t to expulsion;
but face them with iron determination, set your will
against them like an immovable rock, and down they will go.
Say to them: 'I am a spark of the divine fire, and by the
power of the God within me I order you to depart!' Never
let yourself think for an instant of failure or of
yielding; God is within you, and God cannot fail."[H]

Probably there is no astral subject of more vital importance to any of
us than that of the right attitude of mind and emotion toward the living
dead. It is commonly said that we can do nothing more for them when they
have passed away from physical plane life, but a greater error could not
easily be made. The connection with us is by no means severed. Not only
are they emotionally in touch with us but their emotions are very much
keener than when they had a physical body through which to express them.
They are now living in the astral body, the matter of which is
enormously more responsive to emotional vibrations. A joyous emotion
here would be tremendously more joyous there and a thing that would
produce depression here would be a hundred times more depressing there.
That fact should give pause to those who are inclined to think in
sorrow, and with something of despair, about their friends who have
passed on. They are not far away in space and our emotions affect them
profoundly and instantly.

We are all familiar with the fact that moods are communicable. The
person who is cheerful cheers up others in his vicinity, while the one
who is gloomy spreads gloom wherever he goes. It is a simple matter of
vibrations. It is often within the power of a member of the family who
habitually has "the blues" to destroy the happiness of the entire
household. If we think of the most depressing effect that can be caused
by sorrow on the physical plane, and then multiply its effectiveness by
a hundred, we shall have no exaggeration of the astral effects of the
emotions we indulge in the physical body. If, then, the sorrow of a
weeping relative distresses us here it is clear that it must bring
really keen distress to the one who is the subject of such grief. His
life may thus be made miserable by the very persons who would be the
last to cause him sorrow if they understood what they were doing.

We can really help the so-called dead and make them very much happier by
simply changing our mournful attitude toward them. All violent
expressions of grief should