Lene: God bless you. Dear brothers and sisters, may you put aside your thoughts, your daily business for an hour, so that your hearts and souls open and you are better able to understand my words. You call such an hour meditation. I try to speak to you on a subject, but my meditation or my explanations are experiences or events from the heavenly world. I wish to open the gates of heaven for you, I let you glimpse into this spiritual world; I would like you to be able to look into this spiritual world, where the gates have been opened, and receive insight into the most varied levels of development and the most varied spiritual heights. I try to enable this insight for you as human beings, with your feelings. I try to draw you into this, for you, invisible world and to describe it to you in its vitality, so that you are also able to experience it with your human feelings and form a picture of it. Of course, I will not manage to achieve what I would dearly like with everyone present: to experience this vitality in the way that I attempt to describe it.

I have already given you explanations on the most varied topics. I have explained things that you enjoyed hearing, that delighted you; I have perhaps also said things that you did not find believable. I do not mind. It all depends on the development of the person, and it all depends on how far they have opened their heart and soul. It all depends on what stage of development they are on, whether what I have to say to them is self-evident, because they simply feel it, because they have, so to speak, this knowledge in themselves and are of the view: “This is nothing new to me, this is a confirmation of everything that I suspect, that I feel, and that I believe to be the case.” And for another person this is simply not the case, because the door to their soul is closed and because they have not yet had such experiences in spirit or because these experiences are quite unfamiliar to them and so far removed, because, simply put, they lack the understanding. It is the same with you: when you want to explain something that is perhaps a little complicated, then you also know, “Oh, I need not say anything about this to such and such a person. They do not understand it anyway.” I, too, could sometimes say this. But, indeed, I have many different brothers and sisters here: one is standing here, another is standing there, and what I explain is ultimately heard by everyone. That is how it is.

Now, I do not want to say any more on this. Today, I primarily wish to open heaven for you. I would like to speak about hope and love – first about the hope and love of human beings, both of which play a very important role in Christian teaching. Then, in contrast, I would like to illuminate hope and love from a spiritual point of view – how they are to be experienced from a spiritual point of view.

When a human being may be given – and must be given – hope, it is most certainly something comforting for them. For hope must also exist among human beings in this world. Hope gives you human beings courage, strength, and perseverance if it can flow into you through some kind of situation. There are situations where human beings need hope and where it is spiritual nourishment for them, a spiritual power. Human beings need hope; it is essential for them. But the hope that can be given to them on earth is something imperfect, just as love is also imperfect among human beings. And yet love is also an absolute necessity among human beings. But in this world, both are something imperfect. They are imperfect because they lack vitality. Hope is something transient, it is something that perhaps brings the fulfillment that one expects, but it is not unconditional, perfect, that which absolutely must be fulfilled. Both, whether hope or love – as needed by human beings – lie far removed from them and are sometimes very questionable. And yet they are a necessity for human beings in this world.

But let us for a moment consider this world and everything in it: nothing is perfect, absolutely nothing. Even the most beautiful thing that pleases your eyes and ears – by which I mean the fine arts – is not perfect, although it may be high art for you human beings. Let us take for example the wonderful music of the great masters, which pleases us just as it does you. This music delights you, it may even be performed by masters, so that you have to say to yourselves, “This music cannot be performed any better than it is by these people” – you regard it as a masterful achievement on the highest level of skill, as a masterful achievement for the world. Perhaps I disappoint you when I now say that it is imperfect nonetheless; everything in your world is imperfect, even your finest arts.

I would now like to explain this to you in a little more detail. But I can only make it understandable for you if your soul is open within, if your feelings are refined, and if my language is understood. And in this manner I would so dearly like to address everyone.

I would now like to return to music, to precisely this high art of music. Heaven, or the spiritual beings who serve it, needs the music that you play on earth, because it serves the glorification of God, the beautification of your services. This exalted, beautiful music has an influence on a human being, on their thinking and on their manner of speech. I would like to say that the person who listens to it rhythmically enters into the music, so to speak – they resonate with the music.

This can be observed – to give a clear example – in the music loved by today’s youth. There is rhythm in this music. People who hear this music join in with the rhythm, they resonate with the beat of the music – it is a lived experience. And they have to express this lived experience with the movements of their body. I do not mean that as a recommendation for you to get into the rhythm in this sense when listening to beautiful music – that is of course not what I meant. I just wish to give the indication and to point out that this resonance among these young people occurs on the physical level, the coarse material level; but it is nevertheless taken from the reality – they resonate with the music, they resonate with their body.

In contrast to this coarse material, physical expression, there is the ennobled, the refined: the listener also resonates, but they do not need physical movements to express this; instead, it is the soul, the inner being that resonates. The listener can sit quite still, and inwardly something is stirred up or resonates. This is the refined and ennobled state. With this I wish to say that there are various levels of resonating: one person resonates visibly with their transient body, while another experiences something inwardly, on the elevated spiritual level – only the soul resonates, the ennobled, the refined. Perhaps you understand me.

This is why I can also say that everything on this earth is imperfect, even the most magnificent beauty of flowers. To your eyes, it is wonderful; it refreshes you, it delights you. You marvel at nature, and it is indeed beautiful. Human beings, with their, let us say, coarse material way of thinking, marvel at it. But those who are more sensitive and who now see the most beautiful flowers, for example, also have an inner experience, an inner resonance; it gives them a hint of the perfection found in the world of God. There is also an inner admiration of nature – now generally speaking – an inner experience of everything that is offered to human beings. But, on the whole, people just pass over all this. And they pass over all this precisely because they lack – or do not know, or do not want to have – this spiritual perception and this spiritual connection. They have no belief in this higher, this invisible dimension; hence they are also unable to have a higher experience in the way I am now describing. Well, this was an explanation of that which meets your eye, of the externals that you are able to perceive.

I would now like to return to the subject of music. The music you played earlier was wonderful, it was delightful, and it will – I would like to hope – have led you into a higher vibration. But, from a spiritual point of view, from my point of view – as I experience music in heaven – this beautiful music, which you find so lovely, is a music that would be brought to the ears of the spirit beings in the lowest levels of ascent. This is also the music that they love, that they appreciate, that they understand – that they understand. In contrast, the music that I love, that is played in our world, is something alive – it is a new experience every time.

How can music be more alive than the way in which it is offered to you? Well, this is just it. Perhaps this is something not everyone here will be able to understand when I now speak about the vitality of the exalted music that is played in the highest heavens, making for a special experience. I drew your attention to the resonance of young people, who move to the rhythm of the music and feel their way into it. I have said that high beauty is experienced in the soul, inwardly – that is, in spirit. As a spirit, I experience music inwardly. And all those who are with me on the same level experience it in this way. When a performance or a concert then comes to an end, we also express our delight, just as loudly as you usually do; we also wish to express our admiration, and naturally we do not just remain silent, making no movement or sound. We, too, appreciate these surprises and this vitality, and, as spirits, we also express our delight. For our world is a living world – it vibrates and moves, and it is always in motion.

But now to the question: how do we experience this music, and why is it an experience for us every time, causing us to loudly express our admiration? We hear music with our spiritual ears, and its sound is purer, more perfect; music is much more beautiful than it is in your world. That is one aspect – what is perceived by the spiritual ear. But we do not only perceive music with our ears. I also spoke about rhythm; this rhythm moves us too – inwardly. But, as I said, we remain still. However, the music that is played where we live, or where I live in my world, is also something for the eyes. And therein lies our greatest pleasure, or equally great pleasure. Because the music that is performed, these various instruments that play, all of it is alive and comes into a certain vibration; and precisely because it is alive, an indescribable blaze of color is to be seen. The tones are not just something perceived by the ear – through its vibration, the music also comes alive in a blaze of color.

Just to give you an example: when someone plays the harp, each time a string is plucked, a blaze of color sparkles out from this string into the expanse. I could almost say that it is like small fireworks. And to experience this is a delight; the diverse colors emitted by the tones of the music in addition to the performance given with the music – this is vitality. We also have the diversity of musical instruments that you have; we have even more. But in our world, every divine being who plays such an instrument brings forth small fireworks, so to speak, with their performance – if I may express it in your terms. This is vitality. The music is powerful, tremendous. One resonates with it. And that which one sees with the spiritual eye is so magnificent, so alive, something so wonderful that you have no conception of it and are not able to comprehend it.

The following is woven into spiritual teaching: everything is vibration, and everything moves in vibrations. This movement, these vibrations also produce colors. And when these vibrations are expressed with music or through music, this then becomes vibrant, something perfect. For instance, just as you have conductors who try, each in their own way, to give precise cues and to convey a piece of music in such a way that its performance reaches an even higher level – so they believe – and becomes even more worthy of admiration, even more alive by human standards, the same thing happens with us. The same music can be played many times, and the same symphonies can also be performed every so often, and each time the fireworks are different because it has been played or interpreted differently. These are experiences. This is the perfection that we experience, and we only wish that you, too, will be able to experience this when you come over to us and that you will not have to content yourself at first with the usual kind of music.

I spoke of hope and love, and I pointed out that both are imperfect on earth. I have just tried to make a comparison between the perfection that we have and the imperfection of your world. Everything in your world is imperfect, and yet it can be beautiful, of greatest importance, and essential for the life of human beings. But the world is simply not perfect; and even though everything that is offered and that human beings experience in nature may well be worthy of admiration – and is worthy of admiration – it only finds its vitality and perfection in our world.

That is why the hope that is given, that is allowed to be given, and that must be given to human beings is comforting for them; and they may content themselves with this hope. Yet it is a transient hope – imperfect for us. But it is comforting and essential for human beings, and we are in support when this hope is given to them. Indeed, we support everything in this world that is good for human beings; we support it, even if it is imperfect. After all, we cannot bring perfection into an imperfect world – that would be unlawful. Just imagine – coming back to the musical comparison – not only hearing a concert but also simultaneously seeing the fireworks that sparkle from the notes. This is not possible among you human beings – it is not possible even on a purely technical level. And what I am telling you is, first and foremost, understandable for a spiritually-oriented human being; although there may also be some friends for whom this is not particularly understandable.

It is the same with love as with hope: it is an absolute necessity that love prevails among human beings. But this love among human beings is imperfect. For true love knows no hate, it knows no envy, no jealousy, it knows no imperiousness; it is precisely what we have in the highest heavens. And this perfect love is what is in God and came from God. True love is what Christ brought – this is true love. And this perfect, true love is only to be found in its perfection in the world of God.

Love among human beings may also have various levels or various degrees, but it is, and remains, imperfect. Everyone must agree with me on this. If love existed among human beings, there would be no wars, there would be no extortion, no abduction, nothing of the sort. You have only one word for this love, and you know exactly what is meant by this word, what is to be understood by it in terms of feeling, in terms of affection. Everything is ultimately contained in this word, everything. But in an imperfect world, love is also imperfect. This should not depress you; rather, you should become aware that you live in an imperfect world and that you have to make the best of that which is possible in this world, of that which is only expressed in its highest and most perfect form in the divine world. You should realize that in the case of both love and hope, the degree of perfection exists only in the beyond, in the world of God. After all, your life is transient. You can be given hope in this world, you can receive love in this world as a human being for as long as you live; all of this is limited in your earthly existence.

In the world beyond there is also hope, but it is alive, it is perfect. With us there is also love, and it, too, is perfect. But it is only perfect in the higher levels – I would like to make this quite clear to avoid any misunderstandings; because it is not yet perfect in the levels of ascent. It is perfect in the vicinity of God; perfect is that which emanates from God. The perfected degree of all experience is in God’s vicinity, in those high levels of the heavenly princes who are able, and who are permitted, to go in and out of the house of God. […]

Excerpt from a lecture by spirit-teacher Lene, received in German through the medium Beatrice Brunner in the hall on Mόnchhaldenstrasse in Zurich, 19 January 1977