Achievement comes through struggle. The prize is to him who dares and conquers, not to those who fear and are tempted to shirk their difficulties. Life is a school. Through hardship and struggle, striving and difficulty, adverse circumstances, storms and tempests, the spirit finds itself. Life cannot die.
Life continues because it is part of the great, eternal, creative life-force.
I would ask listeners to put on one side all the misconceptions of their inherited prejudices and to approach the subject of Survival with the simplicity of heart and mind, seeking only to know the truth. I would appeal to them to be tolerant and sympathetic, and not to worry about what others have taught, but to seek for themselves. I would cite as witnesses the many all over the world who know that there is a life that continues beyond the tomb because they themselves have spoken with what are call the dead. Then, speaking for myself, I would say that I was one of those who, having completed my allotted earthly span and passed, many years ago, beyond the veil of mortal life, had decided to return to illumine your darkened world and teach it the truths of the spirit which have been buried for too long. I would outline some of those simple truths in simple language and ask whether those who listened thought that in any way they offended their reason or insulted their intelligence.