During the Great War (WWI) many Invisible Helpers were developed to work on the battlefields with the wounded soldiers. At the beginning of the war, however, there were few available, because very few of humanity had attained to this development. As the war progressed, more and more Invisible Helpers were developed to meet the emergency, and at the end of it there were a great number at work.

  The soul body continues to grow after it has been born, that is, after it has been separated by cleavage from the lower ethers — provided it is fed. Like any other body it must receive food in order to grow and remain in a condition of health and strength. But if we fail to provide suitable food for the soul body after its birth, we shall experience a great soul hunger, compared with which physical hunger is as nothing. The food which must be given to it consists in acts and thoughts of love and service to others and to humanity in general as opportunity permits. Self-forgetting, self-sacrificing service builds the soul body and attracts the golden soul ethers.

  In the beginning of our Day of Manifestation we all started as Virgin Spirits, but even then some were more adaptable, more willing, and more progressive than others, and some, therefore, proceeded into involution with greater speed and greater enthusiasm than others. Those are the ones who have become the pioneers of our present day. Those are the ones who have developed soul and the soul body more rapidly than the others. Those are the ones of whom we speak as "old souls," as contrasted with the more backwards ones whom we call, "young souls;" not young in point of time but young as regards development. The very young ones are spoken of as the "stragglers," those who declined to take up the work of involution and evolution, and who in many cases refused to advance, with the result that they have fallen very far behind the pioneers.

  Soul is the spiritualized product of the body — the result of the spirit's work in the body. There is no standing still in nature nor in evolution.We must either go forward or backward. If we go forward, we continually add to the soul which we have built in the past. If we go backward, the transmutation of the threefold body into soul is retarded, and evolution depends upon soul growth. In other words, the soul, really being pabulum or food for the spirit, is continually used to nourish the spirit, and it must be continually replenished if the spirit is to progress. If the lower self becomes so strong that it overrules the ego or spirit and insists upon going backward, we become soulless. During this process the work upon the soul body ceases, because it is intimately connected with the soul. The breath record of our evil acts, which is etched into the desire body after death, is sometimes spoken of as "the soul that sinneth" and which dies through expurgation. This has been fully described in the Independent Study Module on purgatory.

  Another danger which results when the lower self becomes unruly and refuses to follow the promptings of the spirit is that the vehicles which it has built by involution and partially spiritualized may be lost by disintegration, namely, the physical, vital, desire, and mental bodies, together with their corresponding seed atoms.

  This is a very serious matter, because when the ego has lost its vehicles and their seed atoms it has no further means of continuing its evolution in this Day of Manifestation. It must, therefore, go back into chaos and remain there until a new life wave starts to which it may attach itself and thus continue its evolution. But this is a great loss, and the spirit suffers greatly from it. The spirit or ego, however, does not die. The spirit is deathless. It was differentiated in God at the beginning as part of God, and it will forever remain such. It cannot die, but it can lose its bodies, and thus for a time be practically impotent and helpless.

  When the Ego has lost its seed atoms, it is no longer able to come to rebirth in its present life wave. This however is not a total loss, because when it starts forward again in another life wave, it will start at a higher point than it did in the present cycle. This is due to the fact that since the beginning of the Saturn Period the Virgin Spirit has acquired the three veils of Divine, Life, and Human Spirit, respectively, which together with the Virgin Spirit itself constitutes the Ego. The veils of Divine, Life, and Human Spirit thus gained are retained through chaos, and give the Virgin Spirit a start in a later evolutionary day. Nevertheless the loss is great. Therefore it behooves us all to improve our opportunities to the utmost and live the life of righteousness or right doing in order that we may accomplish that which it was designed that we should accomplish, and incidentally gain the great joy and peace and power which will result therefrom.

  There is another possibility, however, that of losing all seven vehicles, thus leaving the Virgin Spirit entirely naked, so that all the work done since the beginning of the Saturn Period is lost. This is the result of extreme materialism and is a matter of grave concern to esoteric scientists.

  (You are welcome to e-mail your answers and/or comments to us. Please be sure to include the course name and Independent Study Module number in your e-mail to us. Or, you are also welcome to use the answer form below.)

1. What is necessary in order for the soul body to continue to grow?

2. What is the food required by the soul body?

3. What is soul hunger?

4. What do we mean by old souls, young souls, and stragglers?

5. What is the connection between evolution and soul growth?

6. What happens when the lower self refuses to follow the guidance of the spirit?

7. What results from the loss of the seed atoms, and why?

8. Why does good sense require us to live the best lives possible?

9. What causes greatest apprehension to esoteric scientists?