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Ruels peered into Sheol, as we passed into it, invisible, our essence causing no disturbance in a real but soulswe realized these souls were strengthened in their survival by the attentions of those living on earth, by the love being sent to thehts of them in human minds It was a process

"And just as with angels, these souls were individuals with varying degrees of intellect, interest, or curiosity They were hosts as well to all huh in many, mercifully, all emotion was on the wane

"Soht to respond to the prayers of their children, and actively atte with all the power they could led to appear to their children So to the particles of matter by the sheer force of their invisible essence Other times they made the human was opened to other souls They told their children of the bitterness and darkness of death, and that they ave their children advice

"And they seemed, in some instances at least, to know that the belief and attention of their sons and daughters strengthened thes and prayers, they reminded the children of their duty These souls were to soht they had seen all there was to be seen " "No hint of Heaven?" I asked

"No, and no light from Heaven penetrated Sheol, nor any musicFrom Sheol one saw the darkness and the stars, and the people of Earth "

"Unbearable "

"Not if you think you are a god to your children and can still derive strength frorave Not if you feel pleasure in those who hearken to your advice and anger at those who don't, and not if you can communicate occasionally, sometimes with spectacular results "

"I see, of course And gods they seemed to their children "

"Ancestral gods of a certain kind Not the Creator of All Hus had distinct ideas on both questions, as I've said

"I becareatly absorbed with this whole question of Sheol I traveled the length and breadth of Sheol Some of these souls didn't know they were dead They knew only they were lost and blind and miserable and they cried all the time like infant humans They were so weak I don't even think they felt the presence of other souls

"Other souls were clearly deluded They thought they were still alive! They chased after their kindred, trying vainly to get the oblivious son or daughter to listen, when of course the kindred could not hear or see the, well, these had no presence of atherin a dream, because they didn't know they were dead "

"Yes "

"To continue, sohosts when they caht they were alive and the whole world had turned against the the sounds of other living beings but remote from this as if in a stupor or dream And some souls died

"BeforeThe dying soul would last a week, perhaps a month in hu its shape, and then begin to fade The essence would gradually disperse, just as did the essence inside an animal upon its death Gone into the air, returned perhaps to the energy and essence of God "

"That's what happened?" I asked desperately "Their energy went back into the Creator; the light of a candle returned to the eternal fire?"