Week Three Lesson

• Discussion of Stead and Steiner

Homework: Read excerpts from Alexander & Robbins

Session 3 reading, to prepare for discussions in Session 4:

Franchezzo, excerpts from A Wanderer in the Spirit Lands

• What is Franchezzo’s purpose in communicating this book?
• What is his opinion of Spiritualism?
• According to the publisher, J.R. Francis, what does this book offer the reader?
• What momentous change did F. experience when he had decided a true love was not for him?
• What affect did this change have on him?
• How did he react to his sudden death?
• What change came over him?
• What forced F. to realize he was dead?
• Why had F. left the church?
• What did the spirits of his beloved’s brothers say to F?
• What did he feel then?
• What happened after he confessed his shameful life?
• What did F discover about the power of thought on the spirit plane?
• What is key, on the spirit plane, to having a strong appetite?
• How did the spirit describe the way of repentance?
• Why did F decide to take this way?
• What sustained him in the future?
• What was the Home of Help?
• What was the environment of the Home of Help?
• What determined the living conditions in the Home of Help?
• Did F feel all sin was personal?
• Does this resonate, given our current social, economic and political realities?
• What was the impact of the lectures?
• What would be the next stage in his progression?
• What did the residents of the Home of Help do?
• What does F predict?
• Of what is the spirit conscious of, while it is on the lower spirit planes?
• What happens as the spirit advances?
• Why was his strength a problem?
• What kept F from succumbing to the temptation and going back to earth?
• How long was F in the House of Hope?
• In that interval, what had happened to him?
• What are the “Twilight Lands”?
• What would F be called on to do, as a member of the Brotherhood of Hope?
• What did the spirit do in this interval?
• What were F’s roles while he was a helper?
• What spiritual impact did his helping have on F?
• Why was F well suited to this work?
• When did F do his work?
• How did F atone for his sins?
• To whom does F give credit for his rapid progress?
• What kind of help was given?
• Who taught him in the Twilight Land?
• What was his life like in the Twilight Lands?
• How did they tell time in the Twilight Lands?
• Why did F progress so fast?
• What was a fresh source of happiness for F?
• What impact did this have on him?
• What is the great despair on the spirit plane?
• What does F ask us to do?
• How many spheres did F count?
• Where does a spirit go once it passed beyond the limits of the earth spheres?
• What does this remind you of?
• How does F describe this transition?
• What was F’s surroundings like in the “Land of Dawn”?
• How did he look at this point?
• What still hung over him?
• What was his beloved about to do after his ceremony?
• What are elementals?
• Why is it not a good idea to deal with elementals?
• What do elementals want?
• What is often necessary for a drunkard to get free of the parasites?
• Does this resonate in the philosophy of a certain group in our culture now?
• What powers belong to the soul?
• What are some examples of elemental astral beings?
• What sustains these beings?
• Where do they tend to congregate?
• What happens as nations advance and grow more spiritual?
• Why do many modern people doubt the reality of the soul?
• What is F’s sense of our current focus and culture?
• How does Hassein define God?
• How does Hassein define astrals?
• Where is the astral plane?
• What happens to the astrals around a person of higher desires?
• What impact can astrals have on a person of base desires?
• Of whom should people be most wary?
• What does Hassein want to see happen?
• What does the spirit world never do?
• Why must we consider who our associates are?
• What happens in times of revolution?
• What happened when F yielded to the influence of the spirits?
• Why was F vulnerable to the spirits?
• To whom did F owe his power of clearer and purer vision?
• What lesson did F work on in this land?
• How does the spirit world differ in appearance from earth?
• What blocks passage between spheres?
• What is the nature of the soul?
• What changed once F attained an advanced position in the spirit world?