the former kings... The spirits come and confer on you many blessings. Book of Songs 2.1.6 (Confucianism)
Outside the walls they stand, at the crossways and outside doors, to their own home returning. But when a plenteous meal is spread, of food and drink, no man remembers them. Such is the way of things. Wherefore do those who have piry on their kin make offerings due, of choice food and dring at seasonble times, saying, be this a gift to kinsmen, may our kinsmen be well pleased with it!”
Then do those earth-bound [ghosts], kinsmen, gather there where a plenteous meal is spread of food and drink, and fail not to render thanks, saying, “Long live our kinsmen, thanks to whom we have this gift! To us this offering is made; not without fruit are they who give!” For [in ghostland] no cattle-keeping, no ploughing of fields is seen.
There is no trading there, as on earth, no trafficking with gold. We ghosts that have departed there exist on what is given here. Even as water gathered on high ground flows down into the marsh, so are offerings given here on earth of service to the ghosts… Of a truth, wailing and grief and all manner of lamentation avail not anything.
It helps not the ghosts that kinsmen stand lamenting thus. Moreover, [if] this gift of charity is bestowed on the Order, it is bound to be of service [to the ghosts] for a long, long time.
Thus this duty done to kinsmen has been declared: unto the ghosts it is no mean offering of worship; unto the Brethren of the Order it is strength conferred; unto yourselves no small merit has been won.
Khuddaka Patha, Tirokudda-sutta (Buddhism)
The rice and water no longer are offered, the ancestors also must fall dishonored from home in heaven. Bhagavad-Gita 1.42 (Hinduism)
All these [saints of the Old Testament Age], though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us. Hebrews 11.39-12.1
It is sufficient to know, in this case, that the earth will be smitten with a curse unless there is a welding link of some kind or other between the fathers and the children, upon some subject or other—and behold what is that subject? It is the baptism for the dead.
For we without them cannot be made perfect; neither can they without us be made perfect. Neither can they nor we be made perfect without those who have died in the gospel also; for it is necessary in the ushering in of the dispensation of the fullness of times, which dispensation is now beginning to usher in, that a whole and complete and perfect union, and welding together of dispensations, and keys, and powers, and glories should take place.
Doctrine and Covenants 128.18 (Latter-day Saints)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
According to the Principle of Creation, the growth of the human spirit requires two kinds of nourishment: life elements received from God and vitality elements received through give and take action with the physical self.
Spirits can neither grow nor be resurrected apart from a physical self. Consequently, the spirits of people who died before they could reach perfection during their earthly life, can be resurrected only by returning to earth and completing their unaccomplished responsibility through cooperation with earthly people.
By assisting people of faith living on the earth to fulfill their missions, the spirits may complete their mission at the same time. Herein lies the meaning behind the verse, which foretold that in the Last Days the Lord would come “with His holy myriads.” (Jude 1.14)
How do spirits help people on earth fulfill the Will of God? When people become receptive to spirits through prayer or other spiritual activities, the spirits descend to them to form a common base with their spirit selves and work with them.
Spirits perform various works. For example, they pour spiritual fire on earthly people and give them the power to heal diseases. They help people enter states of trance and perceive the realities of the spirit world.
They give people revelations and the gift of prophecy. They can also give deep inspiration to the soul. In these various works, spirits act on behalf of the Holy Spirit, guiding people on the earth to accomplish the Will of God. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Resurrection 2.3.1)
If you went to the other side, to the spirit world, do you think you would see people living happily or people fighting each other?
Murderers and their victims are there together. Don’t you think they would be ready to fight, brandishing swords or knives and seeking revenge?
However, there are many walls that block them. For this reason, evil spirits go to the descendants of their enemies and cause sudden deaths by accidents in order to fetch them to the spirit world. The quarrels between spirits should all be resolved. Yet for this to happen, the resolution must first take place on earth.
It requires that we offer something precious—something more precious than the memory of their murder or their grudge against their enemy. Only in this way can quarrels among the spirits be resolved.
With what offering can the spirit world be liberated? With what can God be liberated?
Our ancestors bound themselves, thus making a mess of the spirit world. Therefore, we, their descendants, should now resolve our ancestors’ wrongdoing.
We have learned the proper tradition of filial sons and daughters: we should pay back our parents’ debts. In that light, who should knock down all the walls that our ancestors erected in the spirit world?
We should do it. In doing this work, we have to make our ancestors come down to meet us directly, and teach us. It sounds like a dream, but it is real. We are not alone.
If I look at you, I can see what kind of people your ancestors are, and what they did. The faces of your ancestors appear and quickly disappear. I can distinguish which of them are good spirits and which are evil. (191:205-06, June 24, 1989)
During Jesus’ advent on earth, there was a special opportunity for good spirits who had lived previously to resurrect. They could rise from the form-spirit level of the spirit world to the life-spirit level of the spirit world.
Likewise, your ancestors in the spirit world also have a special opportunity36 to resurrect by returning to earth, based on the condition afforded by your earthly life. Your ancestors are eager to return to earth and do the work of returning resurrection.
Isn’t it wonderful that you give them that opportunity? Among the ancestors of your family and clan were loyal patriots, filial sons and faithful wives. Call them in prayer, and they will come. They can come because the time is right, when your ancestors should cooperate with you. (14:22-23, April 19, 1964)
The question is whether we have set the standard to mobilize the spirits of the spirit world, and have them bear witness. The spirit world is also demanding to be mobilized. The spirit world is aware of the heart of God.
Therefore, if people on earth appeal on behalf of God’s sorrowful heart, then the spirit world will mobilize many spirits. They will help in the work of realizing the teachings of the Kingdom of Heaven. Why can’t spirits in the spirit world come to this earth plane? It is because the earth is beset by barriers of lamentation.
If the earthly environment were free of the conditions of lamentation, if we were free from the miserable conditions that beset our flesh, and if we would enter a state of peace, unafraid of Satan’s threats, then God would help us.
(4:60, March 2, 1958)
Sun Myung Moon