34 QUESTION: Did Dante’s prophecy of the Veltro refer to the coming of the Holy Ghost as predicted in de Fiore’s Eternal Gospel, and is that Veltro taken from the Vangelo Eterno, in other words, the coming of the Holy Ghost?
ANSWER: I may answer the question only in the following way – for there are certain spiritual laws that bind me to the kind of statements I am allowed to make. The answer may already be partly clear by my having mentioned these various plans. Different clairvoyants, seers, or otherwise psychically gifted people, have seen one plan, others have seen another plan, and that should explain why one clairvoyant can be right in many instances and wrong in others. In the latter case he or she just happened to see a plan that did not come true, due perhaps to an unexpected change on the part of one or several human beings.
Here I would like to say this: it is, of course, the general plan of development for the whole Plan of Salvation, that humanity will come to a point – how soon is difficult to say – when an intermediary human authority between man and God will no longer be necessary.
Then the various churches and religious organizations will teach their followers in a way similar to how I am teaching you now, that is, to cultivate and obtain direct contact with the Divine World. This may not necessarily be through mediumship, which is only direct for the medium, but through spiritual development and the refinement of the inner senses. The religions will subtly, gradually but surely, change in the centuries to come.
You can observe this trend already. Some time ago, people killed each other just because they thought differently. Yesterday, they hated each other but did no longer kill because of their different ways to come to God. Yet, whoever was in power would still enforce his belief and prohibit the others. Today, humanity has come far enough, so that people begin to tolerate one another.
They still feel that there is something to tolerate – the other fellow’s different conceptions – nevertheless, this is a great step forward. Tomorrow they will not feel they have to tolerate one another; rather, they will see the one truth that underlies all religions. Religion will no longer be a separating factor. That is the Age of the Holy Spirit that is referred to in your question.
This era, in all probability, will not come about by destroying the existing religions suddenly. As Jesus has said, he did not come to destroy. People will change from within, gradually, in the only way positive and constructive growth can ever take place. And this is what was foreseen and expressed in this prophecy.
QA165 QUESTION: What prospects do I have in business for the future?
ANSWER: The prospects depend on what you want and what you make of your life. Anybody who gives you an oracular view like a soothsaying is very, very ignorant, for the prospects depend entirely on you. They depend on what you really want of your life, and not only consciously, but also to what extent you discover your unconscious and perhaps counter-desires, contrary to your conscious desires.
When you become cognizant of them, then you have a way of conducting your life – governing your life – in a meaningful way. For so many people believe they want something because this is what seems desirable to them on the conscious level. Yet they are entirely unaware of the fact that the thing they desire most consciously, they unconsciously do not want at all, for perhaps totally wrong reasons – for misconceptions that exist in the unconscious soul substance, for fears that are not conscious.
You know, whenever a human being has a very deep desire and that deep desire remains unfulfilled, this could be taken as a yardstick by which to recognize that there is something within yourself that blocks it. So the only truthful answer to anyone who asks such a question is precisely to discover what is in you that you do not know.
QA166 QUESTION: I’m making a study trip late this winter and I was hoping you might be able to help me see the problems I might encounter.
ANSWER: No, I cannot make such predictions. This is not an oracle where predictions are being made. The difficulties you will and might encounter in any area of life could only be a reflection of your inner difficulties, and therefore help could only be developed if you are willing to embark on a voyage into yourself where you want to recognize and eliminate your inner difficulties.
All outer difficulties are but a reflection of that, and predictions are therefore a very doubtful thing, and a very inadequate and superficial approach to man’s life.
QA174 QUESTION: My question is of a very concrete nature. It pertains to my work in September. I would like to know if I should continue with my present status, making a more-or-less permanent commitment, or should I alter it in September to a temporary one?
ANSWER: You see, my dear, I cannot tell you what you should do. If I would do this, I would not render you a service, for I would cripple you indeed. But where my help could be used would be to help you make your own decisions, to help you understand why you do what you do, where you have conflict.
Why you are, for example, in situations that make such a decision difficult for you; where lies your fear of making decisions; where lies your uncertainties. This should be the path to be taken, and not to tell you what you should do, because then you would only become very dependent and much more unhappy than you are now.
I would even suggest that the very fact that human beings – I speak generally now – want decisions to be made for them, points to the problem itself, or to one of the problems or one aspect of a problem – and that is dependency, that is fear of being grown up, fear of making mistakes, and therefore wanting someone else to fulfill the role of authority. These are problems that must be resolved if life is supposed to yield happiness and fulfillment.
