Spirit Teachings
Mediumship.
What is mediumship?
"Mediumship is a development of that which is, in another soul, genius. Genius,
the opened and attentive ear to spirit guidance and inspiration, shades away
into mediumship. . . . Man's individuality must be lost, as yours is now,
before truthful and clear instruction can be given, and therefore it is that
such messages, so given as we now give this, are the voice of spirit speaking
with the minimum of human error admixed.
"The opening of spiritual being to spiritual influence is what you call mediumship;
it must be used for spiritual purposes, not for gain; nor for satisfying curiosity,
nor for base or unworthy ends.
"The peculiarity is one of spirit only, not of body, seeing that it occurs
in all varieties of physical frames; male and female, magnetic and electric,
in the short and robust as well as in the puny and thin, in the old and the
young. This alone would lead you to see it is not physical matter, and that
conclusion is strengthened for you by the fact that the gift is perpetuated
even after death of the earth-body. Those who on your earth have been mediums
retain the gift and use it with us. They are the most frequent visitors to
your world; they communicate most readily, and it is through them that spirits
who have not the gift are enabled to communicate with your world. They are
mediums for us, as you are for man.
"Remember all gifts of talent or mediumship are precious, priceless helps
to progress; to be fostered and tended with prayerful care; to be abused or
prostituted with terrible risk. They do but mean that their possessors live
nearer to God and the angels; are more readily impressed by them; more open
to assault by evil; more amenable to influence for good; and so to be cared
for and protected more earnestly."
The ideal medium.
"From the generation that lives is selected the recipient of inspiration.
He is the depository of divine influence, the connecting link between the present
and future. To him is committed the deposit of Truth he is to hand down to those
who succeed him. To minister to him are appointed the spirits specially assigned
by God. They are solemnly separated for the work, sent forth to minister as
the All-Wise sees fit.
"The
open vision is realised; the angels of God ascend and descend between earth
and Heaven. The time is at hand when the interrupted vision shall be renewed;
when the voice that sounded in the ears of Ezekiel, John the Baptist and John
the Seer shall be renewed; when the spheres shall be brought into contact as
they never have been since then, and when the Voice of the Almighty, speaking
through His intermediary agencies, shall be heard among men. Shall they listen?
Nay, as it was of old, so shall it be now. Now, as of old, man's unbelief bars
the purpose of God's Love. Man's stubbornness militates against God's design."
"What is man? Verily, he is but the vehicle of inspiration. The highest
and noblest intellects you revere were, but the means by which God made known
to man that portion of His Mind which He saw fit. All that they did, great and
noble, was but the influence of the guardian angel.
"The medium is selected for special qualities, but they are not those which
you are wont to hold in reverence. The suitable instrument is chosen, and to
him is confided the deposit of revelation. He is not the glory; nor does the
faithful servant claim it. He is the vehicle, the honoured instrument of Divine
Revelation, honoured among angels, but not amongst men. He is honoured with
us as God's medium-the chosen recipient of the Divine Message. In proportion
as the work is rightly done does the medium derive benefit, and become fitted
to be, in his turn, the messenger of God to man in the future. The vessel isimpregnated
with the perfume it has contained, and is nobler for the use it has served;
worthy of honour from men and angels as a casket which has worthily enshrined
the jewel of Divine Truth. But if there be impurity or falsity or cowardice
or idleness in the selected instrument, or if he be unduly puffed up by that
which is given to him; if he arrogate to himself the glory that belongs to God
alone; if there be time-serving or pride or impure motive-then, so far from
being benefited by the service for which he has been selected, he is so much
the worse for the abuse of his opportunities! It is the unalterable law of God.
Great privileges, great responsibilities! He who has great opportunities of
good and fails to use, or wrongly uses them, in wilful sin, on him rests the
curse of the servant who knew his Lord's will and did it not. He sinks as surely
as the other rises. The talent is withdrawn, and he becomes morally and intellectually
deteriorated. He has cast away a privilege, and, behold, a curse, instead of
a blessing, rests upon him.
"So that, should such an one return to the earth sphere, the communication
through him will necessarily be of a lower order than you would expect from
his reputation in earth-life. On earth he spoke not his own words but the
words of inspiration. But the Spirit of the Lord has been withdrawn, and now
he speaks the congenital utterances of the society to which he has been drawn."
"The most difficult task we have is to select a medium through whom the messages
of higher and more advanced spirits can be made known. It is necessary that
the mind chosen should be of a receptive character, for we cannot put into
a spirit more information than it can receive. Moreover, it must be free from
foolish worldly prejudices. It must be a mind that has unlearned its youthful
errors, and has proved itself receptive of truth, even though that truth is
unpopular.
"More still. It must be free from dogmatism. It must not be rooted and grounded
in earth notions. It must be free from the dogmatism of theologies and sectarianism
and rigid creed. It must not be bound down by the fallacies of half-knowledge
which is ignorant of its own ignorance. It must be a free and inquiring soul.
It must be a soul that loves progressive knowledge, and that has the perception
of truth afar off. One that yearns for fuller light, for richer knowledge
than it has yet received; one that knows no hope of cessation in drinking
in the truth.
"Again, our work must not be marred by the self-assertion of a positive antagonistic
mind, nor by the proud obtruding of self and selfish ends and aims. With such
we can do very little, and that little must all tend to the gradual obliteration
of selfishness and dogmatism. We desire a capable, earnest, truth-seeking,
unselfish, loving spirit for our work. Said we not well that such was difficult
to find among men? Difficult indeed, well-nigh impossible. We select, then,
such a soul as we can best find, and prepared by constant training for its
appointed work. We inspire into it a spirit of love and tolerance for opinions
that do not find favour with its own mental bias. This raises it above dogmatic
prejudice, and paves the way for the discovery that truth is manifold, and
not the property of any individual. Store of knowledge is given as the soul
can receive it; and, the foundation of knowledge once laid, the superstructure
may be safely raised. The opinions and tone of thought are moulded by slow
degrees, so that they harmonise with the end we have in view.
"Many and many fail here, and we abandon our work with them, finding that
not in this world of yours can they receive the truth; that old earth-born
prejudices are firm, dogmatic beliefs ineradicable, and so that they must
be left to time, and are to us of no avail.
"Moreover, a perfect truthfulness and absence of fearfulness and anxiety
are the steady growth of our teaching. We lead the soul to rest in calm trust
on God and His spirit teachers. We infuse a spirit of patient waiting for
that which we are permitted to do and teach. This spirit is the very reverse
of that fretful, restless querulousness which characterises many souls.
"Here, too, many fall away. They are fearful and anxious, and beset with
doubt. The old theology tells them of a God, who watches for their fall; and
of a devil, who lays perpetual traps for them. They wonder at the novelty
of our teaching; their friends are ready to point to so- called prophecies
which tell of anti-Christ. The old foundations are shaken, and the new are
not yet laid; and so the adversaries creep in and tempt the wavering soul,
and it fears and falls away, and is useless to us.
"Yet more, we must eradicate selfishness in all its many forms. There must
be no obtruding of self, or we can do nothing. There is nothing so utterly
fatal to spirit influence as self-seeking, self-pleasing, boastfulness, arrogance,
or pride. The intelligence must be subordinated, or we cannot work upon it.
If it be dogmatic, we cannot use it. If it be arrogant and selfish, we cannot
come near it. Self- abnegation has been the virtue which has graced the wise
and holy men of all time. The seers who bore of old the flag on which was
inscribed for their generation the message of progressive truth were men who
thought little of themselves and much of their work. They who spoke to the
Jews, whose messages you have in your sacred records, were men of self-denying
purity and singleness of life.
"Jesus, when He lived amongst men, was a grand and magnificent instance of
the highest self- abnegation and earnestness of purpose. He lived with you
a life of pure self-denial and practical earnest work, and He died a death
of self- sacrifice for truth. In Him you have the purest picture that history
records of man's possibilities. They who since have purged the world from
error, and have shed on it the beams of truth, have been one and all men of
self-denial and earnest devotion to a work which they knew to be that for
which they were set apart. Socrates and Plato, John and Paul, the pioneers
of truth, the heralds of progress, all have been unselfish souls who knew
naught of self-seeking, of proud aggrandisement, of boastful arrogance. To
them earnestness and singleness of purpose, devotion to their appointed work,
forgetfulness of self and its interests, were given in a high degree. Without
that they could not have effected what they did. Selfishness would have eaten
out the heart of their success. Humility, sincerity, and earnestness bore
them on.
"This is the
character we seek. Loving and earnest, self-denying and receptive to truth;
with single eye to God's work, and with forgetfulness of earthly aims. Rare
it is, rare as it is beautiful. Seek, friend, the mind of the philosopher, calm,
reliant, truthful, and earnest! Seek the spirit of the philanthropist, loving,
tolerant, ready to help, quick to give the needed aid. Add the self-abnegation
of the servant of God who does his work and seeks no reward. For such a character
work, high, holy, noble, is possible. Such we guard and watch with jealous care.
On such the angels of the Father smile, and tend and protect them from injury."
But you have described a perfect character.
"Ah no! You have no conception of what the perfect spirit is. You cannot
know; you cannot even picture it. Nor can you know how the faithful soul drinks
in the spirit-teaching and grows liker and liker to its teacher. You see not
as we see the gradual growth of the seed which it has cost us so much labour
to plant and tend. You only know that the soul grows in kindly graces, and
becomes more lovely and more lovable. The character we have faintly pictured
in such terms as are intelligible to you is not perfect, nor aught but a vague
and distant resemblance of that which it shall become. With you is no perfectness.
Hereafter is progression and constant development and growth. What you call
perfect is blotted and blurred with faults to spirit vision."
Yes, surely. But very few such are to be found.
"Few, few: and none save in the germ. There is the capability on which we
work with thankfulness. We seek not for perfection: we do but desire sincerity
and earnest desire for improvement: a mind free and receptive; a spirit pure
and good. Wait in patience. Impatience is a dire fault. Avoid over-carefulness
and anxiety as to causes which are beyond your control. Leave that to us.
In patience and seclusion ponder what we say."
Kinds of mediumship.
"There are varieties of mediumship, as you know, and there are divers modes
in which spirit influence is exercised. Some are selected for the mere physical
peculiarities which make them the ready vehicles of spirit power. Their
bodily organisation is adapted for the purpose of manifesting external spiritual
influence in its simplest form. They are not influenced mentally, and information
given by the spirits who use them would be of trifling or even foolish nature,
and untrustworthy. They are used as the means of demonstrating spirit power,
the external invisible agency capable of producing objective phenomenal
results.
"These are known to you as the instruments through whom the elementary
phenomena are manifested. Their work is not less significant than that which
is wrought through others. They are concerned with the foundation of belief.
"And some are chosen because of their loving, gentle nature. They are not
the channels of physical phenomenal action, and in many cases, not even
of conscious communication with the spirit world; but they are the recipients
of spirit guidance, and their pure and gentle souls are cultivated and improved
by angel superintendence. By degrees they are prepared to be the conscious
recipients of communications from the spheres; or they are permitted with
clairvoyant eye to catch stray glimpses of their future home. A loving spirit
friend is attracted to them, and they are impressionally taught and guided
day by day. These are the loving souls who are surrounded by an atmosphere
of peacefulness and purity of love. They live as bright examples in the
world, and pass in ripe maturity to the spheres of rest and peace for which
their earth life has fitted them.
"Others, again, are intellectually trained and prepared to give man extended
knowledge and wider views of truth. Advanced spirits influence the thoughts,
suggest ideas, furnish means of acquiring knowledge, and of communicating
it to mankind. The ways by which spirits so influence men are manifold.
They have means that you know not of by which events are arranged as to
work out the end they have in view.
"We insist on the distinction between that which is normal and that which
is abnormal; i.e., the direct work of spirit external to the medium, which
paralyses and deposes his spirit, and the substitutes for it an intelligence,
which more or less controls his physical organism. This we call abnormal,
and we compare it to the control exercised by a mesmeriser over his patient.
"What we call normal mediumship is that wherein the spirit is now entrusted
with wider powers, and has its own capacities exalted and supplemented
by the aspiration poured in upon it. No longer lulled to sleep, deposed
from its throne, but supported and strengthened in the exercise of its
powers, the soul is admitted to the counsel of those who have been its
guides but are now its instructors. It is now educated in passivity, trained
to moderation of thought, and to purity and singleness of intent and act.
The soul is open, with all its perceptions, to the breath of inspiration.
Ideas, conveyed painfully before by abnormal means, flow in upon it naturally.
Its own inherent powers develop and abound instead of being dwarfed and
stunted."
"What do you mean exactly by inspirational mediumship?"
"We mean the suggesting to the mind the thought which is not framed in
words. It is the highest form of communion only practicable when the whole
being is permeable by spirit-control. In such cases, converse with spirits
is maintained mentally, and words are not necessary; even as in our higher
states we have no voice nor language, but spirit is cognisant of spirit,
and intercourse is perfect and complete."
"You now
write, in words such as you would naturally employ, ideas conveyed by
us to your brain. There are concerned in this work four spirits who fence
you round from external influence and preserve the proper harmonious conditions.
The handwriting is selected solely as an evidence of individuality. The
words used are such as you would use, only the thoughts are ours."
Advice and warnings.
"You all need appreciation of the delicate conditions under which alone
true communion is possible. When these are not present, all we can do
is to fence you round from the dangers into which you have obtruded
yourselves, and in which, it seems to us, that men do not believe, because
they are unable to see them; even as the ignorant do not dread the subtle,
infectious poison of whose existence they can take no cognisance by
their rude senses. You see not; therefore you know not."
"Development in mediumistic power is accompanied by risk as well as
by blessing. And when a strong band does not surround the medium the
risk of invasion by undeveloped spirits is increased. Care and prayer
are requisite."
"None should seek for mediumship but those who are selected, and round
whom a protecting band ministers. For these alone are safe in the work;
and they only as long as with honest and true hearts they seek to do
the work of God to His honour. Self-seeking, self in any form, vanity,
pride, ambition, these are fatal snares."
"The dangers attendant on the lower forms of mediumship are very real.
First, because this phase of mediumship is so apt to fall into use as
a mere gratification of wonder or curiosity, to be sold for gain. Next,
because the mixed circles and want of proper conditions invite the presence
of the lower and more material spirits, who are more fitted for the
work needed than the more progressed Intelligences are. The lack of
proper guidance and protection for the medium leaves him open to deterioration.
He is liable to become the sport of the elementary spirits who are attracted
to him.
"In many cases the atmosphere breathed in your seance rooms is to us
as a wall to you., impenetrable and poisonous too. We cannot breathe
it. The grosser spirits can, and the earthbound can use it too."
"Why cannot such be kept away?"
"You invoke them, and then complain of us that we do not keep them
away. They can only be kept away by your own hearts and lives and motives
being purified, and also by such attention to conditions that we tell
you of. You cannot keep the electricity from the conductor. If you do
certain things, certain results will follow. This axiom applies to spirits
too. Because you cannot see these spirits, you doubt their power. One
day you will wonder at your folly. You do not know how far it extends;
what results it produces; how far-reaching it is."
"We deal with what is, not what you fancy ought to be. Deceptive spirits
exist, and will continue to exist; nor will your ignoring them prove
anything but a source of mischief to you."
Rules for sittings.
S. M. asks if the physical should be isolated.
"That is absolutely necessary if progress be desired. From such
spirits no true information or instruction can be had. We want to
impress on you the necessity of separation between the two, the physical,
and the spiritual. Aim to raise yourselves to spirit, not to drag
spirit down to matter."
"You saw once, friend, how an undeveloped spirit could seize
on a medium to her hurt and sorrow. Careless communicating causes
mischief to her, and she is still in danger. We would warn you that
such danger besets all who are not guided and guarded rightly. We
see that which you cannot."
"When ill or worried, seek not to commune with the spheres. A
sick, ailing, or mentally disturbed member of the circle is a bar.
The aura is violated, and objects take a distorted appearance. Harmonious
and loving minds, pure and holy thoughts, healthful and cheerful bodily
conditions, earnest seeking after truth, these are our best aids.
"What hurts most is jealous mistrust, angry feelings, unhealthy
conditions of body or mind; chief of all, a prying, suspicious mind,
bent on believing nothing, and proving all to be an elaborate lie."
S. M. has been plagued by an undeveloped spirit. He is told:
"You seek too persistently to evoke communications when you are
not fit for them. Evil will ensue, as we have told you. No trustworthy
communication can be held with you when mind and body are alike prostrate.
"Withdraw for a time from communication with us. You must perforce
do so, for we have decided to withdraw from you the power of communing,
as it is in danger of being seized upon by the adversaries, and you
yourself are in risk of possession by them, should you continue to
seek communing with the spheres. You have seen somewhat of this. You
know not how dire is the risk. We save you from it, in spite of yourself."
S. M. given rules for sitting.
"Do not sit in circle soon after a heavy meal, or when mind or body
is tired out, or when the spiritual atmosphere is inharmonious.
"Do not, before sitting, enter into any argumentative conversation,
nor any that requires severe mental exertion. The mind should be passive,
the body easy.
"Do not meet in a room that retains in it a loaded atmosphere. Just
before sitting, pass a current of fresh air through it.
"If possible, exclude light three or four hours before you meet.
Burn in the room a little (only) aromatic gum when you close it.
"In sitting, seek not curiously for anything; it mars our plans to
have a strong positive will present, fixed on any point. Maintain
a serious and attentive mind. Above all, be earnest and prayerful,
ready to hear, anxious for higher knowledge; soaring up, not bound
to earth.
"At times it is desirable to isolate you, and to preserve your aura
intact. This is what is secured by isolation in a cabinet."
S. M. asks about music at circles. Does it help?
"Music, if good, is well, but not necessary. We prefer quietness
and attention. Music helps the lower manifestations and inferior spirits.
But such musical sounds as we usually hear do not help us, rather
the reverse."
After a sitting when unpleasant scent had been manifested:
"The odour was unpleasant because of the state of the spiritual
atmosphere. . . . Our friends will learn that, before sitting, all
conversation which may lead to argument or disagreement, or which
is painful or exciting, is to be shunned. It is for this reason that
retirement and meditation and fasting and prayer, are so often the
attendants on successful spirit influence. The seers and mediums of
the past have so found it. We have frequently told you that the body
should be in quiescence and the mind in peace, or there is danger
in sitting."
"The force used by us in manifesting is only available when
not denuded by bodily functions. When the brain is active, then the
vital force is drawn to the brain. When the brain is passive, the
force flows to the nerves, and is available for us. When the digestive
organs are in active operation, it is required there. By a sudden
shock the nervous balance is upset, and vital force temporarily dissipated.
When passivity degenerates into apathy, it is bad. Sustained interest
in what is being done causes a pleasant, regular flow of the magnetic
aura, which establishes a perfect rapport between us and you. One
who speaks in public is able to convey ideas more effectively when
the sustained interest of his hearers keeps up the magnetic rapport.
Anxiety is bad, because it is a positive state, and antagonistic to
passivity."
"Keep yourself as passive and quiet as you can. When overtired
with work, or fretted with care, or exhausted, do not attempt to
seek communion with us. Do not add to the circle any new elements
which do but disturb and perplex conditions. Suffer us to perfect
our experiments before you interfere to spoil them. We will advise
you of any change we wish in the composition of our circle. Do not
alter the room in which you meet: and strive in so far as may be
to meet with a passive mind and a healthy body."
Yes, working all day with body and brain does
not improve conditions, I suppose. But Sunday is generally worse.
"It is not a favourable day for us, because, when the strain is
removed from mind and body, the reaction leaves the spirit disinclined
for action and more apt for repose. We are fearful of cultivating
new manifestations with you; we fear experimenting with physical
manifestations lest they do harm. Moreover, they are not our object,
only subsidiary to it. They are but the signs which witness to our
mission; and we do not desire that you rest in them. There is also
a special reason why we are unable to manifest on Sunday for you.
You do not know the difficulty which changes in conditions make
to us. You have heard before that sitting down immediately after
a meal is not good. The bodily conditions which we seek for are
passivity and quickness of receptivity: but not the passivity which
comes from sluggishness and torpor. No worse condition can be than
that state of somnolence and torpor which follows on a plentiful
meal during which stimulating drink has been taken. Such stimulus
may aid the physical manifestations in some cases, but it is a bar
to us. It opens the door for the advent of the more material spirits,
and stops our power. We have frequently found our plans frustrated
by such means. You would do well to think of this and guard yourselves
against excess in any way when you are about to seek communion with
us. The body should not be heated nor torpid with food: nor the
mind drowsy and inactive. Both conditions prevent us from operating
freely. They react on us, and sensibly mar our power. One such member
in a circle, even as one ailing or suffering, will create conditions
which we cannot overcome."
But a weak body and temper disturbed by want of
food is bad, surely?
"We do but counsel moderation. The body should be strengthened
with food, but you should not sit down until the food is assimilated.
You require moderate stimulant to fit you for your daily work, but
that should be guardedly taken, and you should see that you do not
enter into communion with us save under such conditions as we have
stated. When mind or body is predisposed to sleep or indisposed
to sustained attention, or sick or suffering, it is better not to
sit save under direction. Equally when the body is replete with
food, the grosser spirits may be expected to be in the ascendant,
and we are unable to operate. Even the physical phenomena are then
of a ruder and more violent character, and not of the delicate and
beautiful description which they would assume under more favourable
circumstances. We do not desire extremes. A body wasted by fasting
is not in any way profitable: but neither is a body which is clogged
and loaded by over-indulgence. Temperance and moderation are what
help us. If you desire, friend, to facilitate our work, and to attain
the best results, you should bring to the sitting a body healthy
and sound, senses clear and watchful, and a mind passive and receptive.
Then we can do for you more than you think. With a circle harmonious
and properly constituted the manifestations would be more delicate,
and the teaching given more refined and trustworthy. Even the light
of which you spoke(* ) under such conditions is pale, clear, and
smokeless: under unfavourable conditions would be dull, dirty, and
smoky in appearance. "
Abuse and publicity.
In writing of the development by a Mr. Rees Lewis
of the wonderful medium, Mr. Spriggs, S. M. says:
"One condition was that the seance-room should be set apart consecrated
to its own special use. Another was that medium and circle should
lead a life of abstinance from flesh-food, alcoholic drinks and
tobacco. The circle was selected and arranged with the utmost
care, and the medium led a simple plain, pure life. The circle
never varied; no fresh elements were introduced into it; and,
as far as possible, regular attendance was enforced. During the
seances the light was always sufficient for accurate observation.
"After four years of success,
some members of the circle craved for publicity. They wished to
engage a hall, admit strangers, gain notoriety. As a consequence,
the phenomena deteriorated, and the flow of them was interrupted.
The mediumship of Mr. Spriggs suffered deterioration. The wonder-seekers
had their day, and the result was disastrous."
Of the danger of promiscuous circles, S. M. writes:
"It
is the abuse, not use, that is dangerous. The psychic emanations
of a promiscuous circle, held under the conditions that too often
obtain, are poisonous to the sensitive, and harmful to all.
"What care is exercised
in promiscuous circles to secure conditions of health, physical,
mental and spiritual? Usually, none whatever. Men and women come
to see what is to be seen; to amuse themselves after dinner; for
any and every sort of reason. The atmosphere is loaded with impurity;
the darkened room is closed and oppressive to the outer sense;
how much more to the inner spiritual sense? Those who are sensitive
to spirit influence go away wondering that they are unstrung and
nervous and ill at ease. They have been drained of vitality or
have imbibed a poison; or, possibly, subjected to the influence
of some undeveloped spirit that saps their life. No wonder they
suffer."
On mediumistic phenomena.
"They who evoke physical marvels to please wonder-seekers are
too frequently the sport of spirits intellectually and morally
on a low plane. You cannot even rely that you are at different
times conversing with the same spirits; for they will assume
names and forms, and take pleasure in deceit."
"We look to the future with apprehension. We doubt our power
to persuade men to rise above the material; and so long as that
is not done, pure spiritual truth will make little way.
"It is the attempt to bring spirit down to the plane of matter
that we deplore. If you would do that, the spirit you bring
will be a curse to you. Rather should you endeavour to rise
to the plane of spirit; and then you will gain both proof and
truth. We would urge you to cast away every material means of
communion. Even this (automatic writing) is poor compared with
the voice of spirit communing with us. Be fellow-workers indeed
with us; and allow us to co-operate with you in the use of the
highest faculties of you triune nature. Condemn us not to the
weary, weary round of material work. Rise to the full dignity
of the mission we have in charge.
"Those who seek to penetrate the mysteries and are the chosen
vehicles of truth must needs be open to attack."
"The transference of your powers from the material plane, the
quickening of the perceptions and the development of the inner
spiritual faculties, the recognition in a normal way of our
nearness, and the ability to see and converse with us without
the dangerous conditions of trance, these are to us splendid.
They are the inception of the most perfect form of life possible
to man; that Enoch life, in which he walks with God.
"We rejoice that you are relinquishing the phenomenal side
and are developing your faculties to their higher use. We have
already told you that, in directing your development, we were
compelled to allow you to be used for phenomenal manifestation
for a time. When it was possible for us to stop that phase,
we permitted you to be brought in contact with others, that
you might learn of the power of your own spirit."
"You are conscious now of a new element of instruction. By
slow degrees the dogmatic hedge that fenced you in was broken
down and you learned to grasp truths which before had escaped
you. You learned to forget much that you had held sacred. You
were led to study that which was to you previously a sealed
book.
"We began with you on the material plane. We showed you the
powers of spirit over matter, and enabled you to observe the
phenomenal results of unseen agencies at work through you. At
first material phenomena sufficed you. By degrees we taught
you of ourselves, and instilled into your mind new views of
revealed truth. Your mind was enabled to see that not to any
one race, or person, or place, or age, has the whole of Divine
Truth been given. We showed you the germ of truth that underlies
every religion that man has framed for himself.
"These were the two parallel lines of investigation which we
guided you to. The first is the material or physical phenomena,
which are the outward evidence of a hidden power wielded by
us. The second is the doctrine and significance of our message.
So long as man is enshrined in a body of flesh his mind will
revert to phenomenal evidence. We have encouraged you to view
it only as subsidiary, and to regard it only as proof of our
work."
"Beware of encouraging the promiscuous evolution of violent
physical power. Such comes generally from the lower and more
undeveloped; and its development is frequently attended by
spirits for whose absence you should pray. In the encouragement,
especially in newly-formed circles, of undue care for physical
marvels is a great risk. Such are necessary to the work, and
we do not in any degree undervalue their importance to certain
minds. We desire to bring home evidence to all; but we do
not desire that any should rest in that material form of belief,
in an external something which is of little service to any
soul. We labour for something higher than to show curious
minds that we can do badly under certain conditions what man
can do better under other conditions. Nor do we rest content
even with showing man that beings external to himself can
interfere in the order of his world. If that were all, he
might be so much the worse for knowing it. We have before
us one sole aim, and that alone has brought us to your earth.
You know our mission. In days when faith has grown cold, and
belief in God and immortality is waning to a close, we come
to demonstrate to man that he is immortal, by virtue of the
possession of that soul which is a spark struck off from Deity
itself. We wish to teach him the errors of the past, to show
him the life that leads to progress, to point him to the future
of development and growth.
"It is not with such an end before us that we can tamely
allow our work to be set aside for the development of any
strange phenomenal power that spirits may possess over gross
matter. If we use such power at all it is because we find
it necessary, not because we think it desirable, save always
as a means to an end. Were it harmless we should say so much.
But being what it is, an engine of assault from the adversaries,
the worst we have to dread, we are urgent in warning you against
promiscuous seeking after these physical marvels, and against
resting in them as the end and aim of intercourse with us.
"Regard them only as means of conviction, as so many proofs
to your minds of actual intervention from the world of spirit
with the world of matter. Look upon them as such only, and use
them as the material foundation on which the spiritual temple
may be built. Rest assured that they of themselves can teach
you no more than that; nay, if the operating spirits find in
you no capacity to grasp more, they will gradually give way
to those who can do such work better than they can, and so the
means of further knowledge will pass away. From that basis you
must go on to further steps. You must seek to know of the nature
of the agency, of its source and intent. Surely you would desire
to be assured that it is of God, beneficent and pure in origin
and intent. Surely you would seek to know how much the visitors
from beyond the grave can tell you of that universal dwelling-place
of your race; how they can satisfy you of your own soul's destiny,
and of the means by which you may best fit yourself for the
change which you call death. For if we be not as you, how is
our experience fruitful to you? If we cannot tell you of your
own immortality, what profits it that we prove to you never
so conclusively that we ourselves exist? Such may be a curious
fact; it can never be more."
"Each circle is to spirit gaze a centre of light, visible
from afar, frequented by crowds who fain would talk with the
denizens of earth. Some of these spirits are powerful in their
ability to use the elements. They are, in truth, more powerful
than highly developed spirits. In proportion as we progress,
we become less able to wield the forces, and restore more
to mental impression and distinct intellectual guidance and
direction."
"It is a literal fact that the spirits who frequent
circles from which the spiritual element on your side is absent
are unprogressed or undeveloped spirits, attracted by the
dominant temperament of the sitters - earthbound spirits who
love to bewilder and perplex, or to lure to vice and sin.
Think of the philosophy of spirit intercourse, what it is
intended to be, and what it has been degraded to. We tell
you it is impossible for anyone to allow himself to be made
the vehicle of spirits who are attracted to open circles without
sinking, sooner or later, to their level - without mental,
moral and physical deterioration. You go to a pest-house,
and expect to escape scot-free; but one day you will find
you have gone too far; a vampire has fastened on you, and
you are possessed by a loathsome fiend, whom you must emancipate
yourself from by laborious purification, or to whom you must
become victim."
S. M. says he has seen plain and silly fraud in the midst
of genuine manifestations.
"Wishing to accomplish a certain end, a low class of
spirits would use the readiest means without any thought of
fraud. In the case of the materialisation of the full form,
which is one of the cases in which inferior agents must act,
the spirit would have no notion of deception in using the
medium's body in any way. It would do its work in the easiest
way. Hence the mixture of open fraud, as it seems to you,
with what you call genuine phenomena.
"You may be watching the manifestations of the presence
of a being without soul, and so without conscience. You will
regard them as you would regard conduct of an untrained animal.
With the lower grades of spirits you must make allowances,
and expect nothing from them save certain evidences of power,
which you must judge on their merits, sifting and probing,
and not being dismayed if good and false are mingled. Such
phenomenal manifestations are necessary to reach men who can
assimilate no other evidence. They are not any sort of proof
of our claims, no evidence of the moral beauty of our teachings;
but they are the means best adapted to reach the materialist.
"The phenomena are produced by spirits who can produce
them best. Those spirits are the lowest and most earthly;
either those who have passed through incarnation without progress,
or those who have reached but not attained to it. These last
are most powerful agents, but they know no distinctions of
morality. It would be absurd and foolish to you if the progressed
spirits of humanity were to be put forward as the agents in
what you contemptuously describe as a moving of furniture.
The mighty ones, who even in the flesh were spirits sent from
God to enlighten your world, are not the agents who can be
used in bringing home evidence of the kind needed by the materialist.
They have no longer any power over gross matter, and would
be unable so to act."
"You should confine the phenomenal to circles where
the best evidence can be given by spirits who are most able.
From them you should ask nothing more; even as from the higher
spirits you should not ask any evidence of the material kind.
If material and physical ends are sought, they are obtained
at the cost of spiritual progress as a rule. Hence it is that
circles should be graduated, and the purely physical relegated
to where it is needed. The higher spirits will not frequent
the circles where such an atmosphere prevails. No information
should, therefore, be asked; only material evidence. But in
the circles where such manifestations are not desired, information
should be sought, and it should be the aim to raise as much
as possible the spiritual tone by cultivating communion with
the higher spirits, and by recognition of their mission of
instruction and enlightenment."
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