14 The visible and the invisible I feel that we should direct our attention to what’s” visible and invisible” to begin with, because everything is built upon it. Most of us have a vague notion that the invisible actually exists. That next to the here and now, there is also a hereafter. That next to the body there is also a soul. When I talk about the soul here and furthermore, I do not mean what is generally called the “psyche”. But I mean something that outlasts “death”, that cannot die, that is invisible to each of us and that one can call life itself. I would like to emphasize this with a small observation: I was called to the nursing home next door to see a 93 year old man. His wife had just died and as a volunteer I was asked to sit with him for a while. He was nearly blind. We talked quite often over the next months. I was able to encourage the old choir singer to sing and this was good for him. He even learned to passably play the harmonica later on. This made him very happy and, rightly so, even a little proud. One day when I was with him he sat on his bed and played the harmonica. I accompanied him with my guitar and he enjoyed himself. He suddenly stopped and with a grin on his face he said: “I wonder what my wife thinks as she looks down from above to see that I can play the harmonica?” I sat up and took notice. What did he say? Did he believe that his deceased wife could see him? Who would have told him something like this? This must simply have been his imagination. One could call this “folklore”. And this folklore that he expressed here implied: “There is another world “up there” next to our world and it is invisible. This is where one goes after one’s demise. And the deceased can see what their relatives do down here. Everyone goes to this other world one day.” This is folklore and it has actually little to do with Christendom. This folklore can simply be within the consciousness of people, rather unconsciously. There are also people out there who imagine that the deceased can protect their relatives on Earth. My grandfather seemed to believe this, because he expressed
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