When a person passes from earth life onto the transitional plane, his or her spirit retains its individual identity. Once on the transitional plane, it undergoes a life review (discussed in more detail on the next page). During the life review, the soul re-experiences its earth life from its own perspective, as well as from the perspective of the other people it has affected. The life review allows the soul to see its shortcomings in graphic detail. However, death does not change a soul’s basic personality. Each spirit retains the same qualities it did when it was living on earth. Any change has to come from within the soul itself. No one receives universal enlightenment. Change takes time and determination. Some souls will see their own shortcomings and try to change themselves for the better. For others, the life review is nothing more than a stirring movie after which they go back to their old habits without a second thought.
Most ordinary souls take their lessons to heart and resolve to free themselves from their bad habits. As a result, they decide to cross over from the transitional plane and begin their process of spiritual development within the spiritual mainstream, hopefully progressing to ever higher levels within the plane of illusion, or even beyond.
But not all spirits have any intention of acknowledging their shortcomings, and instead, stubbornly double down on their negativity. Many of these persist in their ignorance and if they decide to cross over, they will gravitate to a lower level within the spiritual mainstream, (perhaps even to one of the hells). Others will avoid crossing over out of ignorance, fear or a sense of guilt, and remain on the transitional plane. These join the ranks of earthbound spirits and constitute the majority of the entities that cause malignant or violent manifestations during hauntings and “poltergeist” infestations. They also exert quite a lot of influence in mental disorders and the criminal behavior of living people. The role of spirits in mental disorders is covered in chapters 10 and 11, and criminals are covered in chapter 17.
A soul can always change its trajectory. Like an ex-con who eventually recognizes his mistakes and becomes a successful “citizen”, even negatively developed souls can throw off the yolk of their negativity and begin the long climb from the hells into the heavens.