| A phenomenon similar to the panorama of life usually takes place
                       when a person is drowning. People who have been resuscitated speak of having seen their
                       whole lifein a flash.
                       That is because under such conditions the vital body also leaves the dense body. Of course
                       there is no rupture of the silver cord, or life could not be restored. Unconsciousness
                       follows quickly in drowning,[pg 157]while in the usual post-mortem review the consciousness continues until the
                       vital body collapses in the same manner that it does when we go to sleep. Then consciousness
                       ceases for a while and the panorama is terminated. Therefore also the time occupied by the
                       panorama varies with different persons, according to whether the vital body was strong and
                       healthy, or had become thin and emaciated by protracted illness. The longer the time spent
                       in review, and the more quiet and peaceful the surroundings, the deeper will be the etching
                       which is made in the desire body. As already said, that has a most important and far
                       reaching effect, for then the sufferings which the spirit will realize in purgatory on
                       account of bad habits and misdeeds will be much more keen than if there is only a slight
                       impression, and in a future life the still small voice of conscience will warn so much more
                       insistently against mistakes which caused sufferings in the past. When conditions are such at the time of death that the spirit is
                       disturbed by outside conditions, for instance the din and turmoil of a battle, the harrowing
                       conditions of an accident or the hysterical wailings of relatives, the distraction prevents
                       it from realizing[pg 158]an appropriate depth in the etching upon the desire body. Consequently its
                       post-mortem existence becomes vague and insipid, the spirit does not harvest fruits of
                       experience as it should have done had it passed out of the body in peace and under normal
                       conditions. It would therefore lack incentive to good in a future life, and miss the warning
                       against evil which a deep etching of the panorama of life would have given. Thus its growth
                       would be retarded in a very marked degree, but the beneficent powers in charge of evolution
                       take certain steps to compensate for our ignorant treatment of the dying and other untoward
                       circumstances mentioned. What these steps are, we shall discuss when considering the life of
                       children in heaven, for the present let it be sufficient to say that in God's kingdom every
                       evil is always transmuted to a greater good though the process may not be at once
                       apparent. Purgatory. |