Science - Viewed From Beyond

Not since the Victorian era when several noted scientists investigated and attested psychic phenomena, including full-form materializations under test conditions, have spirit gifts been so rigorously placed under the scientific microscope. It is fitting to begin this chapter with a question a scientist put to Silver Birch: “I have read and have always believed that service is very important. What is also important is the occupation of gathering knowledge, namely learning. In the spirit world how is this carried out? In scientific matters of this physical world we do experiments. Does one do experiments in the spirit world, or is it by purely mental processes?”

The guide replied:

“Knowledge, like the Great Spirit, is infinite; no period can be placed on it. As you progress so you fit yourself for more knowledge. You are forever climbing a mountain, ascending one peak, only to behold another to be scaled. Knowledge, progress, development, unfoldment, advancement, all these are eternal processes.

In your physical world you experiment to see what are the results when you try “a” with “b” and so on. We have experiments which are divorced from the physical world, because we are concerned with some of the many and varying expressions of the spirit. So we are always experimenting. Let me give a simple illustration. We have coming to our world doctors who are still concerned with helping afflicted ones on earth. They have knowledge of the mechanism, the workings of the human body and its many reactions.

In our world they have access to a different kind of power, some of the degrees of spirit, which is life, and how it can be applied, combined with earthly knowledge, to help the sick in your world. This is a constant experimentation involving the mixture of forces.

They must not be too strong, otherwise they will harm the instrument through whom they are to be poured. They can be increased in intensity as the human channel is more receptive and can bear the higher velocity, or power, whichever word you want to use. There is the difficulty again of finding words that can adequately express what is really beyond language. So we are constantly engaged in experiments, adding to our knowledge all the time.”

At later circles came these answers to questions.

“The scientific picture of the universe a century ago is vastly different from the one today.”

Does this mean that scientists will move away from this materialistic research to a higher level?

“It will be forced on them by the logic of their own researches as they inevitably inquire into the world of the invisible and its vast untapped potential. As they develop spiritually they will realize how this tremendous force can be harnessed for good.

Then they will pay increasing attention to the development of these faculties within themselves. What is without is but an expression of what is within. The life force is indivisible. You cannot cut it up into watertight compartments. The life in the atom is in essence the same life as in the human, the animal, the flower or the tree. It is all the one life with its infinite manifestations.”

Have scientists come to that level of understanding?

“No, but some have. Olive Lodge is a good example of a spiritual scientist with an awareness of states of reality existing beyond the surface.”

Do you think scientists will destroy too many people and too much before they come to an awareness?

“No there is a limitation to what scientists can do. They cannot destroy the whole of your world. The natural laws will ensure the damage that can be done in your world is not so fearful as some people think. Besides, the law of the Great Spirit in the ultimate must prevail. There are no men in your world who can thwart it. They can delay, they can hinder, but they cannot override the Great Spirit.

Those of us who have some insight into the mechanics and the operation of natural law remain confident that, come what may, however foolish people in your world may be, the Great Spirit will prevail. And the Great Spirit’s laws will ensure that more and more love, compassion, charity and service will be exercised in your world.

Science is not infallible. Scientists are only human beings who can make mistakes. I do not worship the god of science. The world will not come to an end, as they say, it will continue. Are you familiar with scientists’ pronouncements that have been wrong?”

I should explain that I have had to study this question very closely, though I am not a scientist.

Silver Birch repeated his question.

“Are you familiar with scientists’ pronouncements that have been wrong?”

Very many.

“So there is no guarantee that any scientific pronouncement must automatically be right when it concerns the future.”

In greeting a scientist from Rhodesia, the guide said:

“Your footsteps have been guided so that you have been brought out of the darkness into the light. This is part of the process by which all true human development is achieved because of the law of compensation, as low as you can fall so correspondingly high can you rise. It is in darkness that you find the light, it is in sorrow that you find joy. It is when it seems that earth has nothing to offer that the spirit can begin to find itself.

This is part of the polarity, the means by which the soul begins to come into its own. In the vast order of universal activity every facet of being has its ordered part to play. Storm is as essential as sunshine, darkness as light. It is in the crucible of suffering that strength is forged. It is only when extremes are reached that growth begins to be achieved.

I am not trying to talk in paradoxes, but this is how the Great Spirit, with infinite wisdom, has fashioned the laws of progress so far as humans are concerned. But it is just as true that whatever is needed is presented when the time is ripe. The difficulties, trials, tests, obstacles, these are all essential precursors to the soul being able to express its latent gifts. They provide the equivalent to the catalyst.

If you look back you can see how, in the time of what seemed the greatest difficulty, you were shown the way, your footsteps directed so that you could begin to learn how to fulfill yourself. There will be opportunities for you to help others as you have been helped by people who trod a similar path before you.

This is how the divine scheme comes into action, to bring people, one by one, into possession of eternal truths that will help them to express themselves to the fullest, to serve all who come within their orbit, to deny none who seek their aid and to be sorry for those who are given the chance to achieve self-regeneration and lose it because it would seem they are not ready. So rejoice at what has been revealed to you and realize that it is only an infinitesimal fraction of what awaits you. There are tremendous spiritual treasures still to be excavated. You will have many opportunities of service.”

At another circle Silver Birch said:

“We are at work the whole time, experimenting with new forms and ideas, particularly in healing, clairvoyance and trance so as to improve the quality. But we are dependent on the material you offer us. This is the measure of your free will and personal responsibility.

We will always give more than we receive from you. That is our duty, to support, to sustain and to ensure that all your fundamental, essential needs will be supplied. The rest is up to you. We require instruments who will be dedicated to serve. I’ve said it before, and I will repeat, service is the coin of the spirit. To serve is noble because in service you are expressing the divinity within you.

What we ask you to do is to raise your standards as high as you can. We will always work to get you to advance slowly but surely towards the goal of achievement. What we say to you is very simple. Do the best you can, and together we will be able to help those who come to us.”