The man Helper found a woman who was exhausted. She had gone so far out that she could not get back and was about to sink. This Helper carried her in and then he could hardly get rid of her. She told him that when a man saved a woman, or a woman saved a man that they belonged to that person. The Helper told her that he had a wife. Then she offered to be their servant until he gave her her freedom with a freedom ring.

"Go and get one," the Helper told her.

"I can not, but you can," she told him and then she took him to a man and they got a ring. Then the Helper told this lady what kind of life she must live and what she must do to gain her complete freedom. She promised that she would live a life of service.

Then they went back to the Helper who was keeping back the sharks. She was sitting down on a shark's back and was playing with all of them that were around her. She was talking to them and to the Group Spirit and just having a glorious time.

The Helper who had saved the girl asked this girl if she wanted to go out there, and she became frightened and said, "No."

"They will not hurt you," he said.

There were about a hundred people on the shore watching the Helper and the sharks. The man Helper called his companion and told her to return to the shore. She did and the sharks followed her as far as they could and then she told them good. By and they swam away.

The Group Spirit of the sharks was of a reddish white color on his stomach, or, front part of the man, and had an etheric shark body at the neck. He looked very fierce, but he was friendly to the Helpers. He said that he had charge of most of the fiercest creatures in the ocean. "There are some creatures that are so fierce that no one except Initiates can handle them," he said.

All the Group Spirits are the same color as their charges.

One night two Helpers met two Lay Sisters and they said that they were going to take them to the Group Spirits and give them some instructions and some information about the Memory of Nature.

"Through the ages man has gained much useful knowledge for the benefit of plant, animal, and man," said one of these Lay Sisters. This knowledge is stored in the highest region of the World of Life Spirit in the true Memory of Nature. Those who can go there, or read in that region, can know all that he or she wishes to know, as this knowledge is used for the three life waves. The Group Spirits have free use of this knowledge for their charges. Thus they are able to guide them with wisdom that baffles man.

Man's brain is like a filter. When it is clean by right living, right action, right thinking, and service to mankind and to his younger brothers, the plants and animals, he draws from the storehouse of knowledge. He gets information that he needs in this way until he has gained spiritual sight and is taught how to read in the Memory of Nature. Then he can do good work.

Man's lower desires and selfishness have clogged up his filtering plant (reason) and man must suffer pain and sorrow until he learns to keep it clean and think and do right for right's sake only.

They all went to the place where the Group Spirits were. The Lay Sister told several of the most vicious Group Spirits that the strangers were friends of their charges and that they must obey them.

The lady Helper asked where the records of the lives of people were kept, and the Lay Sister showed them the Borderland of the World of Life Spirit. "The Lords of Destiny stay here," she said, "The records of the people are kept in the fifth region."

The Helpers had a glimpse of those Mighty Beings and saw hosts of Angels there. They saw the scrolls of several egos. Some of these scrolls were large and some were small. The smaller the scrolls the more advanced the egos are: One has to see this region to understand how the life records are kept. It is very interesting and wonderful to be allowed to see into the inner worlds.

Here is how a man was helped who loved dogs. This man prayed to God for help, and some Helpers were sent to him with orders to do all they could to help him.

They went to the house and materialized and knocked on the door. The man invited them in and told them what his trouble was. He was a farmer and had planned to sell his farm and work for someone else. "I am going to store my furniture, but I don't know what to do about my dog," he said. "I have a kennel and raise spaniels. I only sell them to people who are able to take care of them and will be kind to them."

The man took the Helpers to where his dogs were. The Helpers contacted the Group Spirit of the spaniels. "This man trains his dogs to the very highest degree before he sells them," the Group Spirit said. "These animals are very dear to me and I want them well cared for, for this is their last time on earth as dogs and I do not want them to slip back."

The Helpers greatly admired these truly beautiful spaniels and told the man not to break up his home, as conditions would get better in a few days and they would be all right.

The Group Spirit told the lady Helper to tell this, man that if he must sell his property he should keep his best dogs. She told the man and he said that he wanted to keep all of them.

A man came to the place who wanted to buy the farm.

"No, you cannot get it," the lady Helper said.

"This man owes me some money and I want it," he told her.

"You will get it in a few days,"' she told him, and the man went away.

This Helper told the owner of the farm to go to see a certain man whom he knew and said that this man would loan him the money he needed to pay his debts, and that this friend would give him a long time in which to repay him and that he would only charge a small amount of interest on the loan.

"Please wait while I call my friend by phone, the man told her. He got up and called his friend by telephone, and the man told him that he would let him have the money and that he could get it the next day.

This other man had helped in a former life by the man who wanted to borrow the money and so he was influenced to help the farmer out in his time of worry and trouble. In this case the Helpers were able to help a man and his family, a number of beautiful dogs, and the Group Spirit of the dogs, who wanted them well cared for.

One morning a Helper woke up crying bitterly for she remembered how she had tried to help a beautiful deer, but it had died in her arms and she had carried it to the Desire World.

The Helpers were going along in the northern part of North America and they came to a house where they saw three unusual pets. The family consisted of a father, a mother, two sons, and a daughter. They had a fox, a deer, and a grizzly bear for pets.

The mother was getting breakfast and she sent the girl to the basement to get a jug of syrup for the pancakes. The girl made a mistake and got the wrong jug of syrup and her mother scolded her severely. The little girl began to cry and then she didn't want any breakfast as she was too upset to eat it.

This girl got up early each morning and did all she could to help, but her mother was never satisfied. The mother wanted to move further south where the weather is warmer, but her husband was making a fairly good living and felt that he should remain where he was. One of the Helpers advised this woman to try to content herself and do the best she could.

The people showed the Helpers their pets and told them how they got them. The deer had become lost from the herd when a pack of hungry wolves got after the animals. Food was scarce and the wolves were very hungry. A second pack of wolves chased the deer to this farmhouse and the people had put them in their basement, which had an outside door. The people had little food that the deer would eat as it was cold weather. The confinement, lonesomeness, and fright from a grizzly bear that was also kept in the basement caused the deer to become faint and weak.

The grizzly bear was quite large. He had been raised from a cub. When the bear saw the lady Helper he wanted to follow her up the basement stairs, but she told him to go back and he did.

The fox was a dear little fellow who had the freedom of the house. The family got him when he was small and tamed him, and he was as gentle and friendly as a dog. The people were good and kind to animals but they did not have very much to do with.

When the Helpers went to the basement to see the lovely deer she came to her at her first call and when the Helper put her arm around her she gave up and sank down. Then the Helper asked the Group Spirit to help her save the deer.

"My friend, it is too late as the deer is soon to come to me," he said, and the deer passed on.

The Helpers arrived there too late to be of service. There was no place to take the deer where she could get proper food and care. The Helpers found out that this doe was seven years old. She was one of the handsomest animals that the Helpers had ever seen, and the Group Spirit was a marvelous Being with a beautiful aura that extended a long distance. You see, the Helpers saw more than just the, deer's physical body.

The Group Spirit of the bear told the Helper to tell the people to let the bear out, as he would not go away and would not harm any one as they had tamed him and he loved them.

The lady Helper gathered up the desire body of the deer, who folded up her feet so that the Helper could carry her easily, and laid her head on the Helper's shoulder. Then the Helper took the lovely deer away and laid her at the Group Spirit's feet. She cried as if the deer were a child of hers. The Group Spirit patted the Helper's head and she disappeared and went home and woke up crying because the deer could not be saved.

While the Helpers were at this house the younger boy was sent to carry some shrubs to his uncle's farm near by. The mother tied them in bunches so they would hide and make tracks in the snow so they could trace him in case he got lost, or if the wolves got after him.

The fox and the deer were the pets of the younger boy. This boy was a little afraid of the grizzly bear although he was friendly to him. The fox and the deer were very advanced animals, and the Helpers were told by the Group Spirit that they would only be reincarnated twice more in animal bodies. This boy was more advanced than the others in the family, and they all loved him dearly, and he was always willing to do for all of them.

Here is a story about how a seal was carried home. Some Helpers were going over the Atlantic Ocean one night and they saw many fish in the ocean. The attention of one of the Helpers was attracted to a certain place where she heard something flapping about in the water. "Oh, look!" she told her companion. "There is a seal in a hole in the ice. Let us get him."

"He is in an ice pocket and has floated down from the north on this iceberg," he told his friend. "Get him if you want him."

The seal could not get out of the pocket because the ice was straight and high above him. There was not very much water in the pocket, which looked something like a dark cave. The Helper went to where the seal was and got him. She picked him up in her arms and he went very willingly.

She carried the seal to the shore and showed him to some fishermen who wanted him. One man said that he would buy the seal and make his a girl a coat of the skin. "No, you can't have him," said the Helper and she got in touch with the Group Spirit who had him under his care. This Group Spirit told the Helper to take his charge up above Newfoundland and put him in the water there.

"If you put him in the water here he will never reach home, as the denizens of the ocean will destroy him," he said.

This gray seal had a magnificent coat of soft fur and fine stubby whiskers and was very valuable. When the Helper picked the seal up again she told him that she was going to take him home, and he settled in her arms like a baby. The Helper dematerialized most of her body and started north. She fairly flew through the air far over the Atlantic Ocean. When she reached the place indicated by the Group Spirit she let the seal go in the water.

He flopped around a little and chirped a few times as if to thank the Helper, and disappeared out of sight. The Helper sighed.

"Go get him back if you want him," said her companion.

"I can't find him now," she answered.

The Group Spirit thanked them and they went on feeling happy after helping the seal.

The next morning both Helpers remembered about what happened and one of them was very pleased and happy. Now, I am sure if you ever remembered such a pleasant experience that you wouId no longer want to eat your younger brothers, the animals, or wrap yourselves in their soft coats, which have been torn from poor helpless murdered animals.

Several persons interested in the Mystic and Esoteric Teachings have been doing some research work upon karma and its effect upon the children of our day, and they have found that the thoughts of children do shape their future lives to a great extent.

Few of us realize that our dreams help shape our future lives. Some children dream of things that they did in past lives. Other children float about in the Desire World and meet entities and evil thought-forms that terrify them. Then there are children who dream of meeting Fairies and Gnomes and playing with them. Some children go to the Heaven World School at night, and they dream of what they do and see there.

The following is what a little girl wrote concerning a very vivid dream that she had one night:

"Once I dreamed that I was a champion diver. One day I was to dive for some people. The first time I fell down, and the second time I became frightened. Then I said to the people, "I give up."

They laughed and said, "What a champion you are!"

"I looked at them and became angry and I said, "I will quit the job and everything," and the people started to go home. One man said some ugly words.

"I said, 'Come back. I will dive for you.' I dived into the water and hit a rock and got hurt.

"Just then my mother gave me a tap on the head and said, 'Get up. It is school time!'"

The Memory of Nature revealed that in her last life, when she was a man, she was a pearl diver and amassed great wealth by her dangerous work. FInally some other men planned to get this wealth, and they set a trap for her and caused her death. After that they stole her wealth and kept it. Her friends were limited in that life.

This same ego was reborn in the United States, and her parents are the closest friends that she had in her past life when she was a pearl diver. She is a bright child and is doing the best she can in this life to prepare herself for life.

I will tell you of the dreams of three children who dreamed of Desire World conditions. A little boy wrote the following:

"One night I dreamed that I was in the jungle. There were about twenty-five lions and twenty-five tigers there. One day I asked a tiger if I could have a ride on his back, and he said, 'Yes.'

"He gave me a ride, and then he threw me to a lion. The lion threw me to a tiger, and it went on that way until I was thrown on a blind tiger. Of course he couldn't see, so we fell into the water, and I fell off his back. Just then a swordfish came along, and we had a battle. When I woke up, I saw that it was a dream."

This is what really happened. Some entities made themselves look like lions and tigers and played with this boy when he was out of his body at night and up in the Desire World.

In The Rosicrucian Philosophy in Questions and Answers, we read the following:

"In this material world all the forms are stable and do not easily change. The Desire World is widely different in that respect. The fairy tales, like the metamorphosis of Cinderella's mice, etc., are actual facts in the Desire World, for the forms change at the will of the ensouled life with a lightning-like rapidity, which is very bewildering to one who enters the world as a neophyte."

Here is what a little girl dreamed and wrote down for a friend of hers who is interested in the meaning of dreams:

"One day I dreamed I was in the woods. While I was there a lion jumped out of the jungle. Then he caught me by one foot and threw me into the water. I jumped out of the water and ran home. I woke up and found myself on the floor."

This child had been frightened by an entity in the Desire World who amused himself by appearing in the shape of a lion and then chased her home. She entered her body so suddenly that she fell out of bed.

Another girl dreamed that she saw a small swimming pool and that her brother and she went to it and began swimming in it. All of a sudden she saw the water come up and almost drown her brother. She got out of the water and started calling her brother. Then her brother appeared, and he was crying for his mother. Then they seemed to be going for a ride in a car. Then she went to the place where she had been during her summer vacation, and she saw her mother there.

This was also a Desire World experience. The child remembered it so well that she could write about it days later. We must remember that the Desire World is a place where the lights and colors are constantly changing and where the forces of animal and man intermingle with the forces of innumerable Hierarchies of Spiritual Beings which do not appear in the Physical World in which we live.

A certain little girl dreamed about an exciting party. Here are her exact words:

"One night I was on my porch and said, 'I wish I were a Fairy so I could help someone.' Just as I said that I had a pair of wings on my back and a wand in my hand. Then up, up, I went into the air, and I saw two more Fairies, and we all flew to Fairyland."

This was a Desire World condition that she remembered when she awakened the next morning.

A little girl remembered a strange occurrence that happened one night and related it as a dream later on. Here is what really happened. One time a woman died, and her husband decided to bury his savings in her coffin for safe-keeping. He had converted his savings into gold coins, and when everything had been arranged for his wife's burial, he quietly placed a bag containing several thousand dollars in gold in her coffin. The money was buried with her.

Several years later the man met reverses and needed his money. He then went to the cemetery, dug, up the coffin, took his money, and carried it home. The child happened to float by in her finer vehicles and saw him dig up the coffin and take the money out. She did not remember it correctly, but she did quite well.

The child wrote the following:

"Last night I dreamed that there was a family living in a house. One night the woman got sick and went to the hospital, and she had to have a golden arm. Then one night she died, and her husband buried her. Another night her husband said to himself, 'I am going to get the golden arm. It is worth a lot of money.'

"Then he went to the cemetery and found the grave. He took one shovelful of earth out and then two shovelfuls and so on. Then he pulled out the golden arm. (This was the sack of gold money.) That night he heard a voice say, 'Give me back my golden arm.'

I was so afraid that I jumped out of bed and ran into my mother's bedroom."

According to the Memory of Nature, the man did dig up the coffin, but he did not take out any golden arm. Instead he took out a long sack of money which the child mistook for the woman's arm, which she thought was made of gold.

Another child said that she dreamed that she was dressed like a Fairy and had many good things to eat, such as ice cream, candy, and frankfurters, and that she had lots of money and dresses of all kinds. When her mother awakened her, she was cross, because she had been enjoying herself.

This child had loved the pleasures of life greatly in her past life, and now her mind dwells on the pleasures and good things of this life, and she will seek them to her sorrow. Money and more money is the height of her ambition.

In a life a thousand years ago, a certain boy, who was then a girl, had a Chinese father and a Jewish mother. Neither of his parents in this life are Chinese, but his eyes resemble those of the Chinese race, and he has certain ways of doing things that he has brought over from his last life. If you observe people carefully, you can often tell from their faces what races they have come up through.

A student knows a lady who has eyes that resemble those of a Japanese person. One day she asked this acquaintance if she had any Japanese relatives, and she said that one of her grandmothers was Japanese.

Another time this student met two interesting people, and she was struck by the gentleman's appearance, for he looked much like a Chinese individual. Finally this student asked the lady if her husband had ever lived in China in some past life.

"Yes, he did, and so did I," she remarked smilingly.

When the husband came, the lady told him of the conversation, and he told some interesting incidents of himself when he was a child which will show you how the thoughts of people shape their future lives. In China the principal food of the people is rice. This man said that when he was a child in this life, he especially liked to eat rice. When he was five years old, he had many gifts at Christmas time. His mother remembered his great interest in rice; so she put a little bag of rice among his gifts near the Christmas tree.

His father was away at the time. When he returned home, he took his little boy on his lap and asked him what Santa Claus had brought him. The boy told his father all about his presents and about the little bag of rice, which had pleased him.

When this child was about ten years old, the family had a nice vegetable garden and grew more tomatoes than they needed. Finally one day the boy and his mother talked over the idea of selling some tomatoes to one of the grocery stores. He picked his little wagon full of fine ripe tomatoes. His mother told him that he ought to get ten cents worth of something in exchange for them. She told him that he might buy whatever he pleased. He went to the store and came back with a small bag of rice which he had received in trade for the tomatoes. His mother was much impressed with this and often spoke of it later. You see his thoughts of a past life influenced his choice of food in the present one.

A certain person that I know remembers that her father loved ships, and saved clippings of boats of all kinds in a scrapbook. He often expressed a desire to have a boat. He even made a model of a sailboat that he liked for her to play with. He had a houseboat at one time, but he became sick, and the man who was in charge of the houseboat stole it. This man never had his desire for a ship realized in this life.

This student found out afterwards that her father had been a sea captain two lives before. When he came to rebirth in this life, he had a restless disposition and a strong desire to own a boat and be on the water. He loved to read stories of the sea, also. He brought over his desires for life on a ship and for fishing from a former life when his thoughts were centered on these things.

Many children dream of skeletons and ghosts. Here is what a little girl dreamed one November day. She wrote the following:

"I dreamed I was in Detroit, and I had to go to sleep. When I went to sleep, I dreamed that I saw two ugly looking hands. I became so scared that I jumped out of the window. Later when I was out, I saw a ghost. It was the very one I had seen in bed. I got more frightened than when I was in bed. I ran up the stairs and got into bed again. It was terrible.

"About an hour later I heard a very loud noise. I woke up and saw myself on the floor with my pillow and covers. The loud noise was when I fell down."

Here is what really happened. After she went to sleep, she slipped out of her body, and she floated into a house where there was a thought-form disintegrating. She thought it was a ghost and started to run. This caused a vacuum behind her. This vacuum drew the lifeless thought-form behind her, and she thought that the ghost was chasing her. She got into her body so suddenly that she fell out of bed.

I will now tell you of a dream that a boy told one day. The Memory of Nature revealed that this boy was cruel to animals in the past, and in this life he is still cruel to animals. He may die from an attack of an animal unless great care is used. The boy told the following:

One night I dreamed that I was a lion tamer for a circus that traveled from city to city. One of my unusual experiences occurred when I had to make a tiger get upon an elephant's back. The tiger bad just been caught and was very wild. When I gave the sign, the tiger was let loose. He jumped at me, but I moved back and whipped him. He turned back and jumped on the elephant's back. When the elephant was going around again, the tiger sprang at me. I thought I was going to die. Just then I woke up and found myself on the floor."

It seems as if this boy is being warned at night of future danger. In this case the boy returned to his body so suddenly that he threw his dense body on the floor.

Here is a dream that a quiet little girl related one day:

"I went to the country on a trip. On the way I saw a ghost, and I was scared. A storm came up and I saw a ghost and some skeletons. They were standing when I saw them. I started to cry. While I was crying, I saw Frankenstein with them. Then I turned my head and saw an Elf. He said that I should not be afraid. When I came to the country I felt better. Then my mother said, 'Get up.' When I got up, I found myself on the floor."

The explanation is this. When asleep this child floated in the Desire World, and she saw a disintegrating thought-form that she thought was a ghost. Then she saw some entities that looked like skeletons. Another entity came in that resembled the evil being called Frankenstein in the movies. A little Gnome saw her fright and quieted her.Gnomes and Fairies often befriend and protect children.

Coming events cast their shadows before. When children have horrible and hideous dreams, they are only passing through the events that have occurred in their lives, and they are being warned of things to come. In their thoughts and actions certain children are feeding and influencing the sin bodies that they created many lives ago. These sin bodies, in turn, by being revived, exert a harmful influence on their victims. They cause these victims to be drawn to the lower Desire World, where they see all these disagreeable specters.

Now, if these children who see entities at night in the lower Desire World are bright intellectually and quick-witted, they will cease their present ways, resist the pictures that they see there, and will strive to do the best they can. The resolve must come from within. Then such children can be stimulated by the loving care of their parents. This will strengthen them to fight off these unseen entities, sin bodies, vampires, etc.

Here is an instance of a child who has piled up karma. A certain boy dreamed the following:

"One day when I was playing in my Indian suit, my mother called me in to go to bed. Then I went to sleep. As I was sleeping, I dreamed that Indians were chasing me. One of the Indians caught me. They took me to their tents. Then they tied me to a tree. They put wood all around me. They lit the wood and it started to burn. Then I woke up and found myself near a hot radiator. That was my dream."

The Memory of Nature revealed that this chiId has been born three times since 1492. He has done much harm to people of the red and black races by fire, and he will meet this same fate in this life. In other words he has burned other people at the stake, and in this life he is to reap as he has sowed. This seems very sad, but we all must pay dearly for the karma that we have made in the past and for what we are making now.

Next we will consider the dream of a boy who met a vampire one night and saw the body of one of its victims. He says:

"One day I dreamed I was on a high hill. A dead man lay on the top of the hill, and I smelled a terrible odor. The man's neck was broken, and his teeth were on the floor. It was a terrible sight, and I felt like throwing up.

"All of a sudden a man came out of a cave. He said, 'What are you doing?' I was very scared. He took me by the hand and said, 'Come with me.' All of a sudden I woke up and found myself hanging on the back of a chair. My mother was calling me."

This boy had run across a badly decayed human body, and the vampire, who had taken the higher vehicles of the man who had died, came out of his cave and tried to get control of the boy. If the boy had been in his body, he might have got control and taken the boy's higher vehicles. The boy came home badly frightened. Let us hope that this vampire will not continue to trouble the boy, for he might influence him to go where this body is at some future time while awake, then absorb his vitality, and take his higher vehicles and cause him much sorrow.

Here is a very strange dream that was told by a girl who said:

"One day a mighty old witch came in the night. I dreamed I was the witch. Something cracked near the door, and it opened and in came the witch. I ran and got my clothes and went into the woods and slept there. The witch sat me on a broom, and up, up she went. When she went down, down, I fell off the broom and found myself on the floor. Then my mother woke me up to get ready for school."

I have been told that five lives ago this girl was a witch in a place called Ecuador, South America. This girl has a sin body which is trying to get hold of her. As she grows older, her old sin body will exert more and more influence over her, and if she is hot extremely careful and good, it will obsess her, and she will go through the suffering that she did five lives ago. If she could be placed in a family where the people would shower love and affection on her, it would be a wonderful help in strengthening her to lead a good life and keep on the right path.

Conditions at home were very unfavorable for her at the time she wrote about her dream. She just naturally seemed to antagonize her schoolmates. Her parents were poor and did not clothe her warmly and look after her as they should have done. She showed a revengeful inner nature.

Most of us do not realize how closely the thoughts of children shape their future lives. When children have lovely dreams, we may know that they do not go to the lower Desire World but associate with higher spirits in the Children's Heaven. They may meet Gnomes and Fairies here on earth. They influence children to be good.

One night a good little girl had an interesting dream which reads as follows:

"Last night I went to a Halloween party, and they gave away whistles. Well, I got a very loud one and soon went home. When I got home, it was ten o'clock, and my mother sent me to bed. Pretty soon I fell asleep and felt something touch me and I woke up. On my bed I saw the tiniest little lady that I ever saw in my life.

"She was a Fairy, and a lot of other Fairies were with her. She was a Fairy queen and very pretty. Then she began to sing to me. Her voice was like silver bells. Soon the other Fairies joined in with her, and they had sweet voices, too."

This child did go to a place where she saw these Fairies and they did entertain her for a while, but she was not responsive enough to remain long with them.

Another good little girl told her dream.

"Last night I dreamed, that I was a Fairy and could fly. I saw a boy crying, and I gave him a piece of gold. Then I flew on and came to a house. I went in and saw a boy fast asleep. You should have seen the house. There were a lot of skeletons around him. I took my wand and changed them to birds, and they flew out of the house. Then I changed the house into a beautiful cottage. The bed was made of gold. The front room was made of gold, silver, and other beautiful things.

"Then I flew to the king's castle, and I told him about the boy and the skeletons and the piece of gold. After that I flew home."

I have learned that this girl in her previous life was a boy. In that life she was associated with Fairies and Gnomes and the poisonous Nature Spirits that look like skeletons. She used to travel with them and became an Invisible Helper and made the poisonous ones do good. This caused them to do good work for her.

The giving of gold means the giving of good and noble thoughts and ideas shows how one can make his body a beautiful house to live in. In the Mystic teachings the students are taught how they may build soul bodies which are wonderfully beautiful when well developed.

Here is a dream that was written by a chubby little girl who was popular with her playmates. She said:

"I dreamed that I was walking into the woods. All of a sudden an Elf came out of the woods. I asked him if he would be my pet. He said, 'Yes, I will be your pet.'

"I asked him what his name was, and he said, 'Dan.'

"I took him home with me, and all the kids around my street liked to play with him."

This little girl did have a Gnome, and he played with her every night. How nice it would be if all children were as fortunate as she was!

A very reliable and conscientious little girl had this experience, and she wrote it down as a composition:

"One night I went to the park with my mother, and she carried a blanket along. She got the blanket out, and we lay down. I soon fell asleep, and I dreamed that I was horseback riding. On the horse's nose there was a Fairy who said to me, 'Would you like to be a fairy and fly away in the air with me?'

"'Yes,' I said. "Then I had a pair of wings on my back, and soon we were flying in the air when I saw Fairyland, and we stopped there."

"There was a haunted house somewhere, and I went in it. I saw a piano in there, and I sat down to play. While I was playing, a bunch of skeletons came out from the closet. I became so scared that I ran and ran until I fell."

This child did see some Fairies and played with them. She also saw some entities that frightened her. She often played with Fairies.

Some children remember past life scenes in the form of dreams.

One little girl wrote the following interesting account of a dream that she had had:

"I dreamed that I was on a boat. I was afraid that the boat would sink, and I was too terrified to go to sleep. I called my mother, and she said that the boat would not sink, so I went to sleep.

"When I woke up, I heard everybody shouting, so I jumped out of bed. It felt like the boat was sinking, so I ran to tell my mother. She was gone, and what a fix I was in! I didn't know where to run. The ship was sinking faster and faster. I very frightened. My mother woke me up, and I found that I was all wrapped up in the blanket."

The Memory of Nature revealed that this child sank in a boat about twenty years before this time. She was then a little boy and had different parents. Everyone on the ship went down. Being a young child, she was carried to the Children's Heaven and was reborn in a few years. Such children are much more likely to remember scenes from their past lives.

One night a little boy had an unusual dream, and this is a very brief account of it:

"I dreamed about my grandfather. He came out of his grave and talked to my mother and said, 'I'm alive again.' Then he went back to the grave."

This child really saw this. The mother was grieving silently after her father. This boy followed his mother constantly at night while out of his body in sleep. Apparently they drifted across a graveyard made out, of desire stuff in the Desire World. The child's grandfather seemed to rise out of the grave and talk to the mother. He told her that he was still alive. This helped to reconcile her and stilled her grief.

In reality the mother and the boy went to the Desire World, and the grandfather talked directly to them. It is such experiences as this that cause people to suddenly cease grieving about their loved ones. They may not be able to tell why their feelings have changed.

This child's thoughts about this so-called dream are sure to have some influence in his life from now on.

Here is another boy's story of a dream he had one time. He said, "One night I dreamt that I was a warrior, and when I opened the door of my home, I saw five skeletons. One was by the front room, another was in my bedroom, and another was in my brother's room. The last one was in my parent's room where my gun was.

"I tried to go to my mother's room, but the skeletons threw me on the floor. When I woke up in the morning, I found myself on the floor."

This boy saw the thought-forms of five men that he had killed in war in a past life. They are in his subconscious mind, and they are resurrecting themselves. He sees them as a dream, and they frighten him. Ordinarily a soldier in a war is not bothered by men who are killed in war. However, this ego, when a man, maliciously killed these men, and the thoughts of them haunted him then and still do.

Here is a still more unusual account of a child's experience. He wrote the following account of his dream:

"One night I dreamed that I was a great warrior and we went to war. They caught me, but I managed to escape and went back to my country. One night they set a trap for us, and we were all captured. We found out that each man would have to fight another man on a rope, and underneath there would be fire. The one that would fall off would fall into the fire and die, and the other man would get his freedom.

"Then it came my turn, and I fought and I fought, and then I fell into the fire and screamed. Then I woke up and found myself on the floor. I told my sister all about it, and she laughed."

This boy was a Roman Centurion two lives ago. He and other soldiers were captured by the Gauls, and, they were made to fight each other. The Gauls built a fire in a pit and put a grate over it. This grate had large openings in it. The men had to stand on the hot grate. When one man won, he was allowed to go free, but the other man was burned up. This ego died in the fire.

Here is the dream of another boy who had dreamed about a past life. He told the following story about it:

"One day my father took my brother and me to the World's Fair. We went on a steamship and had a nice ride. That night when I went to bed, I dreamed that I was the captain of a great steamship.

"One night the ship caught fire, and everybody was drowned except me. I swam for a half hour. I soon came to a small island. I didn't have any food, water, or shelter. I found a little palm tree which I thought would give me shelter for a few days, but it did not have any leaves on It.

"Well, here I was on a desert island with no food or shelter. I tore up my shirt and found some big sticks. I tied the pieces of my shirt to the sticks and stuck them in the sand. A ship soon saw the sticks with the pieces of my shirt on them. The captain sent out some lifeboats to rescue me. The sailors in the boats saved me and took me back to the ship."

Here is the explanation:

In a past life this boy was an explorer. He took some local people and went on a trip along the border of a desert. He went a long way from the beaten trail in order to avoid meeting bandits. His supply of water began to run low, and they wanted him to come out of the desert. He refused to do this, so one night they tied him up. They did not want him to starve to death, but they wanted him to have a hard time getting loose. This gave them time to get away. They left a little water and some food for him but took his horse.

After the man got loose, he started for the settlement and became lost. He wandered around the desert and finally reached water. Then he tore up his shirt and put it on a pole. There he stayed, hoping someone in a ship would see him. He stayed there many days, eating herbs and such things as he could find, and gradually grew weaker. At last a ship came, and the sailors saw his shirt and landed and took him aboard, but it was too late. He told his story about how he had been robbed by the local people in his caravan and deserted. He died and was buried at sea. He will always be afraid of sandy places because of this unhappy experience.

Centering our thoughts upon meat-eating in this life may cause us to be reborn in a land where meat-eating is a grim necessity and not a pleasure.

I will now tell you a true story about an Eskimo baby who has been reborn in the far north to learn certain lessons to further his development. One winter night two Helpers were sent up north to a place in northern Canada to help some sick Eskimos.

When the Helpers reached the place, they found a minister, a doctor, and a mounted policeman there. The Helper walked into the log house and found a family of four people sick. There was a father, a mother, and two children. The doctor said that the Eskimos were too sick to be moved and that he did not have the necessary means to aid them.

"Can you not heal these sick persons?" One of the Helpers asked the minister. "You are supposed to be sacred in person and mind."

"It is the will of God that they should be sick" the minister replied.

"You are talking through your hat," said the Helper.

The minister became angry and wanted to put the Helper out into the cold.

"If I go, you will have to go, too," said the Helper.

"There is nothing else that I or anyone can do," said the doctor.

"Oh, yes there is," the man Helper said, and he pointed to the lady Helper who stood nearby.

"Lady, if you can do anything, will you please do it," said the doctor.

The Helper looked at one of the children and told him to come to her. He raised herself but fell back. The Helper went and picked the child up, and he hugged her and began to smile. The other child held up her hands for the lady to take her, and she did. In a short time she also began to smile and hug the Helper. The children seemed to be about six and seven years old. The Helper put the children down, and they began to play, for they had been healed of their illness.

The lady Helper went to the woman and looked at her. Then she called the other Helper. The Helpers saw that the Eskimo was about to become a mother. They helped her remove her suit of furs and made her bed as hard as possible.

Not long after this the baby was born. The lady Helper held it in her hands and then laid it beside its mother while they made the bed tidy. The boy gave his first cry at 3:30 o'clock in the morning. The Helpers asked what the latitude and longitude of the place was and later remembered it.

The doctor saw the baby, and he was amazed. The minister and the policeman stood by the stove and watched the Helpers work.

"What are you looking at?" asked one of the Helpers. "It is a baby."

"I do not know what was the matter with her," admitted the doctor. "She had so many skins on, and I did not examine any of the people."

One Helper told the policeman to make a full report of the case, adding that he would also make a report. The Helper told the doctor that his work among the Eskimos was over. "They need care just as the rest of the people in the world need it," he said.

The minister was told to look for another job, as he was not doing any good in his present work.

The Helpers then worked on the man, and he became better. When the Helpers were ready to go, the whole family was happy. One Helper told the mother Eskimo that he would send an Eskimo lady that he knew to take care of her and look after the baby.

The Helpers next went to Alaska to this Eskimo lady's home and woke her up. She was glad to see her friends and said that she would go to the Eskimo family in the afternoon and during the night.

"Can you get out of your body at will?" asked one of the Helpers.

"No, but I am fully conscious and can go to sleep easily," he answered this Eskimo lady, who works as an Invisible Helper.

Not long after this these same Helpers were told to go and see the Eskimo baby. They went, and they found the family all in bed. The fire was low, but the man Helper made it burn brighter and asked the Eskimos how they were getting along. The mother said that the baby had a cold.

The lady Helper took him and carried him over to the fire and rubbed him all over carefully. He soon began to kick and throw his hands around and was happy. The baby had two eliminations, coughed up some mucus, and was in fine shape again.

The mother said that the policeman had been there several times to see them and that the minister had never been back, but a new one had been there. She said that the new minister had been very kind to all of them. Before they left, the Helpers looked at the two other children and saw that they were all right.

Later on the Helpers went to see the Eskimo baby again and found that he was doing fine and had grown fat and chubby, and his mother was well.

A student set up a horoscope for this Eskimo baby. She wondered why this ego had to be reborn away up north where the people have such a struggle to live. She was told the following.

Two lives ago this boy had lived in Italy, or what is called Italy now. He had rich parents and many advantages. He grew up to be a pleasure-loving man who lived with his parents. He craved lots of meat and other kinds of good food. The family would kill a hog and eat it in two meals. All this man did wanted was to eat meat and have a good time with the pretty women that he knew. Finally he became sick and died.

He was reborn in Germany to a family who thought it was an honor to eat lots of meat and become large. This ego was then a woman, and she grew very large and was considered the prize of that place. She reached the stage where she could eat a half-grown hog alone. She got so that she wanted nothing but meat to eat. She caught cold one day and died two days later of pneumonia. Her weight was then between six hundred and ninety and seven hundred pounds.

This same ego was reborn way up in the far north to Eskimo parents who were very poor and uneducated. This ego has had the same parents all through these three lives, and they have the same lessons to learn. His present mother was his mother three lives ago somewhere in Italy. His father was his mother in Germany, in the life just previous to this one.

In this life this ego's life will be very hard after he reaches the age of sixteen, for he will suffer from stomach and intestinal trouble. He will learn that meat is not all there is in life. He will have a tendency to be sick all his life. He has many good aspects in his horoscope which show that he can combat his tendencies to do wrong and can become a useful man among his people.

The story shows us that the thoughts of children do shape their future lives. It also shows how the law of Karma works and why some people are born in the cold and barren northern lands.

Let us now see how the thoughts of children concerning their life work have affected them and will affect them when they are grown. Many times children decide on their life work early in life and follow out their plans despite opposition. A doctor once told me that be was interested in first aid work when a smalI child. Later he ran away from home and stayed seven years and came back a doctor and has been doing this useful work of helping the sick ever since.

Another doctor made his decision very young and went on trips with his father, who was a doctor. He assisted his father in his work and earned his way through medical school by playing in an orchestra. After he had finished his preparation, he practiced for a long time.

Gustave Doré was a good artist when he was a child. He illustrated books at a very early age and supported his family for many years by means of his art. He never had a lesson in drawing. Many of the great artists knew what they wanted to do while they were small children, and their thoughts were almost constantly on the attainment of their ambitions.

A student told me of a young Jewish boy that she knew of who was the most clever artist that she had ever seen. She took an interest in him and encouraged him to make many interesting drawings which delighted all his young friends. He could illustrate anything, and he never needed an eraser. He worked with great rapidity, completing each object as he went along. Some people said this boy was a genius and predicted that he would become famous for his work.

The Memory of Nature revealed the reason for his ability to draw so cleverly. Two lives ago when this ego was a boy before, he studied art, music, and the Greek language, but he did not reach his goal. He then lived in Memphis, Egypt.

He died and was reborn as a woman in a well-to-do family in Rome. She studied art under some of the best painters who lived in Rome at that time. She forsook everything for painting and drawing. One of the old painters took her as a pupil, and she made rapid strides. She passed on before she became nationally known.

Because her development was so one-sided, she was reborn as a boy in a family whose means are not so adequate as they, were in the past. He must learn that all things work together for good, and that we cannot forsake everything for one thing.

We will consider some modern children of ordinary capacities for learning. Here is what a little boy wrote that be wanted to do when be grew up. "When I grow up, I am going to be a lawyer. I want to try and free people who are not guilty. I will not try to free those people who are guilty. I will try to be good to the people, and then they will be good to me, and I will get good money. I will do good work and help people who are arrested."

Now, I think that this boy had very unusual thoughts about his future life work, and I hope he succeeds. I was told why he decided to be a lawyer. In a former life, when he was a woman, this ego was imprisoned falsely and died in prison. Before she did, she desired to be a lawyer so that she could aid innocent people and help them out of prison.

This desire was so strong that he brought it over from the past and he decided to become a lawyer so that he can carry out the desires that he feels so strongly. He will probably be able to do this in his present life.

Another child said the following: "When I grow up, I want to be like Florence Nightingale. I would like to help the wounded. I want to be famous, too. I would like to have a nursery and care for babies. My brother is going to be a doctor, and I would like to help him."

I have been told that both of these children will reach their goal. This girl is unusually persistent, and this persistence will help her get the necessary training for nursing.

Here is a rather unusual desire of a nice little boy who is quick physically and mentally. He wrote the following: "When I grow up, I want to be a runner because I love to run. Every time I race with a boy, I always win. A few days ago I had a race with a big boy, and I won the race. I believe I could be a champion if I tried. I want to run for the people and show them how champions run. I want to be a runner and a very fast one."

Strange as it may seem, the Memory of Nature revealed that this boy in a past life was an early Roman runner. We can see why he is still interested in running, for in each new life we take up our lives where we left them in the life before, and we follow the same inclinations.

Here is what a quiet little girl said she wanted to do. "When I grow up, I want to be an artist because my friends and my family say that I can draw well. My father wants me to be a nurse, but I want to because I don't like the smell of medicine. I like to go to my friends and show them the pictures I draw. I like to draw all sorts of things. I like to draw nice tall children and beautiful houses and places and lots of other things."

It is interesting to know that this child in a past life was an artist in Spain. She practiced painting for six years before her death. She is being influenced by her thoughts in a past life as all of us are whether we are conscious of it or not.

A nine-year-old girl said the following: "When I grow up, I wish to be an artist. I am going to study art this winter. Last summer while near Michigan City I watched the sunset every night. One afternoon my mother bought me a set of paints so that I could draw and color the sky at night. When I go to college, I want to know how to draw. I hope I will be an artist some day because I should like to draw as Michelangelo did when he was living."

I have been told that, this child is also an artist reborn. She has had seventeen years of experience. She knew many of the painters of old and worked with those of her time. She will also make good.

Another child, a boy, who is a little slow in school, said he wanted to be an artist. He enjoys drawing people doing things. I have been told that two lives ago he was a good mechanical draftsman and worked with some Grecian professors.

The thoughts of children do much to shape their future lives.

Have you ever thought of the mystical reasons for multiple births? Let us inquire into this subject and see if we can find why some egos return to rebirth as twins, triplets, quadruplets, and even as quintuplets. Multiple births of people do not happen by accident. They are close friends of the past reborn.

From time to time we see pictures of multiple egos in the newspapers. People wonder about them and why they are born as they are, when most of us come singly. Esoteric students who believe in rebirth know that the true cause may be found in the Memory of Nature which reveals facts which are obscure to ordinary human observation.

In Bible history we read of twins. Jacob and Esau were twins, and so were Pharez and Zarah, the sons of Judah, grandsons of Jacob. We know that there have been twins since very early times. Those of us who have had contact with twins know that there is usually a strong resemblance between them, and they generally want to be always together. Generally one twin will be brighter mentally than the other. We must remember that each of us is a separate ego, and although we may be born at almost the same time and live similar lives, there are always differences.

During our many past lives we have developed certain talents and capacities and have neglected others. Thus no two human beings are exactly alike, or identical. There are always some differences.

Twins usually wish to dress alike, and they prefer always to be in each other's company when children. They may outgrow this desire later on in life.

I once knew two young ladies who were twins. They went to school and graduated from high school together. They attended the same church and Sunday school, where one played the piano and the other played her violin on special occasions. They became good musicians and prepared to teach music. One was prettier than the other and had better health, but they had a double wedding when they were married.

One time I met these girls on the street, and one of them mentioned that she had lost her gloves on the way. I joked about it and said, "Now, you are not dressed exactly alike."

"Oh, I am wearing one glove, and sister is wearing the other," the girl said, and they showed their hands. Sure enough, they were dressed alike even to gloves, and I was much surprised. Many twins are so much alike that friends and relatives can hardly tell them apart.

Once there were two sisters who were twins. They closely resembled each other when they were children, and only the mother could really tell one from the other when they were very young. They later lost the close resemblance, but strangers often made mistakes when they met them.

These twins were born in 1835 about twenty-five minutes apart but had the same constellation rising at the time of their birth. They had a comfortable home and graduated from high school. Later they married at about the same time. One sister went to a neighboring town to live, while the other went about five hundred miles away. They were separated for the rest of their lives except for frequent visits back and forth.

The Memory of Nature revealed the reason why these egos came to rebirth as twins. Four lives ago they were in Jewish bodies and lived in a country where Israel/Palestine is now. They were not related then. Hardships and suffering drew them together as young women. They both married Jews and lived in homes side by side. Their friendship grew through the years because they vowed always to be friends and stick together.

Later on these two friends were captured by the Persians, who invaded the country. The husbands were both killed by the Persians, and the wives were taken to Greece and resold. The friends were both owned by the same master, and they were worked to death. These women died three days apart, clinging to each other until the last.

These egos were later reborn as twins in the territory where Greece is now. They lived there and grew up as Greek citizens of good character. They married, and both had children. They were partners as sea merchants and lived in comfortable circumstances.

Then they died and were reborn in Rome as girl twins. They were comfortably well off. In this life their friendship became a little strained because one sister was much prettier than the other. The more ordinary-looking twin sister was inclined to be lazy; consequently she didn't have as many boy friends as her pretty sister. She didn't enjoy herself so well either. She became jealous of her more popular sister. Still they both had a good time in that life until they were between twenty-five and thirty years old. At that time Rome was invaded, and the twins were killed.

They were reborn a third time as boy twins in England, and they became sea traders again in that life. Conditions forced these two men to remain together, for it was a case of survival of the fittest. They had to live by their wits. They both married and had families, and all lived on the same ship.

These egos were not separated in that life. They renewed their vows always to remain together as they had done in previous lives. Back in those early times men and women vowed themselves together as friends in order that they might have companionship, because life was so uncertain, and people were so untrustworthy. They felt the need of a friend to help them live, for one person was almost helpless alone. It took two to look after their interests. Otherwise they were apt to be robbed and slain for whatever they possessed of value.

These two egos died a natural death when they were about fifty years old. The span of life was shorter in those times.

These two egos were reborn as twins for the fourth time in 1855. These girls were born in the United States, but they lived apart for many years and lost their desire to be together. One sister married the ego who had been her wife when she was a man in England and lived to be over eighty years old.

The other sister married a man whom she had not known before. About forty years later they separated. I have been told that these sisters will not come back as twins in the next life, for the friendship has worn itself out. One sister died thirteen months after the other one.

These twins were not very religious. This was because they were bitterly persecuted for their religion when they lived in Greece and later when they lived in other bodies in Rome. In this life they have been more or less indifferent to religion, although their father was a Sunday School superintendent in a little Methodist church for many years.

Thus you see how friendships survive death and how many egos may vow to remain together always and come back several times as twins.

For our next illustration I will take two Siamese twins who are now tied together. Where one goes, the other must go. They were born joined together and cannot be separated, except by death. These girls are both very attractive and friendly, and they closely resemble each other.

Everyone who sees these twins is sure to wonder why they are in this predicament. Some people think that it was a freak of nature or an accident, but Esoteric students know better. People who believe in rebirth realize that this is a condition which resuIts from past lives, that their lives must have been closely woven together, and that the Lords of Destiny had some reason for allowing them to come to birth tied together.

This is true, for the Memory of Nature revealed the cause. This condition started two lives ago when these egos were girls. They belonged to different families, and they lived with adjoining tribes along the edge of the Sahara desert. They were what we now call gypsies. These girls were playmates and grew up together. They pledged their friendship for all time.

When their bands broke up camp one year and started off in different directions, one girl got into the other girl's caravan and hid away. The other girl took care of her, and brought her food, water, and other necessities of life for two weeks before any of the grown-ups of the group knew that she was with them.

When the people found it out, they did not know what to do, because they did not know where the girl's parents were by that time. They wanted to abandon her in the town where they happened to be, but the girl friend told her father that the girl was her best friend and that they wanted always to stay together.

The girl's father then quietly took his daughter's friend to town. Instead of abandoning her, he sold her into slavery. He then went home. When his daughter asked him what he had done with her friend, he laughingly told her that he had sold her into slavery.

"You won't be bothered with her any more," the father said. "The caravan will leave this evening and it is going east. You will not see your friend again."

In those days the gypsies were able to tell the time by the sun. When the girl estimated that it was four o'clock in the afternoon, she stole her father's swiftest horse and rode to overtake the band which had her friend. When she found it, she joined it in order to be with her friend. "Any fate will do just so long as I am with her," she said.

The lives of these girls were very hard, for they worked early and late. They were sold and resold several times. The last master that they had exploited them to death. They died about the same time when they were about thirty-five years old.

The girl's father deeply regretted his rash act, for he knew what a life a girl would have unprotected in that part of the world. He did not know where to seek his daughter, and he never saw her again in that life. He afterwards said that if he had realized how deep their friendship was, he would have kept them both.

This man never got over the loss of his daughter. He worried about her constantly. He said that she haunted him. Thus it happened that life was saddened for all of them by one cruel deed. Today human beings still blight their lives and the lives of others by some thoughtless act, and then cry out to God for help.

In the next life these two friends came to rebirth in male bodies. They lived in about the same country again. They were reborn as twins with different parents from those they had previously had. They lived good lives and did the best they could. They were very fond of each other and excluded others more or less from their affection. They did not marry. They were herders and made a good living.

They remained with their parents, but they were opposed to any kind of authority. They were men themselves, but they hated men generally. This was because when they had female bodies, they were so badly treated by men. The hate hung over from previous lives.

In the life when they were herders they had an opportunity to meet the father of the girl who sold the other girl into slavery. They also met the last slave owner, who had caused them so much misery and suffering. He had really been the cause of their early deaths. They met these two egos, who were then women out on the road. They were lost and at the mercy of any creature who passed by. These two girls belonged to a band of wandering gypsies. They had stayed behind in the town after the band had started on. They were favorites in the band and were allowed many privileges. They wanted to have a last fling and meet their friends in the town once more.

These girls had fleet Arabian horses and expected to catch up with the caravan. They finally left the town and started out on the road. When they had gone about ten miles, one horse stumbled and broke his leg; the other horse fell over him and broke his neck and died. It was dusk when they left town, and the girls could not see the way very well. After the accident occurred, they could not go on at all. They tried to limp along and catch up with the caravan, but they could not do it.

These two egos, who had caused so much sorrow in the past, had got themselves into a dangerous situation. They were lonely girls, unprotected in a wild, and almost desolate country at night. They were met by the two brothers whom they had wronged in a previous life. These brothers first thought of murdering them, as the hate existed from the past.

Instead they took the two girls with them to their home and gave them food and shelter until morning. The next day they gave each girl a horse and some provisions and let them depart in peace. By this kindness they did themselves a good turn and did not make any adverse karma for themselves. They acted the part of good Samaritans and did not yield to the temptation to do wrong.

One of the girls wanted to remain, for she was attracted to these two men. She was the one who had been the father in a previous life of one of the twins. This girl begged to remain and offered to be a chore woman or even a slave. The men told her that she must leave their home.

Now the other girl, through some unknown fear, wanted to get away as soon as possible. She was glad to go, but the other young woman cried and left reluctantly. Thus they came to the parting of the ways, and these four egos met no more in that life.

The parents of these sons when they were twins are the parents that these egos have in the present life. They are together again as Siamese twins and will remain that way until death comes to them.

When they were brothers, about a thousand years ago, they were so kind and obedient to their parents that they gladly received them back in this life. In that life these egos bound themselves together by an oath of friendship. They vowed that nothing but death should part them.

When we persist in any one line too long, we become crystallized. In this case it would have been better if they had not loved each other quite so well, for then they might have had normal bodies. These egos were too bound up in each other to live among people and gain the necessary experience. They were reborn in this life at the same time and had the same degree of Cancer rising. They are what are called identical twins. They closely resemble their mother, who is also of a Cancer type.

These girls are attached to each other by their hips and lower part of the back bone. This causes them to be shorter than would be if they were separate. These girls will be lonely and will depend on each other for companionship. They love each other, but they do not think alike. The parents are very much attached to these girls and will devote their lives to their care. It is altogether likely that the strong attachment will wear itself out in this life, and when they are reborn, they will not be twins again.

For my next illustration I will give you the story of two egos who are also in a strange predicament. It is one of the strangest cases of twins that I have ever heard of.

One day I saw a baby with four legs and three arms. I asked the father when the child had been born, and he told me. Later I set up his chart, and some friends gave the following information concerning this ego and another ego that is inhabiting the same physical body.

These egos have been close friends in the past and have made the mistake of devoting too much time to each other.

In going back into this child's past we will have to go back two lives from this one to find the cause of the trouble. This baby was then an ego in a male body. He was an Uranian type. He had original ideas and was considered eccentric. He was interested in soul-mates and platonic love. He loved a certain lady very deeply. This love was returned, and they finally vowed that they would always be together and would not be separated in any life. They did not know that the stern law of the universe forbids such long attachments because they retard the progress of such persons in evolution.

In that life these egos were good friends, but they did not marry. They each had a good home and were well respected in the community, but they did not want the trouble of raising a family. They lived single lives. They passed on alone and missed many needed lessons in that life. They were devoted to each other all during this life, but they neglected their spiritual welfare and gave no egos an opportunity or rebirth. They did not strive to improve their material conditions.

In the life just previous to this one these two friends came back as twins. They were happy in each other's presence, and they devoted their entire lives to each other. Their home conditions were much poorer than in the life before. This was because they had not earned a better home by maintaining their balance in the previous one. They were reborn into a family of several children. They were misfits to the parents. In time the parents separated, the home was broken up, and they drifted about and had a hard life, but they learned many needed lessons.

In that life they would not be separated and clung to each other through thick and thin. They did not marry in that life but made a new vow to remain together. They were refined, nice looking people, but they did not assume the duties and responsibilities of life further than to provide for themselves. They lived about one thousand years ago in one of the French colonies and belonged to the brown race.

They became prominent in their locality, but their ideas and views were different from the established order of society. They were in positions of authority, but they abused them and were not benevolent. They failed to render justice and so heaped up much karma. They secretly persecuted people because of their religious beliefs, thinking themselves right and others wrong. They had distorted views on religion.

Because of their lack of benevolence toward the public, they made secret and powerful enemies and could not have an established home. They moved from place to place when things became too dangerous for them. Even that did not cool their attachment. It only bound them more closely to each other.

The ego we are most interested in passed out first, and the other followed soon after because she was grief-stricken. This brings us up to the present life and these two egos who have been so closely associated in past lives. Destiny brought them together in one body in this life — the boy with the girl submerged. The boy was a perfect boy.

The girl has two legs and one arm protruding from the front part of his body, but no head. The etheric head and other organs of the girl are within the boy's body. The two physical legs and, the arm cannot be severed without causing death to both. The ego of the girl cannot enter her body completely because of the lack of a physical head, and she stands outside grieving. She now realizes her mistake. She will be tied to this boy's body until his physical death.

If this boy concentrates on this other ego tied to his body and gets her to move her legs and arm in conscious recognition of his mental thoughts, then they might revow their allegiance to each other and thwart destiny again. Then they would have to be brought back to rebirth at different periods of time.

If this boy realizes his mistake, he will somehow be given the knowledge to understand the cause of his predicament. Then in a future life he will return as a normal woman.

This shows us two lives wasted and helps us to understand the mystical reason for multiple births. We cannot always get and retain the things that we think we want without paying a great price. Each ego is placed here on earth to learn the necessary lessons which he needs. He cannot disobey or neglect his opportunities without suffering the consequences.

When I saw this child some years ago, the two extra legs and one arm were only about half the size of the normal legs and arms. They were attached to the front part of the baby's body. If they do not grow any more, he may be able to take a part in the work of the world. But if they grow and develop, the boy will be in a dreadful condition and will be a burden on society. It is a sad story, but we may be able to learn by means of other people's mistakes, for experience is a dear teacher.

If egos are closely bound together for selfish reasons, the relationship is severed sooner or later, but if the egos are devout people who are helpful to everyone around them, the tie of friendship may go on for many lives, and both egos will profit by their close relationship.

Invisible Helpers know that they easily recognize their friends at night when they are out of their bodies in sleep. They also go in the Desire World and contact their friends and relatives, and they have no trouble in recognizing them. When such friends meet, they can talk and make themselves understood by means of the soul language. Physical bodies are not necessary in such cases at all. Friendship survives death.

Many people dream of meeting their loved ones who have passed on and remember what was said and how happy they were to see their friends. Many of these so-called dreams are actual happenings, as Invisible Helpers know.

Here is the story of a friendship that survived death.

Some years ago two Helpers were sent to aid a man who was about fifty years old. He was a member of the same band of Helpers. He was taken sick and died in less than a week, and his partner and sweetheart followed him at once. This shows us what love will do. Even the Lords of Destiny cannot separate egos who dearly love each other.

The lady was forty-seven years old and very pretty. Her parents were wealthy. The man's parents were poor, and he had plenty of work to do even as a boy going to school. When they were eighth grade pupils, they fell in love with each other. This love lasted through life. They went to high school together and graduated in the same class. The girl went to college, and they went to work to save money to go to college.

Before this girl left home to attend college, her mother made her promise not to marry until she gave her consent. The mother knew that her daughter loved this young man, and she hoped that she would forget him after she spent four years away from home. The mother objected to him because he was poor; she wanted her daughter to marry a wealthy man.

The girl did not forget her good friend, and they wrote to each other regularly and were true to each other. When the lady graduated from college, she returned home. She told her mother that she wanted to marry this old schoolmate of hers. Her mother refused to give her consent. The lady told her mother that they had been engaged for five years, and she showed her mother her diamond ring.

Her mother became extremely angry and took the ring and sent it back to the young man, telling him never to see her daughter again. The mother told her daughter that if she ran off with him, she would disown her.

Then the friends met on the street, and they exchanged letters. One day in one of her letters the lady asked her dear friend to do her a favor. He promised that he would do anything for her. She then gave him two thousand dollars and told him to go, to college, get his B.S. degree, and become an engineer.

The man did go to school and graduated with honors. The friends exchanged letters as before. The young lady rented a post office box, as she could not receive her mail at home, because of her mother. Later the man obtained a position as chief mining engineer, and he became prominent and well-to-do.

The man again asked for her in marriage, and her mother said, "No." He went back to work, and one day be wrote his sweetheart and asked her to sit down every evening at seven o'clock and concentrate on him and send him a message, and he would send the same message to her.

"John, I love you," was her first message, and "Mary, I love you," was his first message. After a few months they developed mental telepathy, and they used it up to the time when he died.

When the man knew that his end was near, be called his loved one and told her to come to him. He was then in the home of his parents in the same town where she lived. He told her to tell her mother where she was going. Her mother forbade her to go. The lady told him by means of thought, and he said, "Come anyway," and she went.

A long time before this, while this man was at the mine where he worked, a man got hurt. The engineer was very kind to him, and they became friends. This man told the miner why he had never married, and the miner told him to pray to God for He might help him. "At least you can try prayer," he told the engineer, and he gave him copies of two books that explain the Mystic teachings.

The engineer wrote and told his friend to get copies of these books, and she did. After that these friends devoted their lives to learning the Mystic teachings, and the knowledge gave them much happiness. One night they found themselves in the Temple, and they have been conscious ever since. They became Initiates together, and they met every night and worked as Invisible Helpers.

The Helpers were in the sick man's room when his sweetheart arrived. She went to his room and fell into his arms. "Please don't leave me," she said. "If you must go, take me.

"No," he answered. "You have more work here to do."

"When you go," she said, "my work in the body is done."

Since this lady knew the law, she called on the Lords of Destiny to spare her friend, or to take her also. "I have suffered much," she said, "and if you take him, my life is over."

Just then, her mother came in and demanded that her daughter return home at once.

"Can't we do something to stop her?" the lady Helper asked her companion.

"Yes," he replied. "Appear before her and tell her to keep quiet. Tell her that she has had her daughter with her for forty-seven years and has caused her much sorrow and unhappiness, and now she should let her have a few moments of peace."

"When the mother saw the lady Helper and heard her speak, she fell back in surprise and kept still until all was over.

The daughter prayed aloud to God. "Dear Lord," she said, "I have known and loved him for four lives, and I will not be separated from him. Take him and take me, also."

The dying man pleaded with her, but his pleading fell on deaf ears. "Good-by," he said to her, and he was gone.

"Oh, God, he is gone!" she said, in a voice full of sorrow, and she fell across his body and died.

When the man formed outside his body, his loved one took her form also in her desire body and took hold of him. "I am going with you," she said.

The Helpers could see what was happening as they stood there at the bedside in materialized bodies looking on. The people in the room picked up the woman's body, laid it on the sofa, and called the doctor. When he came, he said that they were both dead.

The lady's mother broke down and cried. "Oh, I am alone. What shall I do?" she asked.

"You had better make your peace with God for the harm that you have done to these two beautiful souls," said one of the Helpers. "It may be many lives before you reach their state. What you have divided in life, death has joined together for greater work for humanity."

This Helper had this thought in mind. "Did this lady die a natural death or did she will to die? If so, will there be any karma because of it?"

The Helpers told the man's parents to lay the friends side by side in the room and not to have them embalmed. They said that they would not, as their son had told them all about embalming. They said they believed in the Mystic teachings, also.

While this was taking place, the lady's mother was sitting in the next room watching the lady Helper. "Lady Angel," she said finally, "I realize what harm I have done. Can I ever be forgiven?"

"Yes, if you pray for forgiveness and devote the rest of your life to service to humanity," the Helper answered.

"I am sixty-five years old, and I have loved money and wealth all my life," the mother said. "I wanted my daughter to marry a very wealthy man, but she would not do it, and all my storming at her did no good. I made her keep her promise although she begged hard for me to release her. She has not said a word about it for ten years. She has been very kind to me, and seemed to know my every wish and want, and now I shall miss her. Will you take me into the room and let me see her before I go home? I feel so feeble now."

The Helper took the mother into the room. The lady's body was laid out by that time and covered up with a sheet. The Helper raised the sheet, and they looked at the lady's face. She had a sweet smile.

"Oh, God," the mother said loud, "she has her girlhood smile. Have mercy on me!" and she called her daughter by name and asked her to forgive her.

"Yes, Mother dear, we both forgive you," said the daughter.

"Read my books. Read the Cosmo-Conception first, and then read the Questions and Answers. After that, read the rest of them. Goodby."

You may wonder how the girl could speak after her death and have her mother hear her. The lady who had died was an Initiate and she materialized enough of her body so that she could speak and then dematerialized again. She was given permission to do this.

After everything was done, the visiting Helpers went with the united lovers to the Borderland. They had no purgatorial experience to go through. The lady at the Borderland told the lovers that they could go to work and work until they were ready for the Second Heaven. The newly departed egos both said that they did not want to go to the First Heaven, and then they went on about their work. They are now Invisible Helpers who can work twenty-four hours a day helping people and animals.

One Helper questioned the lady in charge of the Borderland.

"Can you tell me what I want to know?" he said. "Did this lady die a natural death or not?"

"No, I cannot tell you," she replied.

The Helper called a high Lay Brother and asked him about it.

"Come to me," said the Lay Brother, and the Helpers went to where he was. Four other High Beings were there at the time.

"She died a natural death," said the Lay Brother. "It was foreseen by the Lords of Destiny what she would do, so her archetype was set to that time." (When our archetypes run down, we die.)

This Lay Brother showed the Helpers the lives of these friends for four lives. They had deeply loved each other. Twice they were twins, and once they were man and wife. In the last life they would have been man and wife to balance it up if the mother had not interfered. The Lords of Destiny do not punish anyone whose love is as pure as theirs was. This story shows that the thoughts of children do shape their future lives and that friendship survives death.

Here is another story that illustrates the same truths. Some Helpers assist in a certain hospital in another country. One night they visited a very sick lady in a ward. She appeared to be about fifty years old.

"Are you human?" she asked the lady Helper who was dressed like a nurse.

This question surprised the Helper. "Why, yes," she said.

"I can see through you," the sick lady replied. "Come here and let me feel of you."

The Helper went to her and allowed her to touch her.

"Why that is strange," said the lady. "I can feel your bones and flesh."

"How can you see through me?" the Helper asked.

"Nurse, it is a long story, and it began over thirty years ago," the lady continued.

"Wait a moment till I can call someone," the Helper said, and she called another Helper who works with her. He came, and she said, "This patient has a strange story to tell us about her life. Can you not move her where she can be quiet?"

It was then arranged to have the patient moved into a private room. Then she told her strange story to the listening Helpers.

"About thirty years ago I was a poor young girl. I am still poor, for that matter. I was working as a nurse maid in a rich family. I took care of two young children about nine and ten years of age. The oldest son was away at school. He came home the following June, and I saw him for the first time. When I laid eyes on him, I fainted. Now, I had seen his picture time and time again, but it had had no effect on me.

"While I was out of my body in a faint, I was wide awake. I saw him pick me up, carry me to my room, put me on my bed, and kiss me on my lips. I saw myself as a man and he as a woman. We pledged ourselves always to love and be with each other. There was no marriage, but we were sweethearts. I was a woman, and he was a man. I couldn't understand what this meant.

"Every night, after that I met this young man when I went to sleep, and we went to different places. We just roamed about. After he finished school, he became a lawyer, and he wanted to marry me. His mother would not have it and drove me out of the house with a month's pay.

"This man became a very clever lawyer, but he did not go away from home evenings. Instead he went to bed early, and we met at night. He always appeared as young as when I first met him. This man died five years ago, and now I only see him at long intervals. Can you explain this to me? I would like to know, for only last night I went to him, and he told me that I am soon to come to him."

The lady Helper looked at her companion.

"Explain our teachings to her," he said. "Tell her all about the law of Rebirth."

The Helper did this, and the poor sick lady listened very intently.

"Oh, I will see him, and will he really join me?" the lady asked.

"Yes, perhaps you will meet in time," the Helper replied. "Both of you should have used the time in helping people all over the world. Then your lives would have been much happier."

"If I can remember and can talk after I die, I will," she said.

"Will you please get me a drink of milk?"

The lady Helper rang the bell and asked a nurse to bring it. "She will pass out after she has drunk it," the man Helper said quietly.

The nurse brought the milk and gave it to the patient. She drank it and said, "Oh, it is so cold and good. May God bless you all. Goodbye." Then she passed on.

After the lady had formed by her body, her dear friend came after her. The Helper told him about how he could work in the Desire World. He said that he would be glad to help if someone would show him what to do.

The Helpers took the ego of the dead woman to the Borderland. The Lay Sisters there said that she had very little karma to pay off.

This poor woman had no relatives, and so her sweetheart's parents said that they would pay her burial expenses.

I will tell you of one more case where friendship survived death. One night some Helpers went to some gypsies' home where a young girl was sick. She looked to be about twenty years old. She had dark skin and dark eyes. She was psychic and was the best among the band of gypsies of forty or fifty who lived in that vicinity. They looked upon her as the queen.

When the Helpers entered her room, she sent the others out and told them that she wanted to be alone. "Are you friends or foes?" the sick girl asked.

"We are friends. Why?" the man Helper replied.

"I have been bothered by people from six inches in height up to the size of grown people, and they didn't come to help me," she said.

"What is the matter with you?" asked one of the HeIpers.

"My chest and lower back hurts me," the girl said.

The Helpers looked at her and saw that her lungs and kidneys were affected.

"I want you to explain something to me that has been bothering me for five years," the girl said. "I have tried to stop, and I have cried over it, but it does no good. In a little western town where we were staying for a few days, I met a man. We were speechless at first sight, and then we both said, 'Well, I have found you.'

"I knew at once that I was willing to marry him and leave the tribe, but I knew if I ran away, my tribe would hunt me down and kill me. I asked the man to go with us, and he did for a short time. The elders met and decided that he could not join the band. My new friend and I cried, but he had to leave me. I was kept chained in the house or in an auto for over a year. At last I promised not to run away.

"I used to look and see where my friend was and call him, and he would answer me. He told me where he lived, and I wrote him a letter and told him to sit down every evening at eight o'clock, and send me thoughts for twenty minutes. He did this, and we got so that we could talk to each other at any time. (This is called thought transference or mental telepathy.)

"Finally one night I found myself with him, and we went places, but we could not make anyone see us. I would return home when my mother awakened me. I asked my friend to come home with me, and he did. In a little while we found out the true nature of everyone in the tribe. The only true one was my mother. I found out that if I ran away, they would kill my mother after accusing her of helping me to escape. I decided to stay because I could not bear to be the cause of her death.

"I told my sweetheart, and he got a good job and began to save his money. He is waiting for me now. He is well educated and is willing to take the matter to court and have my mother and me freed. I have not agreed to this, but he still comes at night, only later. I want to marry him and have a family. Tell, me, dear lady. What is wrong. What is the matter? I have never harmed a soul. Am I cursed?"

"No, you are not cursed, but you have a blessing in disguise," the Helper said. Then she explained her condition to her very plainly and thoroughly.

"I understand about it now," the girl finally said.

The Helper told this girl about her past life, and how they had pledged themselves to stay together, and how they followed each other like birds. They never married in that life. Now they have been reborn again and have met and loved again. This time conditions have been made harder.

The girl sat up in bed with her eyes and mouth open, for she saw as the Helper talked. When the Helper stopped speaking she said, "Oh, I feel that what you have said is true. Lady Angel, what can you do to help me go to him, for without him, life is very dark."

Just then the Helpers saw her friend come in. "I have come to see my sweetheart, for this is the only way, that I can see her," he said. "Can't you help us to marry?"

"I will try," the lady Helper answered. She called a high Lay Sister, and she sent a friend who looked very radiant and happy.

"First, do something for the girl," the Lay Sister said. She told the girl to come to her, and the girl came out of her body and went to her. The Lay Sister told the two Helpers to work on the girl's lungs and kidneys.

One Helper started to pull the diseased ether off, and the girl ran back to the Helper. "Oh, you are hurting me," she said. "Oh, who is that? I seem to be two people. Please tell me whether I am dead or dreaming?"

The girl called her friend, and he stood amazed at what had happened. "I do not know, sweetheart," he said. "Look what that Angel is taking from you. (That was the diseased ether that had made her sick.) "They must be Angels."

The girl thought of herself, and she ran back to the Helper. "Angel Lady," she said, "don't tear me to pieces. You hurt me. Go away and let me alone. No, that body is not me, but it hurts me just the same."

The Helper explained what St. Paul meant when he said, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"

"I did not know that there were two of me," the girl said.

When the Helper had finished working on her body, she told the Lay Sister to tell the girl to go to bed, and she did.

When she woke up, she said that all her pain was gone.

"Young man, do you love this girl?" the Lay Sister asked him.

"Yes, I would like to marry her," he replied at once.

"Then you can have her tonight," she said. She then told the Helpers to materialize, and she materialized the man. She told the girl to summon the Elders. The girl gave a call, and some people rushed to her room.

When the gypsies saw the strangers, they fell back in surprise.

"Call the Elders," the girl ordered.

The men soon came, and the Lay Sister spoke to them. "This girl wishes to marry this man, and she just wants the Council of Elders to know it so that they can give them their blessing. The one without sin speak against it, and it shall be stopped."

No one said a word. "Where are your accusers," the Lay Sister asked the girl.

"I have none," answered the surprised girl.

The Lay Sisters asked for a preacher, and a man stepped forward. "Marry them," she said. The man performed the ceremony right away.

The Lay Sister turned to the man who had just been, married. "Tomorrow go and marry her again and have your marriage recorded," she said, "and no one will, ever bother you."

The Lay Sister took away all the antagonism of the people against the girl and her husband, and thus removed, all obstacles. She told the young people what they should do. She told them of the Mystic teachings and where to get the information that the wanted. After that she told the man that he could go home and that his wife would follow him the next day. The man kissed his wife and disappeared.

The Lay Sister told the people that the girl was well "You will never see her again, but her mother will spend her last days with her and her children," she said. The Lay Sisters picked up two of the children in the room. Then the rest called to her, and in a few minutes she had them all happy.

One of the Helpers told the bride that she could get up. She did, and she was very happy. The Helpers went outdoors and disappeared.

Thus you see that we have made friends in our past lives and that they are the ones who can make us happy now. If we are friendly and cultivate friendships in this life, we will meet them when we return again. Then our lives will be happier and richer, for true friendship does survive death, and our thoughts shape our future lives.

Let us see what we can find out about genius and how it works out in the lives of some people. In the various books of Mystic Christianity we are told a good deal about genius and why a few children show marked ability along some lines at an early age.

All the good qualities that we now possess, the places that we occupy in society, and all that we have are the result of our own actions in past lives. What we lack along physical, moral, or mental lines may be obtained by us in the future if we put forth the necessary effort.

Each morning we take up our lives where we left them the night before. We have created the present conditions under which we live and labor, by the work that we did in previous lives. At the present time we are building up the conditions of our future lives. We should not regret our lack of ability along various lines of endeavor, but should commence work to acquire the abilities that we desire to have.

When you find a child who is able to play some musical instrument skillfully with very little effort at learning, while another child is a poor player, even after months of persistent effort, you may be sure that the one child put forth much effort in a previous life to acquire this proficiency. The other child may be studying music for the first time now and will make slow progress for some time. Still, if the slower child persists he may become as expert as the first child, and may even surpass him in ability unless the first child continues to improve.

Someone has said that genius is a very natural power of mind. Another writer has said that a genius is a person who possesses exalted intellectual power and much creative ability. A genius has great aptitude for some special pursuit such as art, music, sculpture, or mechanics of some kind. A genius is often a person with extraordinary ability to do one or more things.

In The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, by Max Heindel we read the following:

"Genius is the hall-mark of the advanced soul which by hard work in many lives has developed itself in some way beyond the normal achievements of the race. It reveals a glimpse of the degree of attainment which will be the common possession of the coming race. It cannot be accounted for by heredity, which applies only in part to the dense body and not to qualities of the soul."

Let us consider some child prodigies who show that they have exceptional ability. I have heard of a good many such children.

I once saw a little five-year old girl play very well on her small-sized violin. She took her work very seriously and played without any nervousness. Her playing greatly pleased an audience of children who listened very attentively. She did exceptional work in school later on and loved her music.

From time to time there is news of some new child-prodigy, able at an early age to perform feats of music, mathematics, memory, or something else which equals or surpasses the abilities of adults who have studied these subjects for many years.

I learned of a little girl in Russia who was a marvelous orchestra conductor when she was only nine years old.

I read of an African-American child who lived in New York state who was well-schooled in geography, spelling, drawing, and other subjects when she was three years old.

A little girl nine years old played so well on a cello that some competent critics described her as one of the world's most brilliant cellists.

A certain four-year old child was given an examination in history, geography, and popular science and received a high grade. The questions would have been too difficult for the vast majority of adults to answer.

Dr. Thaddeus Bolton, an educator, said the following about a remarkable child: "One of the things that seem often to happen to child prodigies is early death. An example was the young son of John Everly, whose famous diary is one of the treasures, of English literature, and history. At the age of two and a half this boy could write words in English, Latin, French, and Gothic. By the time he was four he could translate Latin and Greek into English and knew perfectly the grammars of English, French, and Latin. Propositions out of Euclid's Geometry were read to him for his amusement. He died at the age of five years and three months."

Mystics know that this child was a scholar reborn with clairvoyant sight and hearing. He could use his spiritual sight and hearing to do these unusual things. This child may have been killed in battle, then had to be reborn in a space of time, from one year to twenty years, and then had to die as a child.

Such a child receives training in the Children's School in the First Heaven and is reborn about a thousand years later. This particular child may return with these same spiritual powers, but then he will not be so far ahead of his time as he was then. Such knowledge will be possessed by many egos in that age, which will be far ahead our age.

Here is a story of how some Helpers met a child who had great ability as an artist. One night these Helpers were shown a little girl artist who was then twelve years of age. She was busy at work painting in a large room. The Helpers were told to go and see her. They rushed to her home and they found her in her studio. Many of her canvasses were standing on the floor, and there were some paintings hanging on the walls of the room.

The girl was painting the portraits of her five brothers and sisters on a large canvas. She had arranged the five in chairs in a row beginning with her brother who was about eleven years old, and ending with the baby in a high chair at the other end. The children sat very still and watched her as she painted rapidly.

When the Helpers visited her, the little artist had the five children's faces drawn on her canvass and the first coat of paint laid on. She was just ready to put the heavier lights and shadows in. The likenesses were excellent although the picture was only about half completed. She had only started that Saturday morning.

The Helpers were amazed at this child's ability and greatly admired her painting. They went out and materialized and rang the doorbell. The mother answered it and one of the Helpers asked if they might see her daughter's paintings. She invited them in and showed them what her daughter had done.

The mother is a fine woman, but she is not an lnitiate. The little girl is a high Initiate reborn, but her family do not know it. They think she is a gifted child.

One Helper asked the mother if her daughter had had any lessons in painting.

"No," she replied, "she just started drawing. Then she used water-colors and then oil paints. Now she draws and paints for everybody."

A little later on the lady Helper hugged the little artist.

"Do you know me?" she asked her when they were talking together.

"Yes, I know both of you," the child said. "It was I who showed you the baby panthers in the jungle one time and then ran away.

"Then you are a Lay Sister?" asked the Helper.

The girl looked around to see if they were alone and then she said, "Yes, I have come back to finish my painting."

"Do you know where you lived before?" asked the Helper.

"Yes," she said, "I lived in Italy over three hundred years ago and knew all the great painters. I was a student of Michelangelo and Raphael."

The little girl would not tell who she was and if the others had come back to rebirth. She had all kinds of pictures of animals, such as tigers, lions, cats, etc. There were portraits of people, whom the Helpers had never seen and many paintings of Angels and Fairies.

A high Lay Sister said that this little girl had studied long under the old masters, and was then working under the instructions of one at night and that she will become a famous painter. The girl's mother told the Helpers that her daughter rules the family with a firm, but kind hand and has never given a moment of trouble. "All the time that she was a baby and a small child she seemed to play with someone I could not see," the mother said. After my oldest boy came they became companions and they seem to talk to each other without speaking out loud."

"You are very lucky to have such fine children," one of the Helpers said.

"Yes, I know I am," the mother replied, "and I love my family."

The Helpers found out that the oldest boy is also an Initiate reborn, and that he and his sister go out together and work as Helpers during sleep.

The visiting Helpers could not stay until the girl-artist had finished the picture. Later they went back and saw the completed picture and it was lovely. Just think of a girl twelve years old who could paint the portraits of her five brothers and sisters on one canvass in one day! I think it was a very amazing thing for anyone to do. Such a gifted child is what the world calls a genius. This child is an artist now because she specialized in art in former lives and put much time and effort on painting.

Invisible Helpers often come in contact with advanced children who have been musicians, artists, inventors, or something else of importance in previous lives. For instance, some Helpers were going along at night one time and they saw a house where there was a light in one of the rooms. A child was sitting up alone painting on some plates.

The Helpers went in and saw that she was a little artist who was a good painter. The room was filled with pictures that she had made. It seemed as if she covered everything she had with all kinds of pictures. There were pictures of Angels and Fairies and Gnomes. This child got up at night and painted what she remembered seeing, when she was out of her body in sleep. The Helpers saw her just as she completed the pictures on the second plate. The two plates had Fairies and Angels on them.

The Helpers were told to see the parents and explain about the child so that they would understand her better and not interfere with her painting. The Helpers went outdoors and one of them materialized on the sidewalk and knocked on the door. The parents woke up and let the Helper in. The Helper told the child's father and mother about their little girl.

"My child seems to be different from other children," the mother said. "She gets up at night and sits and paints pictures. I have been wondering what to do with her."

"Your child is an advanced child and she will do well when she grows up," the lady Helper told the parents.

"We have an artist staying with us," the mother continued.

"Our little girl would go and get his paints and use them at night. When he found how well she painted he told us to let her use his paints and brushes. He said that he was perfectly willing because she could do so well and had so much natural talent. She loves to paint on white dinner plates."

"You should let her alone and allow her to develop normally and paint what she pleases," the Helper said. "Your child is an Initiate reborn. She has been painting the wonderful things that she has seen. She has an inner urge to express herself and she can do this best by means of pictures. When she wakes up and remembers seeing beautiful Nature Spirits and Angels she just has to get up at night and draw, or paint what she remembers."

The parents were much relieved to hear this and pleased to know of their child's real ability. Some day the neighbors are going to say that this child is a genius because of her clever work in art. They will say that she has creative ability and great imagination. They may never know that this girl has seen everything that she has painted.

This story is also proof of rebirth, for we know that all children do not get up at night and draw Angels and Fairies that are beautiful and real looking.

At one time some Invisible Helpers met a little boy out walking in a field near a farm-house. He said he got up early to go and play with the little children that he saw in certain places. He meant the Gnomes and Fairies. Certain children see Fairies and have Invisible playmates. I know two babies who can see people and Nature Spirits that most people cannot see. I have seen these babies lie in bed and hold their hands up and look at something and talk and coo as if having a grand time. They smile and act as if someone were entertaining them in some way. It is quite plain that these babies see someone whom they like and trust perfectly.

I have read that all children are clairvoyant at least during the first year of their lives, and that it depends upon the spirituality of the children how long they will keep this extended sight. The attitude of the parents has something to do with it. When the parents make fun of what children say they see, it hurts them, and they soon learn to shut out the scenes that their parents laugh at and refuse to believe, or they learn that it is best to keep all such experiences to themselves and they live more within themselves. Then the parents lose much joy that they would otherwise experience.   (....continued)

• Next article in this series »
• Preface »
• Chapter I: The Way »
• Chapter II: How May I Become a Helper? »
• Chapter III: Invisible Helpers in Action »
• Chapter IV: More Work of Helpers »
• Chapter V: Some Strange Esoteric Stories »
• Chapter VI: Obsession, Elementals, Vampires, and Entities »
• Chapter VII: Devas, Nature Spirits and Angels »
• Chapter VIII: How Helpers Assist the Animal Kingdom »
• Chapter IX: How Helpers Work With the Dead »
• Chapter X: Reincarnation Is a Fact »
• Chapter XI: Catastrophes, Their Cause and Cure »
• Chapter XII: Is Spiritual Healing Possible? »
• Chapter XIII: Are Animals Subject to Spiritual Influence? »
• Chapter XIV: The Thoughts of Children Shape Their Future Lives »
• Chapter XV: How the Mystic Accounts for Genius »
• Chapter XVI: Is the Life of an Invisible Helper Joyful or Sad? »
• Chapter XVII: Miscellaneous Stories of Helpers »
• Chapter XVIII: Are Angels Real? »