Charles Webster Leadbeater on Friendship

"Although instances of apparitions shortly after death are by no means uncommon, it is rare to find one in which the departed person has really done anything useful, or succeeded in impressing what he wished upon the friend or relation whom he visited... but little help is usually given by the dead - indeed, as will presently be explained, it is far more common for them to be themselves in need of assistance than to be able to accord it to others... the main bulk of the work which has to be done along these lines falls to the share of those living persons who are able to function consciously on the astral plane."