It is possible to look at human nature as it manifests itself in behavior and personal relationships. You can observe all kinds of variations in the behavior – for example, how someone treats a policeman differently than a priest or a car salesman or a waitress who sells him coffee and donuts. Or you can imagine the habits, ambitions and self-images of people. These are the phenomena of human nature. They can be observed.
But you can also go beyond observation and begin speculating on why these people behave in those very different ways. As you do, you have to appreciate that there are some profound inner dimensions to human consciousness. They are real, even if they are not well understood.
Eventually, as a result of these speculations, you begin to suspect that there truly is an inner seed of character in every human being – a tremendous inheritance of good and bad, of potential and disease that influences people from deeper dimensions. This is a subtle but powerful and persistent influence on human behavior.
As you speculate in this way, your mind begins to leap up to some of these more subtle levels of thought. You come close to the essence of the idea you’re pursuing, until you actually begin to summon the very presence of your own soul.
The soul, of course, is not just an idea, but it lives on the level of pure ideas. It begins to impress upon your intelligent, speculating mind the reality of its presence. It nurtures and stimulates a train of thinking which, if sufficiently pursued, will lead to some degree of realization about the inner nature of men and women – that they are spiritual beings and that all the phenomena of human behavior can be traced back to a spiritual core.
This core is the real centre of our life force, the real cause of our good in life, and all the varied experiences of our humanity in daily living. When you understand that, you’re dealing with the essence of human psychology – the essence of all ideas about human behavior. (Nikola Tesla, NTR, 43-4.) You’re going to see a day when people like you and David are going to be able to contribute in a professional way to the process of psychoanalysis. Now, you have a medical degree and David does not, but both of you – and others like you – can be enormously helpful; it’s going to take doctors who want to become a little enlightened.
It’s encouraging nowadays to go to a psychic conference and hear doctors talking more than psychics. I just wish that sometimes they would get a psychic doctor up there. (H.P. Blavatsky, BR, 75-6.)
The main point, so easy to forget, is that each person is the hero or heroine in his or her own life. Everything else, all actions, seem to revolve around us personally in life. This is not an illusion, but a fact of metaphysics and psychology as well. (William James in ADJ, 134-5.)
Each person’s vantage point in the universe is his own, a platform for all of his acts that can be possessed by no other, is inviolate, and, in an inexplicable fashion, absolute. (William James in ADJ, 135.)
We are each so unalike that we might be members of different species entirely, so diverse is the nature of our inner realities, so different is one person’s soul from another’s, one person’s challenges, dreams, and intimate contact with life. (William James in ADJ, 135.)
Each person living or dead is somehow a unique materialization or actualization, psychologically “perfect,” of this basic loving condition or psychological, atmospheric presence. Each person is himself or herself, and an agent for the universe at the same time. The universe leans in each individual’s direction, gives, and is compliant for each person is a part of that psychological fabric, coming to life. It is as if the universe were a multidimensional cloth with infinite patterns and figures which did not remain flat but sprang alive, lived, moved, and died and came alive again, while the fabric of which they were made never wore out but miraculously revitalized itself and rewove its parts.
The patterns and figures are constantly changing, and the very stitches with which they are made are composed of the basic fabric also so that there is everywhere communication between all of the parts at that level. Each figure changes the quality of the fabric, however, adding immeasurably to it through experience for each life multiplies the actions possible to all of the others, on this common level. (William James, ADJ, 163.)
Personality is the greatest fact in the universe. We here believe so thoroughly that man is the final achievement in the universal plan, that we recognize at once that the most perfect man would be the highest achievement. And the most perfect man is the one who best succeeds in filling his appointed niche; which means the one who makes the best use of his talents he possesses. If all were given the same talents all would achieve the same perfection if they were successful; and we know that such a condition would not be satisfactory. But where there are different perfections, different personalities, we have a variety that is endlessly satisfying. (Unnamed spirits to Charlotte E. Dresser in LHH, 79.)
John Hewitt: Is one’s spiritual body largely determined by his character?
Stewart Edward White: By your character as developed over several lifetimes and several interludes on the other planes. This is the character of the immortal part of you. (Stewart Edward White in PP, 201.)
Individuality, Personality, and Spirit
“It is I” can only be uttered in such a voice by one whose individuality (1) is so vast as to be almost universal, one who has dipped in the ocean of the All, yet who knows the minute by reason of its own inclusiveness. (Judge David P. Hatch, LLDM, Letter XXXV.)
(1) The utterance came from an angel, known to Hatch as the “Beautiful Being,” who has no trace of personality but retains individuality.
When you have read of the appearance of those who come from the higher, or inner, planes, do you not find they are described as shining figures radiating light, rather than as having shape? That is because personality has gone. It is because there is less of the bodily expression about them. (Silver Birch, SBA, 58.)
The higher spirits who come to your earth are influences or emanations. They are not what you describe as persons, but emanations from higher spheres. Learn to recognise the impersonality of the higher messages. When we first appeared to this medium he insisted on our identifying ourselves to him. But many influences come through our name. Two or three stages after death spirits lose much of what you regard as individuality and become more like influences. (Spirit leader Imperator in Moses, MSTTT, n.p.)
Some of the higher spirits have, as I know, almost lost their identity. There comes a time when the individuality is dissipated and enlarged, and becomes a centre of influence. The exalted spirit, Imperator, who directs this medium, bathes me in his influence. I do not see him, but he permeates the space in which I dwell. I have received his commands and instructions, but I have never seen him. The medium sees a manifestation of him, which is necessary in his case, not in mine. (Elliotson in Moses, MSTTT, n.p.)
Spirit is in itself eternal. We will speak of it first before it reaches your earth. It had a prior existence in the spheres which underlie, surround and control your world. All spirit finds its home in space till it takes upon it a body of flesh. Spirit is developed through various processes up to the time of incarnation. It becomes a microcosm, a representative of that divinity of which it enshrines a spark, and thus it becomes powerful over matter. One of the properties of matter is inertia. It can do nothing. It is governed and animated by spirit, which spirit is individualised when incarnated. …
Spirit, in order to manifest, must be substantial and have a form, though spiritual. In the spirit-world there are the same gradations of substance that you have, such as vegetable, mineral and animal. Thus the change from your world to ours is only a change of condition. A man born blind cannot understand what light is; yet, if he gains sight, he has only changed his state, not his place. So, when you have thrown off your material body, you will not have changed your place, only your state. (Unnamed Egyptian spirit in Moses, MSTTT, n.p.)
Formlessness: this, my child, is an attribute of the source only, in its ultimate expression from whence none who have merged therein have yet returned in form. It is beyond the peaks of silence and the sea of desire – beyond things, yet ceaselessly expressed in them. (The Unknown Teacher in PTS, 41.)
Seven-Year Cycles
Look at the lives of the people you love and who are the most important to you. You will see that every man’s life breaks down into dive important phases. From the hour of his birth, the incarnating soul has been learning to occupy the new shape he has found himself stuck with. Until the age of seven, he is preoccupied by the problem he has found himself stuck with. Until the age of seven, he is preoccupied by the problem of how to gain attention to himself andhow to coordinate his limbs!
Between the ages of seven and fourteen, he starts to develop emotions; he starts to experience love. And he starts to develop a temperament! /
At fourteen, he faces the crisis of adolescence. The emotional body begins to take control of the physical body.
From the age of fourteen, the intensity increases until his mind awakens at twenty-one.
From twenty-one to twenty eight, the mind advances until he begins to realize that there is more to life than he first thought.
From the age of twenty-eight, the mental body takes over and learns how to adjust itself to the lower emotional and physical bodies.
By the age of thirty-five, this process should be complete (if it is ever going to be). The man is now mentally orientated.
From thirty-five to forty-two, he becomes aware of something else in his life. This is due to the probing of his soul, which is now seeking means to control the mind.
From forty-two to forty-nine this process intensifies. During this period, the man becomes aware of the presence of his soul.
From forty-nine to fifty-six, he realizes that there is much more to life than selfishly “eating high off the hog.” He begins to wonder whether he has actually achieved anything in his life or whether it was “all vanity and led but to the grave.”
The conclusion is reached between the age of fifty-six and sixty-three. Either he decides to serve out his sentence to the bitter end, in the hope that [he] will finally solve the riddle of existence, or he elevates himself to the Golden Plane. He may go through an interminable array of lifetimes, but the pattern will always fall into these seven-year cycles. (Mike Swain in FMW, 79-80).
Care of the Body
It is part of our mission to teach the religion of the body as well as of the soul. We proclaim to you, and to all, that the due care of the body is an essential prerequisite to the progress of the soul. So long as spirit is prisoned in the earth body through the avenues of which it finds its expression on the plane of matter, it is essential that you care intelligently for that body, lest it react on the spirit and affect it injuriously.
Yet it is only in rare cases that intelligent discrimination is exercised with regard to food and clothing, and the habits of life which have so great an effect on spirit. The artificial state of existence which prevails, the ignorance with respect to all or nearly all that influences health, the vicious habits of excess that are so nearly universal, these are all bars and hindrances to true spiritual life. (Spirit leader Imperator in Moses, ST, 105.)
Goodness
'If all become perfectly good, it would almost seem as though life would become monotonous?'
"We have more varieties of goodness than the mortal life can show. You will be surprised at the difference in individuals on a plane where none are perverse or wicked. Then think of the different occupations and industries, the different arts and sciences, of travel to other worlds and the wonders revealed there. Think of oratory, music, poetry, and the light/ and winsome touches that writers of humorous literature have brought to this side; and you will realize a little how, instead of monotony, we have infinite variety." (Spirit control Mary Bosworth in SWSL, 80.)
Laughter and Tears
One of the great vulnerabilities of the basically happy person [is that] some people use unhappiness and grumpiness to strike a sympathetic response from the happier fellow. But I learned early in life that, rather than feeling sorry for such unhappy types, it was much more enlightened to crack a smile and draw them out of their shells. I intuitively knew that what these people needed was a good laugh. (Will Rogers in MTR, 56.)
A sense of humour is one of the best resources we have to help us live with our problems and burdens and even lighten the load a little. … The person who can see life humorously develops a healthier perspective about life. He starts to see that the problems he faces are really problems the whole of humanity is facing – and often with amusing results. This lets him laugh at his own problems and keep them in balance. (Mark Twain, MTR, 18.)
Good humor is contagious…. It’s supposed to infect you with merriment and a sense of delight which lifts you up, shakes you out of your rut, pulls you out of your dark mood. (Mark Twain, MTS, 19.)
Sober, grim individuals tend to repel people of good sense, rather than attract them. (Mark Twain, MTR, 21.)
A healthy interplay between the inner being and the personality is extremely important, if we are going to honor our basic inspiration and the work we are doing. Now, this connection tends to close down when the personality becomes excessively serious and grim. Those aren’t the wavelengths on which the inner being operates. (Mark Twain, MTR, 21.)
Humor breeds detachment. In fact, the average person – who does not have the ability to look at life from the perspective of the inner being – humor is just about the only way to achieve any degree of detachment. And even though the divine connection may not be there, the detachment achieved as a result of being able to laugh at one’s mistakes, embarrassments, and troubles is very important. It is healthy for the personality. (Mark Twain, MTR, 22.)
Humor stirs up the good elements already in the personality and lets us entertain the possibility that perhaps the world is a funnier place than we had thought. Perhaps life is more beautiful than we had imagined. Perhaps our difficulties are not quite so grim and our future not as bleak as we had feared.
I suppose that in people with a rich potential for expressing goodwill or joy, a state of good humor helps them make the connection. It certainly does have a healing potential which is not given enough credit. (Mark Twain, MTR, 22.)
The sense of humor we are talking about here does not have to include the ability to tell jokes and be funny. It is the ability to appreciate good humor and the funny quirks of life. When we speak of humorless, grim people, we are talking about those people who cannot laugh at life and expect everyone else to be as serious as they are. Many people who couldn’t tell a joke to save their lives nonetheless have an excellent sense of humor. (Mark Twain, MTR, 23.)
The motive of good humor is to stimulate a bit of delightenment, to use a word of yours that I like very much – to delight the people in the audience or the people reading the book. The motive of the vicious use of humor is to darken the atmosphere with put-downs and destructive comments. (Mark Twain, MTR, 25-6.)
It’s the meanest, crabbiest people in the world – the people who are really out to exploit others, to take all they can and give nothing in return – who are usually completely lacking in a sense of humor. They are amused by nothing and don’t like jokes being played on them. They certainly cannot stand it when someone else makes fun of them or anything they do.
Well, God gave us a sense of humor to protect us from these grumpy, crabby people. And the most laughable thing of all ought to be the popular belief that the devil is happy and God is depressed! That’s utterly absurd. It’s just the other way around. (Mark Twain, MTR, 29.)
Let me share a little secret I learned a long time ago. If you go at problems with a pious and uncompromisingly serious attitude, you will generally not receive very much support from others. People don’t want their noses rubbed in their problems: if you take that attitude, they will just refuse to consider the problem at all. They will ignore it – and they’ll ignore you. But if you approach problems humorously, satirically, you can often be quite successful in educating people to the real dimensions of the problem. Political satire, in particular, can be extremely effective in this regard because it gives us a way to look at the policies and acts of government which are especially oppressive and absurd, without becoming depressed. (Mark Twain, MTR, 29.)
A sense of humor can also be the cutting edge of your kindness. The funny thing about most people’s problems is that they are extremely obvious to everyone but the person who has them. It’s very easy to see everyone else’s problems, but when it come to your own, you live with them all the time and it’s difficult to see what they are. It’s like the skin on the back of your hand; it’s been there all your life. So you accept it without further thought. (Mark Twain, MTR, 33.)
While humor on the physical plane is used to approximate the joy of the inner planes, it in no way comes close to what we can experience up here. (Will Rogers in MTR, 52.)
One of the best road signs for telling how far along the spiritual path you are is the amount of joy you express. When you just feel like singing or laughing or dancing – when you’re so full of good cheer that you cannot contain it – now that’s a good sign. After all, doing the Father’s work should make you happy and joyful; it should make you feel like singing, because singing and laughing and dancing are also related to speaking the Word. They are the physical grounding of an act of joy. (H.P. Blavatsky, BR, 44.)
When you laugh, your whole aura laughs. Your whole being laughs. It’s the most healing thing you can do. Now, I’m not just talking about just laughing, but laughing out of joy and laughing in celebration. (H.P. Blavatsky, BR, 66.)
I heard you mention earlier in the evening that laughter has the effect of turning away evil. This is quite true. For a black magician to attack you, he has to enter into a negative state of consciousness. It’s impossible to laugh and be joyful in a negative state. You could, perhaps, indulge in a dirty laugh, but not a joyful one. So, if you know that you’ve undergone some kind of psychic attack from a black magician, the best thing in the world to do is to just laugh, knowing that it’s incredibly funny that anyone would ever lower themselves to do something so comical as trying to attack you. The laughter is health-giving in many ways – particularly in an occult way. It’s like putting up an impenetrable wall. The only power stronger than laughter in a case of attack is the Christ light. (H.P. Blavatsky, BR, 66-7.)
Now, I certainly don’t want to start a cult on this or be accused of starting “Laugha Yoga.” … But laughter does vitalize the etheric body. That’s not properly put, but I can’t put it better. Laughter draws in the prana of joy. There are different kinds of prana, you know. The prana of joy is – well, it is the champaigne and ice cream of the inner planes. (H.P. Blavatsky, BR, 67.)
Laughing and expressing joy when you’re happy do so many good things for you – they even heal the mind. Maybe someone can come up with a laughing psychotherapy. Wouldn’t that be wonderful! Instead of screaming and kicking, the patient would laugh at all his past traumas. The analyst would say, “Look how funny you were when you were two and wet your pants! Look how funny your mother was for thrashing you for it!” … Don’t you think that would be much better than some of the approaches they’re taking now? I do. (H.P. Blavatsky, BR, 67-8.)
Well, even the capacity to cry from genuine sorrow at times has a beneficial effect. Anything that moves a person to tears, whether it’s in joy or sorrow, is an indication of a deep value system. In some forms of psychotherapy, particular the ones that grew out of the Frankl school [Viktor Frankl, a Viennese psychiatrist and developer of logotherapy], if they can’t make somebody laugh, they’ll make him cry – but with the understanding that he’s crying because he has a value that’s very deep, very spiritual, and it’s been violated. (H.P. Blavatsky, BR, 68.)
Joy
I have seen the Beautiful Being itself, more than once, hovering in ecstasy above an earthly creature who was happy.
A song of joy, when it comes from a thrilling heart, may attract a host of invisible beings who enjoy it with the singer; for, as I have told you, sound carries from one world to another. …
A joyous heart attracts joyous events. (Judge David P. Hatch, LLDM, Letter XLIII.)
The best measure of your psychic development or spiritual growth is how it changes the quality of your life - what you learn from it and the joy you gain. In fact, that’s the best measure of how well you are doing anything, psychic or not – the joy you derive from doing what you are supposed to be doing. (Ruth Finley [“Joan”] in PP, 232.)
Happiness we know is in store for all who will strive for it by a consistent course of life and conduct commendable to reason and spiritual in practice. Happiness is the outcome of right reason, as surely as misery is the result of conscious violation of reasonable laws, whether corporeal or spiritual. (Spirit leader Imperator in Moses, ST, 66.)
Beauty
Whatsoever is beautiful is always true, and that is one of the laws which stand out in front of others in these bright realms. Conversely also, whatever is ugly and ill-favoured in form outwardly, will, on closer study, be found lacking in the grace of truth. Truth, as we use that word, means that which is consonant with the Mind of the Ultimate Whom you call God and Father. All that flows from Him is orderly and in harmony with the highest and fairest aspirations of us, His offspring. And what answers to this quality is beauty, for beauty is that which pleases; and harmony is a garment of love which is always pleasing to them who in their nature respond to love's endearments. It is only those in whom there is some tincture of love's opposite that have no relish for such a feast as Love alone can spread.
And, mind you, Love is not alone of God, but God Himself. So all the beauty of landscape and of the waters and the comeliness of a face or form we know to be such a manifestation of Him from Whom they derive / their beauty, and, as truth is only what is in concord with the thoughts of Him, so we say that whatsoever is beautiful is true, and whatever is true must manifest itself in beauty. (Arnel in G. Vale Owen, LBV3, 77-8.)
Mind and Thought
A thought—no matter the heading it comes under—that has come into your mind and which you have sent out, is an accomplished thing so far as your mind goes. Your physical act may or may not keep swift accompaniment with the thought; that does not matter from the point of view of what you are building up for yourself here. Once having had this thought it is done, so far as your mind is concerned, and, whether you follow it up actively or not, you have to make repayment for it when you come here. I am not speaking about the thousand trivial thoughts of every hour, but about those which I might describe as having personality. …
Each of you will live to thank the person who is responsible for giving you this information if you act upon it, and those of you who hear and know but do not act upon the knowledge, will have one day to cast reproaches upon yourselves for this failure. (W.T. Stead, BI, 80-1.)
Leichtman: There are a lot of people who label themselves as quite spiritual who say that “the mind is the slayer.” What would you say to such people?
Blavatsky: They don’t understand the correct use of the mind. Yes, the mind slays, but do you know what it slays? It slays fantasies, misconceptions, and illusions. The mind is meant to penetrate badly-stated concepts and soft and sort until the truth is discerned. (1)
There is nothing spiritual about stupidity or ignorance. We all have a spiritual obligation to understand ourselves, our relationship to God, and our duty in life. If we aren’t going to use our minds to do this, I wonder what these people suspect we ought to do. … This talk is utterly foolish. We must use the mind to find and comprehend God. Granted that comprehension might be terribly limited, but we must make the effort.
I would remind people that God has a mind and a portion of that mind is placed in every individual. It is our spiritual duty to honor it and develop it as best we can. That doesn’t mean that we are all going to turn into illumined adepts, masters, or saints, but it does mean we should make the best use of our mental potential. We should never let ourselves be limited by someone else’s stupid misconceptions. You never know how much your mind is capable of until you try to use it. (H.P. Blavatsky, BR, 25-6.)
(1) Compare Mrs. Blavatsky’s point with that of enlightenment teacher Andrew Cohen: “In the experience of meditation, we leave the mind alone. We allow ourselves to experience being, free from the influence of thought while in the practice of contemplation, which is the intense, focused, one-pointed pursuit of truth, we do use the mind. In contemplation we use thought in order to help us discriminate between truth and falsehood.” (WAI? 3.)
You cannot see, as we see, the almost utter worthlessness of what you call opinion. You cannot know, while yet the eye is veiled, how the veil is rent by the dissolution of the spirit from the earth-body; how the speculations that have seemed so all-important are seen to be but idle, baseless fancies; while the germ of truth that has underlain the theological creeds is found to be very similar in essence, albeit of divers degrees of development. (Spirit leader Imperator in Moses, ST, 28.)
Creativity as a Path
To be healthy, a creative person does have to give birth to his creative ideas. And it really is giving birth. (Spirit communicator “Stephen” in PP, 239.)
You are supposed to do something which you do not do and so there is a karmic reaction to the lack of action. Karma is the principle of action/reaction. … If you block the birth channel of your creative ideas, you are going to have to suffer the “inflammation” that results. (Spirit communicator “Stephen” in PP, 239.)
You should always give birth to whatever ideas inspire you. You wouldn’t always want to put them out for society to view, but the birthing is very important. (Spirit communicator “Stephen” in PP, 239.)
Using what you have is the best way to obtain more. … Using what they have is what opens room for more to develop. Let me explain it this way: if you get a creative idea, and then write it down, or draw it, or put it in a piece of music, then you’ve made room for the next great idea, haven’t you? (Spirit communicator “Stephen” in PP, 240.)
If a person works at satisfying his healthy, honest curiosity about life, his efforts will also lead him to the Father. And soon, he’ll know that no matter what lead he’s following, he’s always find the Father at the end of it – and it’s so much fun finding Him! It’s such a great joy! And I think He enjoys it, too. (H.P. Blavatsky, BR, 44.)
Latent Tendencies, Life Patterns, Unfinished Business, Vasanas
The tendencies of any given life, the unexplained impulses and desires, are in nearly all cases brought over. (Judge David P. Hatch, LLDM, Letter XXII.)
In coming out a man brings his character and characteristics with him. (Judge David P. Hatch, LLDM, Letter XXVII.)
Since he bears in himself, not the memories of his past lives, but the tendencies (1) they have built into his being, his earth lives will be likely to show a typical pattern; he will tend to come up against the same order of problems and crises of fate in life after life even though each life may be set in a different era of world history and maybe in different countries or races. Ye his own particular pattern of response to environment and circumstance will recur unless and until he overcomes the weaknesses which invite it. While he continues to fail his tests, in fact, they will continue to recur.
I have heard of a man (2) who in life after life has been killed in battle during his youth. Never once has he been able to behave in such a way as to escape this fate. He has never known old age, nor will he do so until he can recognize and control the aggressive impulse at the moment of crisis and so conquer his fate. Then the pattern will take a different form and will be modified for good.
Another outcome of karma is the way in which each earth life recapitulates the pattern of those which have gone before in series as they originally occurred. If one thinks of it, one has always known that the embryo re-enacts every stage in human evolution and that birth takes place only when the fully human stage is reached. It now seems that re-capitulation goes on after birth as well, the pre-conscious lives being repeated during the early stages of infancy and later lives influencing the adolescent and the young man or woman. For instance, the phenomenal rate of growth of the head during early childhood may be a re-capitulation of a period of swift mental development during the early human phase. Later in life one can often observe sharply marked stages in the lives of men, sudden and unpredictable swervings aside from previous habits of life and behaviour, shown in changes of occupation and almost of temperament as each past life makes its influence felt. What a study is here! No wonder we spend so much time in our universities piecing together the evidence and trying to understand something of the wonderful processes at work. (T.E. Lawrence, PMJ, 92-4.)
(1) Hindus call these latent tendencies vasanas. They are the major barrier to enlightenment and thus to fulfillment of the purpose of life. See "Vasanas (Latent Tendencies),” here .
(2) Mitchell, Lawrence’s spirit guide, is the man he is talking about. See p. 99.
It’s helpful to become aware of the mechanics of the mind. There are many compartments of the mind that the average person is not familiar with. He is blind to them and so they seem obstructed to him. So it’s important to go through your mental attic and find out what’s there, how it got there, and what it’s to be used for. This is the great benefit of the mental housecleaning techniques you teach, although there are many other ways people discover the mechanics of the mind. Some do it on their own, some are helped by psychiatrists. Whatever impulse is the starting point, if the search is pursued seriously, it will eventually lead you to the pure awareness mechanism. You have to develop a methodology of the mind: how it works, what’s in there, how it got there, what has to be cleansed, and how best to use it. (Steward Edward White in PP, 207-8.)
Average people, of an earthy, material, greedy type, find themselves - they don’t quite know how – with similar people, once they have worked out their strong earth impressions (and this in itself may take centuries because it is far easier to impress a record on the mind than to erase it). It is all so difficult to explain. (Philip to his mother, Alice Gilbert, in PTW, 204. I have rearranged the order of the words in this quote for comprehensibility.)
It is much harder to snap out of any folly or obsession [here than in earth life]. (Philip to his mother, Alice Gilbert, in PTW, 222.)
I am realizing, in my work here, how much these mental ‘sound-tracks’ matter. It takes centuries to wear them out. I suppose they must wear out in Eternity, eventually. (Philip Gilbert in PTW, 217.)
Human emotion must be conquered if you wish to progress upon the Path. Weld it in your garment, enriching the fabric; begin to sew the fringe of gold. Eternity is your playground and your battlefield; cease to think and feel in the narrow limits of personality. (Unknown Teacher to Alice Gilbert in PTS, 85.)
There are old prejudices to be abandoned, old habits of thought to surmount, and these form a barrier [to spirit communication], and many souls never get their heritage on your side of the grave. They have to wait for the fuller revelation till they come here. (John Heslop, SABL, 44.)
If you widen your outlook while on earth, you have less to unlearn when you pass to this side. (John Heslop, SABL, 126.)
It is far easier to acquire this knowledge [of lessons unlearnt] in the earth surroundings than on this side, just as it is easier for a child to receive the groundwork of education, than for a man, when he tries to learn what was taught him vainly in his youth. (John Heslop, FMABL, 28-9.)
Q. Do you know how much I longed to write and thank you, when you were passing away, for all you had done for me? …
P. You have helped me more than you will ever realise till you too are on this side and someone is rendering you the same service. You have enabled me toforgive myself almost all my shortcomings, when you caused me to see what I had been in your life. And still you are helping me. (Spirit communicator Philemon, LFOS, 31-2.)
Q: Do spirits retain any human passion?
A: Elevated spirits, on quitting their bodily envelope, leave behind them the evil passions of humanity, and retain only the love of goodness. But inferior spirits retain their earthly imperfections. Were it not for this retention, they would be of the highest order.
Q: How is it that spirits, on quitting the earth, do not leave behind them all their evil passions, since they are then able to perceive the disastrous consequences of those passions?
A: You have among you persons who are, for instance, excessively jealous; do you imagine that they lose this defect at once on quitting your world? There remains with spirits, after their departure from the earthly life, and especially with those who have had strongly marked passions, a sort of atmosphere by which they are enveloped, and which kept up all their former evil qualities; for spirits are not entirely freed from the influence of materiality. It is only occasionally that they obtain glimpses of the truth, showing them, as it were, the true path which they ought to follow. (Unnamed spirit communicator to Allan Kardek in WASTAK, n.p.)
It is by no means impossible that a spirit may go on for ages honestly entertaining beliefs in themselves erroneous, though not pernicious. The guides see that other instruction is of more moment, and so the beliefs and opinions which have been formed in another state of being lie dormant.
But when such a spirit is brought again within the atmosphere of earth, all its old opinions, which have been dormant, are quickened into new life and come forth as of old. This is a necessary consequence of returning to the old associations, and is part of the same principle which causes the spirit to take on its old form and habit and even outward nature when it presents itself on the earth-plane again. You are familiar with the working of the same law. The flash of recollection when a chord is touched that has long ceased to vibrate; the memory recalled by a faded flower or a long-forgotten scene. This is why dormant error, not yet purged away, frequently becomes vivified and energetic when a spirit mingles again with old associations. (Spirit leader Imperator in MSTSW, n.p.)
Speaking Over Issues
We have all met people who have been deeply hurt by circumstances in their lives and some of these people do try to escape for a while into a state of artificial cheerfulness. They throw themselves into fun and game, if I may put it that way. They are laughing on the outside, but inside they are carrying a terrible burden. I’m not saying that these people are doing the wrong thing – they need to compensate. But it would be wrong to try to make a living at humor; their inner bitterness would show through. They would only be able to generate a sick type of humor, tinged with bitterness and sarcasm. They would not be truly entertaining and the mind of audience they might attract would probably be a little peculiar themselves. I would consider that an aberration of good humor. (Will Rogers in MTR, 68.)
Selfishness
Selfishness appears to us here as the foundation of all sin. It appears to be the root of all evil, and is insidious in its destruction of character. Selfishness may be only superficial or it may be deeply ingrained in the individual. The first may be overcome when true knowledge takes the place of vanity and superficiality the second is the foundation of so much evil that it is most debasing in effect, and most difficult to overcome. It masquerades often in fine dress, for many strive for beauty selfishly; make music and art a matter of personal pride; or adorn themselves with exquisite textures and priceless gems; and forget the deeper meaning of spiritual loveliness. The selfish use of wealth and power; lack of sympathy for the poor or suffering; pride; self-esteem:— all these, and many other manifestations of self love, are working toward spiritual atrophy. (Spirit control Mary Bosworth in SWSL, 137-8.)
Make it plainly known that selfishness embodies all other sins, for it is the yielding to self-love and self-indulgence that creates other sins. (Spirit control Mary Bosworth in SWSL, 10.)
Ultimate perfection can only be reached when all selfish desires have been overcome. (Jim McLean in LFM, 112.)
White: It’s very unpleasant to “see” elements such as greed and materialism in the spiritual body of people because you don’t see them as much as you interact with them. It’s not like you’re viewing a photograph which has no impact on you; you are being touched, at least to some degree, by the unpleasant elements themselves. This is true even if you are only picking up the sensation of these elements from a person walking by you on the street. Unfortunately, all too many people have these unpleasant elements in their character.
I would describe the sensation of perceiving these aspects of character as being something like feeling the rough bark of a tree. But it can be worse than that: many of these very materialistic people literally project psychic tentacles from their solar plexus, which they use to grasp the objects of their greed or lust. It’s extremely unpleasant to perceive these tentacles. Leichtman: That sounds like the equipment of the psychic vampire.
White: Yes, and you know from your own experience that you don’t just “see” these people – they come looking for you. They reach out psychically and drain away your energy, which can be very annoying. Now this is the invisible part of greed and lust; people don’t ordinarily see it, but it happens all the time.
Of course, the greed and lust are not always conspicuous. It’s the tendency to be very self-centred which leads these people to want to take your energy. (Stewart Edward White in PP, 202.)
[Selfishness] is the plague-spot of the spirit, that which wrecks more souls than you dream of. It is the very paralysis of the soul. And when to it is added this, … that the selfishness is passive, it becomes more fatal. There is a selfishness which is far less baleful in its poison, and which finds it counteracting power in activity, and which even becomes the spring of actions which have in them a form of good. There is a selfishness which causes a spirit to do well that it may have the good report of its fellows: and there is a selfishness which is content to do good so it be not vexed or troubled, which will yield to any influence, so it may escape anxiety. (Spirit leader Imperator in Moses, ST, 183.)
Lust
Beware of lust, beware of all sex attraction into which no spiritual or heart element enters. I have seen things that I would not wish to record, either through your hand or any other. (Judge David P. Hatch, LLDM, Letter XLIII.)
Nay more. The soul has cultivated habits that have become so engrained as to be essential parts of its individuality. The spirit that has yielded to the lusts of a sensual body becomes in the end their slave. It would not be happy in the midst of purity and refinement. It would sigh for its old haunts and habits. They are of its essence. (Spirit leader Imperator in Moses, ST, 26.)
[After death the individual] sees how the germ of truth is at the base, helped in some to progress by a receptive mind and a clearer spiritual vision; hampered and clogged in others by a cramped intelligence and a debased earth-body. (Spirit leader Imperator in Moses, ST, 70.)
Yes, [impurity] is the sin of all others that degrades man below the level of beasts, and places him on the plane with demons. It cuts him off from the ministry of angels and from his God more than any other sin. Rome fell through it; also Spain. France has fallen. England is fast following the same example. Oh, if men did but know; could have their spiritual eyes opened for a moment to see the hosts of angels waiting to minister to them to keep them from temptation. But they do not know, do not see till too late. (Spirit leader Imperator in Moses, MST, 27.)
This is spirit’s progress, and it may be said to be a process of regeneration, shortly typified by crucifixion and resurrection. The old man dies, the new man rises from his grave. The old man, with his lusts, is crucified; the new man is raised up to live a spiritual and holy life. It is regeneration of spirit that is the culmination of bodily life, and the process is crucifixion of self, a daily death, as Paul was wont to say. In the life of spiritual progress there should be no stagnation, no paralysis. It should be a growth and a daily adaptation of knowledge; a mortification of the earthly and sensual, and a corresponding development of the spiritual and heavenly. (Spirit leader Imperator in Moses, ST, 173.)
You must learn to cultivate the powers of your spirit, to subdue the flesh, and to rise above your earth surroundings; to view your external life only as the preparation for the inner and truer life. Ours is the reality, yours the shadow world. (Spirit leader Imperator in Moses, MSTSW, n.p.)
Greed
I have seen a miser counting over his gold, have seen the terrible eyes of the spirits which enjoyed the gold through him. For gold has a peculiar influence as a metal, apart from its purchasing power or the associations attached to it. Certain spirits love gold, even as the miser loves it, and with the same acquisitive, astringent passion. As it is one of the heaviest of metals, so its power is a condensed and condensing power.
I do not mean by this that you should beware of gold. Get all you can use, for it is useful; but do not gloat over it. One does not attract the avaricious spirits merely by owning the symbols of wealth—houses and lands and stocks and bonds, or even a moderate amount of coin; but I advise you not to hoard coins to gloat over. (Judge David P. Hatch, LLDM, Letter XLIII.)
Anger and Hatred
If you entertain the thought of hatred without doing something to neutralize it, it’s damaging. It leaves scars on the hater as well as the “hatee.” (H.P. Blavatsky, BR, 40.)
Entertaining hatred and anger, you know, creates karmic imbalances that have to be straightened out in another time. (H.P. Blavatsky, BR, 40.)
When man is excited, exalted, or in any way intensified in his emotional life, the spirits draw near to him. … That is why anger grows with what it feeds upon.
And this last is the point which I want to drive home to your consciousness. When you lose your temper you lose a great deal, among other things the control of yourself, and it is barely possible that another entity may momentarily assume control of you.
This subjective world, as I have called it, is full of hateful spirits. They love to stir up strife, both here and on earth. They enjoy the excitement of anger in others, they are thrilled by the poison of hatred; as certain men revel in morphine, so they revel in all inharmonious passion.
Do you see the point and the danger? A small seed of anger in your heart they feed and inflame by the hatred in their own. It is not necessarily hatred of you as an individual, often they have no personal interest in you; but for the purpose of gratifying their evil passion they will attach themselves to you temporarily. Other illustrations are not far to seek.
A man who has the habit of anger, even of fault-finding, is certain to be surrounded by evil spirits. I have seen a score of them around a man, thrilling him with their own malignant magnetism, stirring him up again when by reaction he would have cooled down. Sometimes the impersonal interest in mere strife becomes personal; an angry spirit here may find that by attaching himself to a certain man he is sure to get every day a thrill or thrills of angry excitement, as his victim continually loses his temper and storms and rages. This is one of the most terrible misfortunes which can happen to anybody. Carried to its ultimate, it may become obsession, and end in insanity. (Judge David P. Hatch, LLDM, Letter XLIII.)
“Sin”
Forget, if you can, the sins you have committed in the flesh. You cannot escape the effects of those causes; but you can avoid strengthening the tie with sin, you can avoid going back to earth self-hypnotized with the idea that you are a sinner.
Do not brood over sin. It is true that you can exhaust the impulse to sin by dwelling on it until your soul is disgusted; but that is a slow and an unpleasant process. The short-cut of forgetfulness is better. (Judge David P. Hatch, LLDM, Letter L.)
Domination
Many people, when they come to the astral world, experience a great deal of turmoil and distress because they have been too positive and too dogmatic in their earthly lives and have tried to impose that dogmatism on other people. I think you can find, if you will think about it and look back at your own lives, that there are times when you wish you hadn’t been so forceful in persuading someone to do something. When one does this, he is cutting across a divinely-given attribute of each person, which is free will. (A.D. Mattson, WOB, 75.)
Loneliness Can Be a Positive Sign
Aloneness is not loneliness if you make it a garment of union with the ONE. (Philip Gilbert in ITE, 68.)
Hand-in-glove with all your confusion is a paralyzing sense of loneliness. This is a direct result of the altered course of your polarity. Confronted by the positive mental polarity, the once-positive astral polarity has begun to founder. …
This forsaken loneliness is not something new. It has been suffered by every brother determined enough to set foot upon the Path. He must of necessity regress five miles into the negative, in order to advance six miles into the positive. As you are now entering the Great Brotherhood of Man, or the “Brotherhood of Light,” you will plow your way into an isolated bank of loneliness before you can claim equality with the emancipated company of which you are now a junior member.
One begins the ascent of the Path under the chaotic conditions caused by the switch in polarity; so one will be overwhelmed by loneliness. Be prepared for this, good brother. You are lonely, you will stand alone. Nobody (so you will think) understands the crisis you find yourself in.
This is good. Before a pilot is trusted with large commercial aircraft, he must succeed in a series of solo flights.
Before you can qualify as one of the great Brotherhood of / Light, you too must learn to take your life in your hands and mould it until it responds with perfect obedience. When that happens, your suffocating sense of desolation will be replaced by the companionship of the Brotherhood; which in its turn will lead to the warmth and protection of your Father. (Mike Swain to his father, Jasper, FMW, 88-9.)
The ultimate goal of this Path is reunion with God Eternal, not the complete annihilation of yourself. It is akin to a drop of water placed in the ocean. It merges with the whole of that ocean and yet it still retains its independence; you can always take that drop out of the ocean again. (Mike Swain, FMW, 89.)
This intense loneliness is only the necessary separation of you from the meaningless ebb and flow of mortal life. As you progress along the Path, you will learn how to blend yourself into your surroundings. From that moment on, you will never again be lonely.
But at this stage, good brother, loneliness is essential to your development. Accept it with good cheer because it is living proof that you have risen above the confines of the common herd. That alone is enough to make you feel you now live in an empty void. (Mike Swain to his father, Jasper, 89.)
It is up to that relatively small segment of society to recognize that it is their goodwill, their idealism, and their leadership which must be the source of this transformation. It is up to a few people to promote and foster the concepts of goodwill, brotherhood, tolerance, fairness, cooperation and being a good neighbor. Not everyone has the opportunity to be influential on a worldwide basis, but every single man and woman of goodwill does have the opportunity to promote and foster these ideals in their neighborhoods, communities, businesses, or professions. And, if the seeds can be sown at those levels, they will take root and spread on a national and international scale.
That answer may sound vague and unworkable, but it is how society evolves. (Sir Winston Churchill in POG, 232.)
A legitimate sign of progress might be an internal upheaval in a country that has abused human rights and freedom for a long time. That would be a sign that tyrants of that country are no longer able to get away with as much as they have been. (Sir Winston Churchill in POG, 233.)
The way in which a society treats its heroes and heroines is virtually an index to the health of that society. … To me, a hero is someone who makes a lasting and enduring contribution to civilization – a contribution which enriches life and helps people aspire to something better. (Sir Winston Churchill in POG, 242.)
Right now, we have an international climate of selfishness, where countries are more interested in preserving their own advantages and gaining new ones than they are in cooperating with one another toward common goals. This is true even among friendly nations. (Sir Winston Churchill in POG, 230.)
A hundred years ago, perhaps even seventy-five, the nations of the world could afford to be independent of one another to a large degree; they could be isolated. We can’t do that nowadays. For the economy and the technical growth of civilization to unfold properly, there must be an unselfish sharing of economic resources, natural resources, and scientific knowledge. No one can afford to remain isolated and uncooperative.
Personally, however, I am rather pessimistic about this happening. One can speak idealistically, and talk about what is possible and what is necessary – and it is practical for this generation to achieve this type of cooperation – but one must also be realistic. Do I see it happening? No. (Sir Winston Churchill in POG, 231.)
The cooperation I am speaking of would bind together common needs and interests of nations all over the planet.
This would not be some kind of “United States of the World,” with a global parliament or senate and a super prime minister who was chief executive of it all. That kind of governmental structure for the world is out of the question for a very long time to come. In fact, it would be unwieldy and unworkable in anything but a world populated by saints – and, if you had that, you wouldn’t need the trappings of government. (Sir Winston Churchill in POG, 230.)
Homogenizing the world community of nations is quite undesirable because the different societies and countries of the earth are at different stages of evolution, as you well know. They serve different purposes and therefore have different needs, resources, capacities and cultures. For a long, long time to come, there will be a need for separate countries with distinct identities and cultures. (Sir Winston Churchill in POG, 229.)
The ultimate solution, I’m afraid, is thousands of years in the future. (Sir Winston Churchill in POG, 232.)
It is very difficult to impose freedom militarily. Philosophically, it is hard to defend the invasion of another country in the name of freedom, even if the people of that country are being suppressed by a system of government which does not permit human freedom. Over the next few centuries, therefore, the world is going to become much more aware that freedom has to be established from within. It cannot be imposed from without. Those who have free governments cannot expect to impose a democratic system on a people. … Freedom can be taken away by force, even if it cannot be given by force. (Sir Winston Churchill in POG, 248.) There is a… a kind of miniature hierarchy of very enlightened people in spirit who seek to guide the government in an enlightened way. This is where the mystical fellowship of men and women of goodwill genuinely has its existence. (Sir Winston Churchill in POG, 244.)
We spirits are not a democracy but a hierarchy – an ordered grade of beings, ascending beyond our capacity even here to follow its upward ranges. But there is no injustice. Each occupies / its position by reason of capacity and fitness. Democracy on earth will fail unless it becomes a brotherhood [of] older and younger brothers. (Philemon [Archdeacon Wilberforce] in LFOS, 28.)
Place of Political Satire
It’s very easy to become isolated and get out of touch. Human beings who are the center of a lot of power are generally pampered and lose touch with their humanity to some degree, no matter how much of an attempt is made not to let that happen. It is the nature of power. Power is protected and so there has to be a way to get through to the power centers and help them remember that they are human just like the rest of us. No one is greater than human and no one is less than human; we are all trying to cope in the same world.
That’s why I say there is no substitute for good political satire. (Will Rogers in MTR, 54.)
Patriotism Still Holds
Patriotism still holds with me, as with most of us, and will continue to hold so long as I have personal ties upon earth. When there are no longer any of these personal ties remaining, my interests will gradually and naturally turn more exclusively to this side among my own people, and my place will be filled by another—and so the race goes on—always moving forward, progressing and evolving. (W.T. Stead, BI, 138.)
You know, my child, we do not lose our nationality or our love for the old country when we come over here. (Mother of F. Heslop in FMABL, 87.)
Patriotic Interpretations of War
Philanthropy for its own sake has not been an outstanding characteristic of Poles, Russians, etc., whereas in the British Empire and U.S.A., this spirit of social responsibility is definitely developing. That’s why we won the war, because of the power of the creative Force, which works as always to dispel the vacuum which is negation.
Whatever our weaknesses, greed, and folly, we were fighting for ‘right’ against ‘wrong,’ but because of the considerable proportion of ‘wrong’ in us, the fight was not easy – it cost us ‘blood and tears.’ (Philip to his mother, Alice Gilbert, in PTW, 235-6.)
Civilization
Civilization is the product of mankind’s continuing effort to bring heaven to earth. It is the product of the collective effort of the spirits of all humanity as they interact with the environment of the earth. In your teachings and writings, you tell people that the individual personality is the product of an interaction between his spirit and his environment. Well, civilization is the product of the same kind of interaction on a collective level. It is really the creative self-expression of the whole of mankind.
That which enriches and sustains and organizes civilization is the capacity to bring heaven to earth, through our social institutions and our art, certain themes which preserve and protect the life of our wisdom, our knowledge, our science, and our philosophy; the life of our compassion, our goodwill, our kindness, our affection, and our charity; and the life of our joy and delight and beauty. (Rembrandt, RR, 36.)
In the holy scriptures it says: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Good artists play a very important role in perceiving, translating, and revealing the vision civilization needs so that it does not perish. There are others who do this too; I won’t be so bold as to say that we’re the only ones. But the work of artists is very important to civilization, and I’m quite serious about this. I will be bold enough to say that a civilization cannot and will not survive unless the artists of that civilization are able to flourish. Artists keep alive human creativity and innovativeness. They are a channel along which new inspiration, beauty, and life can enter a culture. (Rembrandt, RR, 35.)
Problems in Times Past
Obstacles! You know not what [obstacles] are compared with what we have had to endure in times past. Had you lived on earth in the later days of Rome’s imperial sway, when everything spiritual had fled in horror from a realm steeped in debauchery, sensuality, and all that is base and bad, you would have known then what the banded powers of darkness can effect. The coldness was the coldness of despair: the darkness was the gloom of the sepulchre.
The body, the body was all: and the guardians fled in dismay from a scene on which they could not gaze, and whose pangs they could not alleviate. Faithlessness there was indeed, and worse. The world scorned us and our efforts, laughed at all virtue, derided the Supreme, mocked at immortality, and lived but to eat and drink and wallow in the mire—the degraded, down-stricken animals they had made themselves. Ah, yes! Say not that evil is invincible when the power of God and of His Spirits has prevailed to cleanse even such a sink as that. (Spirit leader Imperator in Moses, ST, 24.)
Reports of a New Age
Earth is ending – or nearing the end - of a cosmic day which in this case synchronizes with the end of an Age and the entrance into the Aquarian Age. Such times are always times of great distress and unawareness. (Sir Ronald Fraser in AL, 175.)
There are so many new forces about to be unleashed that we all long to warn you. Conserve your mental and physical energy. It will be needed. (Sir Ronald Fraser in AL, 175.)
Angelic beings assist at the birth and development of these new worlds. They build up the conditions necessary for the ultimate production of life, though this process may take millions of years. At first the lowest forms only are produced. Gradually they rise in capacity till the world is ready for the highest intelligences.
It was so in your world and the angels are still working, as they have been since its inception. Recently they have begun a further and higher work. As a race you will rise, till in very truth it will become for you a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. (John Heslop to his wife, F. Heslop, SABL, 136-7.)
You are now in the midst of the crisis. As always happens before there is a birth, there is much pain. The birth of the new order means much pain. Even when the new order comes, there will be growing pains.
But there has been planted in your world a seed that will grow and the efforts of those in high places to destroy the seed will fail. It was said, a long time ago, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” That is going to happen.
There will be many big changes. There will be break-ups and there will be many upheavals. There will be what you think is darkness and difficulty. You will say, “Things are worse.” But, all the time, there is behind it all a power which is making for the progress of the world.
There are many of us who have been allowed by those who are higher and above us to see your world as it will be one day. That conception we try to transmit to those who are receptive, to inspire them to go on with their w0rk. The pictures I have seen make your present world more ugly than it is. I see what it could be like – and what it must be like. It is only a question of time.
One day, there will arise a new race that will recognize that all politics, religion, science and knowledge are part of one thing. Then pain, sorrow, fear, mourning and unhappiness will be banished and your world will be a place of smiles and happy laughter. …
You have tried to build a world where, when one man has something, instead of using it to help the others, he tries to keep it for himself, with the result that in time he makes a system that must collapse because its foundations are wrong.
When you have people who develop their gifts, which all come from the Great Spirit, and use them for the benefit of all the others, then there will be built a system founded on that which is eternal. (Silver Birch, TSB, 42-3.)
I do not care by what name you call the dawn of the new world, but it is the world of the Great Spirit coming into fulfillment, accompanied by His power, and the service of all faithful hearts who seek but to bring new joy, new life, new happiness into the world of matter, so that there shall cease coming into our world the wrecks of yours. (Silver Birch, TSB, 44.)
The New Age of Aquarius [is] now dawning on the world. …
Yet, even as indeed we may be the Elder Brethren of your human race, and able to view the present trauma of your planet with detachment, still our duty and our joy is to release to your worlds some ray of that Divine Purpose by which all creation moves to its ascendancy.
Such a moment in the plan for your cosmos is now immanent. These powerful vibrations of truth will make ingress into man’s mind and heart as the Living Water of the Aquarian Age is poured out upon all mankind, in the centuries when, following these tribulations of retribution for past cruelties, remorse for lost opportunities, and the dismal errors of the substitution of temporal power and affluence for Spiritual Grace, have been purged from all nations. (Spirit teacher called “Elder Brother” in Helen Greaves, LW, 117.)
Oh, Closed Minds, open to the revelation of the Divine Law! Fulfil the teachings of the Great Ones; accept the Living Water of Truth into your minds in preparation for the New Age of the revelation of the Spirit! (Spirit teacher called “Elder Brother” in Helen Greaves, LW, 117.)
The time is coming, and coming fast, when there will be a reconstruction of the religion of the churches. Creeds will largely go, and love and service take their place. (Spirit Control Mary Bosworth to Charlotte E. Dresser, LHH, 87.)
We are a band of workers and wish to add our knowledge. We wait not only in hope, but in certainty; for we go far and near and see all sides of the work among many people and many nationalities. There is a slow dawning of a great day. It is coming, coming surely; and we can watch it from afar. (Unnamed spirit in LHH, 84.)
What they tell me on all sides, and especially my dear guides, is that the time is come when there is to be a great spiritual awakening among the nations and that the agency which is to bring this about is the sudden and conclusive demonstration, in every individual case which seeks for it, of the reality of the spirit, of the permanence of the soul, and the immanence of the Divine. (Julia Ames, AD, 49.)
Do you understand how different life would be there if all would try to give as well as to receive; if all would learn to serve unselfishly the world in which they live, and learn the higher happiness of spiritual thought and life? The coming of the new age is not for one or for two to bring in, but rather the mighty influence from here moving through the spiritually discerning ones there. (Unnamed spirit communicator to Charlotte Dresser, SWSL, 9.)
Ye know not how great is the work that is being done; how vast the vista that is being opened. Never before has there been such an outpouring of Divine Love as now. Silent influences are at work in men’s minds. All over the world they are being prepared to receive the teaching we are giving you here. Should it be necessary for the furtherance of this mission other great Intelligences will return, and bring their magnetic force to bear upon the earth.
At present it is not needed, as the work is progressing. You are living in one of the remarkable epochs of the earth. The old creed must die before the new can be received; but it will die hard, as round it still linger the associations of many ages; but it is fast dying out, never to live again. Happy are ye, living in this age, and learning these new truths, if ye rightly appreciate and use the blessing. (Spirit Teacher Imperator in Moses, MST, 14.)
There is a wedge now being driven in to open the door between the two worlds of matter and spirit, and I love to feel that I may be a tiny splinter of that wedge. / …
At present the earth is enveloped in what looks like a thick grey mist caused by the thoughts of cruelty, rage, grief, and pain that are continually outpouring. (Claude Kelway-Bamber in CB, 23.)
Today, chaos reigns. Chaos in all forms and in international patterns. … But evolution is of the soul. It is a pressing forward to greater heights of spiritual enlightenment and acceptance of the great cosmic love that yearns for expression. (Unnamed Master of the Brotherhood of Light in LFM, 125.)
Every vibration on the earth has been stepped up because you now stand at the threshold of a new era. Men are reaping the harvest of their sowing. Those who have sown violence will reap violence. Those who have sown peace will reap peace. For the harvest must be shared by all mankind; no man standing alone in his guilt, nor in his glory. Each is a fragment of the whole.
Yet, my beloved, all is not lost, for I would reveal to you that within the law is yet a greater law, the law of transmutation. Many are they amongst you who have returned to earth at this time of crisis to enact the law’s fulfillment, as a voluntary service to all their brothers.
Had mankind accepted and understood the teachings of the Master Jesus, the plan for your earth would have taken a vastly different course and the advance to perfection have been achieved with greater speed. However, mankind proceeded, unheedingly, upon a materialistic course, largely losing touch with the spiritual life-line of soul communion with the inner presence.
Thus the harvest of their folly is upon them, but with the crumbling of the material edifice that they have built, the dross will be burnt away and the clear light of truth revealed. This will not be accomplished without suffering, yet, my beloved, much may be accomplished by those amongst / you who have perceived the power of spirit, to turn the tide of disaster. (Unnamed Master of the Brotherhood of Light in LFM, 126-7.)
As you have perceived, there is, in the minds of men on earth, an inner urgency, seeking outlet. In many, it takes strange forms of violence and perversion, alternating with the noblest intentions and ideals. This condition, you will observe, is greatly on the increase today. The perceptions of men are quickened through the outpourings of cosmic power and this power may be used for good or evil. Frequently, both qualities are manifested in the individual, in equal strength.
Only by courage and understanding may men be helped by those of you who have chosen this work. You must raise yourselves above emotion and hold man’s divine essence up to the clear field of cosmic power. It is not enough to direct rays of perfection to earth bodies, for this dense material fog deflects the power and much is lost. Yet divine power is ever invincible. (Unnamed Master of the Brotherhood of Light in LFM, 127.)
Instruments are needed now, as never before in the history of your planet. Indeed, this is a momentous year and marks a beginning and an end of an era of evolution in the cosmic spheres, which will have repercussions, not only on earth, but in many planets and other planes of thought and action far beyond your understanding or imagining. There has been a vast concentration of energy from the cosmic spheres, which has been / brought to a focal point at this time.
A large measure of this energy has been and will be directed to mankind at your stage of evolution, both on your planet and to others in galaxies far removed. This we do not ask you to attempt to understand, for the reasons are beyond your comprehension. But we do ask that you should direct your thoughts upward in seeking for higher levels of attainment and that you should open your hearts and minds to the divine flow of cosmic energy. It is thus that the God Consciousness within you will be awakened to a realization of the encompassing love and compassion of the Divine Spirit and self-realization will be attained.
Tread fearlessly on the path for though thousands may fall to the right and to the left of you, if you will but keep your minds single to the truth, no harm shall come nigh you.
Go forward in confidence, my beloved. Listen to the still small voice within and be guided accordingly. (Unnamed Master of the Brotherhood of Light in LFM, 127-8.)
Reports of New Teachings
Ed. See also Imperator’s teachings of a ”New Revelation”.
There is a new teaching coming out. It’s going to come from fresh sources. This is the nice thing about the differences in generations – fresh sources can come along. So let’s not call it yoga, although I think Alice used that particular term, and I did too. We meant something that is not literally yoga – not Hatha Yoga or Raja Yoga or Kundalini Yoga or any of the specific forms of yoga. It will be a new teaching that is distinctly Aquarian, distinctly western, distinctly new, distinctly open, distinctly clear, distinctly scientific – and I hope distinctly humorous too. (H.P. Blavatsky, BR, 72.)
Reports of the Second Coming of Christ
[Like Fletcher, Arthur Ford’s former spirit control] I must still be oblique about [this subject]. There is at this time, and you have some awareness of this, developing a man who will become the Christ of this age. Many of us who have gotten information on this, and have published material on it, intentionally garbled it to protect the person who is going to do this important work. …
And there will be more of this sort of thing happening, because humanity is vaguely aware that something momentous is about to transpire. The real man I’m talking about is living. He is above the age of reason and can vote and make decisions for himself, but it is not yet time for him to start his ministry. When he does things are going to be difficult enough for him without a lot of prior advertising.
Look now at the people who claim to be Jesus Christ. All you can do is laugh and say, “Oh, God help us!” The man I’m talking about is going to encounter problems of this nature – except that he is going to come in a very unusual way. The events are not going to be similar to the career of Jesus and the start of His ministry. (Arthur Ford, PP, 102-3.)
The reason you’re seeing so many second comings of Jesus, second comings of Buddha, and even the rise of black magic and Satanism is because humanity is vaguely aware that something big is going to happen. When someone says, “Oh, I’m Mary Magdalene” or “I’m Jesus,” this is just a very strange response to genuine impelling forces.
Humanity is tuning in, more or less consciously, to these particular forces coming from within, from the inner planes, at this time. This is one of the reasons why there is such a rise in the interest in psychic phenomena, after all – because we are all making ready for the reappearance of the Christ. Jesus only had one harbinger, but the Christ of the New Age is going to have several million harbingers.
As you know, several of the people who were associated with Jesus during His life have now reincarnated. They don’t advertise it, but these people are genuine. (Arthur Ford, PP, published in 1978, 103-4.)
Whenever there has been an avatar, there has been a lifting of the vibration of the whole human race. You can look for that and much more. The physical plane is rapidly moving into the fourth dimension. Part of the avatar’s work is to raise the consciousness of the planet so that this particular transition can be made. That is the first thing that will happen.
You’re going to be noticing within your lifetimes that some things are not working quite like they used to, and this will be an indication that this transition is happening.
At the same time there will be an increasing awareness of some of the inhabitants of the inner side of life – entities such as elves, angels, and spooks. This will be another indication of what is happening.
The major work of the coming avatar is to lay the foundation for a truly spiritual civilization based on a clarification of ancient wisdom and a new revelation. He will guide us up the next evolutionary step for mankind, which is basically what every avatar comes to do. …
I don’t think he will be working through the framework of traditional Christianity any more than Jesus Christ worked through the traditional framework of Judaism. He will probably have his beginnings there, because that will be the predominant religion of whatever community he is in. However, I’m sure he will go beyond it. We forget that Buddha began in the Hindu religion and broke through the traditional framework for that and created something new, too. (Arthur Ford in PP, 104-5.)
My Beloved, I want to tell you that I am busy with some new work for God., It is not very easy to explain, but it is all connected with the opening of reservoirs of Spiritual Power, which will ultimately flood your world as the waters now cover the channels of the deep.
Many are associated with me in this work and I can best describe it as a gathering up of the pure Essence of Prayer and Love, ever rising heavenward from your earth and these spheres and forging them into bands of “Divine Energy.” Then we direct them as rays of illumination into the prepared hearts of mankind.
Already the effect of our work is becoming evident in the awakening of the people to perceive Spiritual truth. This is, however, only the first … of the outpouring that is to follow.
Homes are being formed in every part of the world, where those who so love the Christ may meet and, by mutual sympathy, strengthen and help one another. At this critical time you are not only fighting against flesh and blood, but against unseen spiritual wickedness, and these enemies of the truth ever seek to draw down those who aspire to show forth the Christ-Spirit in their daily lives.
But do not be afraid of the present conditions of evil and unrest, the Christ is coming, and then everything will fall into its rightful place. The Christ is coming! Let all the earth keep silence before Him!
To those who have attained the Spiritual vision he is already visible and from every part of the world will they greet Him and evil and evil-doers will flee away from the Light of His Presence. Then will He reign upon the earth in Righteousness and Truth. Pray continually that the day of His Coming may be hastened for we here are also working to this end. The joy and glory of that Reign of Peace will far exceed anything you can dimly imagine.
But I cannot tell you how heavy our work is just now; there are so many evil forces around your world, which must be counteracted or transmuted. It is a transition period of vital moment to all those who dwell on earth and to the many planes and spheres which impinge upon it. Legions of Angels are employed to uplift and purify so that the Christ may come and reign in your midst. Keep you faith strong in the Second Coming of the Christ. (John Heslop, FMABL, 82-4.
You must try not to get too depressed about the difficulties that still exist; they will pass away in God’s good time for the Christ’s Reign of Peace is at hand. (Mother to F. Heslop in FMABL, 87.)
My special work on earth just now is in helping to prepare the way for the Coming again of the Christ and His Reign of Peace and Love, for He is coming and you are all helping to make the conditions necessary for His reception.
He is never far from the soul that loves Him and to such He frequently shows Himself. But what you are longing for is – His Visibility to all – so that everyone must see and acknowledge Him. When the time is ripe, that is coming too, for never did the earth so need Him as it does now. This is the “end of the time” spoken of in the New Testament, so pray and pray that these days may be shortened, as we too pray for you here. (“Stella,” FMABL, 112.)
Not only is the Christ coming, but He is actually now in your midst, and here and there are those who see and feel Him and thus know that this is true. Now, those to whom this certainty is given will also be permitted the joy of welcoming the Christ, when His Presence becomes more fully known upon the earth. (J. W. Sharpe, M.A., in FMABL, 134.)
What an honour to assist in preparing the way for His Feet! Rise to this Noble Mission, be worthy of this Great Honour, and, as you dwell upon it, the darkness will flee away and the sunshine from these brighter spheres will flood your soul. (J. W. Sharpe, M.A., in FMABL, 134-5.)
I have before said that I derive my mission, and am influenced in my work, by a spirit who has passed beyond the spheres of work into the higher heaven of contemplation. Jesus Christ is now arranging His plans for the gathering in of His people, for the further revelation of the truth, as well as for the purging away of the erroneous beliefs which have accumulated in the past.
I have heard something of this from other sources. Is this then the return of Christ?
It is the spiritual return. There will be no such physical return as man has dreamed of. This will be the return to His people, by the voice of His Messengers speaking to those whose ears are open; even as He Himself said, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear; he that is able to receive it, let him receive it.”
Is this message coming to many?
Yes, to many it is being made known that God is now specially influencing man at this epoch. We may not say more. (“Imperator” in Moses, ST, 109-10.)
[Stainton Moses] asks about the Second Coming of the Christ.
You must be warned not to attach too great importance to the wording of records which are, in many cases, obscure and erroneous; which record the vague impressions of men who frequently did not understand what was being said to them; which have been badly translated, and which must frequently convey erroneous impressions. With these restrictions, there is much that the Lord Jesus spoke of in the days of His Incarnation which is finding its fulfillment now, especially as regards the general outlook for a new revelation; even as in His own days on earth, and as regards His return to your world.
The return, then, is purely spiritual?
It is. The return of the Lord Jesus to your earth is in process amongst you. He operates by His intermediary agencies; though He Himself may personally come to influence men if it be necessary; but not in the flesh. This is the age of spirit, and the influence is spiritual. The influence is akin to what it was in the days of the Incarnation. /
On the Mount of Transfiguration He talked visibly with those potent spirits through whom the channel of influence had been given; and who have been, and who are, intimately associated with this and all other similar movements. They - Moses and Elias - acting under the commands of the Lord, inspire and direct this movement. You will see then why we have spoken of it as religious.
Armageddon, the mystic conflict between good and evil in the world, is being fought out. And, in your midst, for the eye of faith to see, stands the Risen Christ. It was to prepare His way that we returned and spoke to men. It was to pave the way, not, indeed, for the material manifestation of the arisen Jesus, but for the spiritual return of the Christ that we came to earth.
Learn, friend, that it is not the Jesus of history, but the Christ-principle that is revived among men. Divest your mind of materialistic ideas, and learn the mystic truth.
The return of the Christ, which the world has confounded with the second advent of Jesus, is solely the resurrection and re-development of the principle of which the Christ was the incarnate representation.
It was not the first time, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, that the principle which He represented was manifested among men. In all ages, and among all people, God has taught them of Himself. The popular notion of the coming Messiah took form and shape from the words of ancient prophecy. Here, then, you see the prevalent error as to the method by which it was to be inaugurated. It is the same with you in this present day.
You have the same expectation of a new dispensation; the same misconception as to its real character. The Jew looked for his second Solomon who should regain for him the splendour and prosperity which had departed from him. The Christian looks for his Lord to come in the air, attended by legions of angels, to inaugurate a reign of universal peace and glory in which he hopes to have his full share. As the Jews found it hard to believe that the meek and lowly son of the carpenter was the monarch they desired, so your wise men find it hard to fancy that the truth which is everywhere spoken against is, in very deed, the Gospel of the Risen Christ. The dispensation of the Spirit is being evolved amongst you; the reign of the Comforter; the development of the highest truth that men can know. No open establishment of an earthly kingdom, but the silent setting up of a spiritual one.
The Christ-principle which we declare is that return of the Christ which His followers expect; only it is spiritual, whereas their ideas are earthly and material.
I gather that Jesus Himself has not appeared on earth, but may do so.
Not the man Jesus as He was. He has passed beyond the state when that would be possible.
More as an influence?
Yes, as a spiritual effluence from the higher spheres, temporarily concentrated on you. His work is done by us, who have more power to abide with you. All this strife that surrounds you is the sign of the conflict that attends the new development of Truth. The birth-throes of Truth are ever accompanied by pain and distress.
The little that is projected on the material plane is but the shadow of the real spiritual work which is going on ceaselessly in the domain of spirit. It is there that our operations centre. We labour to throw round you spiritual conditions of harmony and peace. The world of spirit is the world of cause; and what you now deplore is but a faint shadow of the strife that rages in it.
We are passing through an epoch in which great efforts are being made by the adversaries. The powers antagonistic to us vex and harm us and you. Just as great and noble ideas have their inception in the world of spirit, so it is with the disturbing influences which work among you evil and unrest. They are all spiritual. (Spirit teacher, possibly Imperator, possibly not, in Moses, MST, 55-7.)
Christ has passed into the spheres of Contemplation; but He may personally return when our work is completed. But much must be accomplished before the harvest will come, and the time of sowing and growth will be long. Ye know not how great is the work that is being done; how vast the vista that is being opened. Never before has there been such an outpouring of Divine Love as now. Silent influences are at work in men’s minds. All over the world they are being prepared to receive the teaching we are giving you here. Should it be necessary for the furtherance of this mission other great Intelligences will return, and bring their magnetic force to bear upon the earth. At present it is not needed, as the work is progressing. You are living in one of the remarkable epochs of the earth. The old creed must die before the new can be received; but it will die hard, as round it still linger the associations of many ages; but it is fast dying out, never to live again. Happy are ye, living in this age, and learning these new truths, if ye rightly appreciate and use the blessing. (Spirit leader Imperator in Moses, MST, 13-4.)
The Christ has recently returned from the Spheres of Contemplation, and is now specially acting on your world.
Since we last spoke with you a crisis has taken place in the Spheres of Contemplation, and they have now been placed in communication with us. The highest spirits have again undertaken active mission work in your world. Be patient, earnest and prayerful, seeking for the Truth, and ever regarding the army of spirits as the messengers of the Supreme, who are now camped around you. (Spirit leader Imperator in Moses, MSTTT, n.p.)
We can do so much more with your planet besides just looting and despoiling; and for that reason I am hoping that a moment will soon come when other beings will join you on earth to show and to demonstrate another way of living. I want you to reach out in thought to these greater beings by asking the Christ to bring his Christed ones within the earth vision. This is the plan for which we must prepare. It has been called the Second Coming. But it is not in the least like the original Coming of Christ. This will happen at first slowly, and all over the world people will appear possessing great dynamic force and power.
They will not command. They will keep in step with all of you in all the different walks of life, but slowly, gently, they will impress the love ray, and their gentle influence will be felt and guarded. Take this into your conscious mind and hold yourself alert to meeting, as you may well do, one of these advanced beings. The earth is ripe for this event and there are an increasing number of awakened ones now in the body. See that the number grows and do not lose heart because of the apparent futility of your efforts. (Father Andrew Glazewski in AL, 95.)
Risks to Enlightened Beings of Reincarnting
Even though we are less barbaric than we were two thousand years ago, it is very difficult for enlightened beings to incarnate in the world today. It is quite a risk for them to incarnate. (Paramahansa Yogananda in POG, 126.)
Warnings to Nations
Nations and peoples, like individuals, sooner or later reap what they themselves have sown of good and evil; and knowing this, one realizes that no life, nor the life of any nation, is a succession of disconnected events. There is a sequence running through them all. They fit into each other like the pieces of a puzzle, though one only sees it clearly as a whole when life on earth is over and the last piece has fitted into its place. (Claude Kelway-Bamber in CB, 104.)
They are not new things that we try to teach you. They are the old, old truths that those who have seen with the eyes of spirit have taught you for many, many years. But you have neglected them and so it is necessary to teach them to you once again, to show you that you must learn the lessons of the Great Spirit. You have nearly destroyed your world by the follies of your own ideas.
Your world must get back to the Great Spirit and His laws. It is coming back. Slowly, I can see how the laws of the Great Spirit are coming into fulfillment.
What you must try to learn is that the bounty of the Great Spirit must be properly divided amongst the people. You have people who have too little to eat and you have people with too much to eat. That of course must be wrong. You have to divide the things you have among the people you have. Is not that simple?
You must break down vested interests. The laws are perfect. If you live your own life, seeking only to serve others, then because of that the Great Spirit operates through you. That applies to you and it applies to all. (Silver Birch, TSB, 43.)
Sometimes the higher forces of life work very diligently to fertilize the minds of certain personalities with wonderful new ideas or at least the seed of discovery which, when planted, will lead to a new invention, concept, or practice of benefit to humanity. These higher forces are like the parents of civilization. Now obviously, parents do more than just teach their children what to do. They supervise the play activities of the children and protect them from getting into too much mischief. The parents of civilization do much the same. In my work, some of these entities assisted me in making sure some of my ideas were never perfected – or, if perfected, then never written down.
I might say the same type of supervision still goes on today, especially in such areas of science as nuclear physics, the space program, and laser technology. Certain possible areas of investigation would not be safely explored at this time and so scientists are kept from exploring them and diverted into safer areas. (Nikola Tesla in NTR, 75-6.)
You are apt to think that, because God has singled you out as the leading nation of the earth, He is bound to maintain you in this position. This is not so. His standard must be one of truth, purity, and righteousness. If you fail to bear it aloft, He will take it from you and give it to a nation more worthy than you. (John Heslop to his wife, F. Heslop, SABL, 110.)
You know by your own experience that, when the trial has come, you have always received the needed strength. Now apply this to the nation and it is just as true there. God reigneth. Above all party strife there is the divine hand of power and the divine plan. … Trust in God fully and completely and pray for your native land, that God will bring it out of its present perplexity and deliver it. (John Heslop, SABL, 129.)
There is [today] a strong desire to exclude all reference to spirit as a factor in human existence: to refer all to matter, and crush out all seeking into spirit intercourse and the spirit life is at least impractical, if not unreal and delusive. It is, perhaps, necessary that the temper of your age should take its tone from the peculiar religious epoch through which you are passing. The transition state that intervenes between one form of faith and its successor is necessarily one of convulsion. The old is fading, and the new is not yet clear. Man must pass through this, and it has a tendency to distort his vision. (Spirit leader Imperator in Moses, ST, 153.)
From letters which you have received of late you will be led to see that the times of trouble and distress which we have warned you of are expected by others as well as by us. Be prepared for trouble: it will assuredly come. It is necessary that afflictions come.
Jesus knew and taught that. It is necessary for the training of the soul. It is as necessary as physical discipline for the body. No deep knowledge is to be had without it. None is permitted to scale the glorious heights but after discipline of sorrow. The key of knowledge is in spirit hands, and none may wrest it to himself but the earnest soul which is disciplined by trial. Bear that in mind.
Ease and luxury are the pleasant paths in which the soul lingers and dreams away the summer day. Self-denial, self-sacrifice, self-discipline are the upward tracks, thorn-vexed and rocky, which lead to the heights of knowledge and power. Study the life of Jesus and be wise.
Moreover, the present is a time of hard and bitter conflict between us and our foes. We have told you that you feel the reflex of that struggle. It accompanies every great development of Divine Truth. It is, as it were, the darkness that precedes the dawn: the gloom which is the pre-requisite for growth: the period of trial wherein the earnest soul is purified, “Your hour and the power of darkness,” said Jesus as He agonised in Gethsemane. It is so now: and it will not pass lightly. The cup must be drained.
As each revelation of the Supreme grows old, it is overlaid by man’s errors, and loaded with his inventions. It dies gradually, and loses its hold on men. Bit by bit human error is pared away, unable to stand the shock of criticism, and man’s faith is shaken, and they ask with old Pilate—What is truth? Then comes the answer in the new birth of a higher revelation.
The throes of its birth shake the world, and around its cradle the powers of the Spiritual world contend. Great is the dust and din of the contention. As the light dawns upon the world, and the clouds lift, the watchers, whose eyes are spiritually opened to discern the signs of the times, they who stand on the watch-towers to catch the first gleams, these are ready and welcome with joy the break of day. “Joy comes in the morning.” “Sorrow and sighing flee away.”
The terrors of the night, “the powers of darkness,” are past. But not for all. Full many there will always be for whom no ray of light is visible till the sun has gained his meridian and splendour. They slumber on, heedless of the light that is breaking on the world. Hence the days will never come to your world when all equally will know of the truth. There will always be many for whom it has no charms, for whom it would be fraught with danger to tread the upward paths of progress, and who prefer the beaten track worn by the feet of those who have trod it through the ages past. There will be such always, even as there will be souls who catch the foregleams that / herald the dawn. (Spirit leader Imperator in Moses, ST, 197-8.)
The days come when the adversaries shall be abroad among the children of the light. Heed ye, and be wary and watchful. Keep yourselves separate from the snares of the adversaries.–Warning of Prudens, Doctor, Minister. (Plotinus, Athenodorus and unknown spirit in Moses, MST, 7.)
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. (Spirit leader Imperator in Moses, MSTTT, n.p.)
You are now living in an epoch of great spiritual outpouring, like that which occurred when the Lord Jesus dwelt among men. Even in this present epoch the light may wane, but we do not think so. The hour is at hand when the world of spirit will have far more power over your sphere than at any time of which you are conscious. Much doubt and difficulty will arise from this. Everything on your earth is now (May, 1875) in a disturbed condition, the external evidence of the internal forces of which we are to you the exponents. Unfortunately, the lower powers can counterfeit almost everything we can produce. The human race is morally, mentally and physically diseased, and requires for these diseases long treatment. (Spirit leader Imperator in Moses, MSTTT, n.p.)
Warnings to Nations - Wars
There is still great trouble ahead for humanity. (Philip Gilbert in 1946 in PTS, 39.)
We have been to a big conference! … This conference was not an “astral” affair, it was the real thing – a conference of the leaders and their helpers.
A vast shining building was created specially for the purpose and you and I got there early and stood in the emptiness, seeing the alabaster glistening of the walls which arrived, by just appearing. As we looked, forms, shining with exquisite coloured auras, materialized and seemed to sit. Soon the hall was a shimmer of varied light.
Presently, on a raised dias, a form appeared – a tall old man whose golden aura was so wide and vast that it seemed to encircle us all, in a rich glow of pure gold. From his outstretched hands came rays of this pulsating light, as he addressed us. He did not speak in sound exactly, yet words were conveyed to us in a series of vivid image pictures, blending into our united auras, which seemed to spear-point themselves into a vast receiving station.
We saw mankind in stages of the future. We saw more blood and tears and grief, but the black red glare of cruelty less pronounced, melting into the glow of universal harmony.
We saw a final cataclysm, but concentrated and centred in one lost spot of woe and out of this stench of corruption sprang a lily whose beauty can never be described in words at your command. (Philip Gilbert in PTS, 61-2.)
"The essential parts of the Bible are the ethical teachings and the sacred example of the Christ. The earth needed Christ, and he came. The earth still needs him, and his influence is still here. But many are deaf and blind to this influence, and because this is so, war still desolates the earth and selfishness and crime sometimes blot out the law of unselfishness and love that he gave his life to teach." (Mary Bosworth to Charlotte Dresser, ST, 210.)
The fight is not over. The war against oppression is continuing – and in fact is heating up as we move away from our last major confrontation. The fight continues; the ideals we stand for and have fought for still need to be honored and defended. To my mind, they are the only ideals with living and fighting for, but we are still dealing with those who seek to suppress them. So the fight must go on and we must not give up. It may be a helluva fight, but, in the end the ideals are strong enough to prevail. So we must prevail in our efforts. (Sir Winston Churchill in POG, 257.)
The cause we fought for in the second world war has not fully triumphed. The world today is faced with essentially the same problem – the suppression of individual freedoms. Certain political schemes which seek to deny these freedoms are still trying to spread themselves throughout the world and control humanity. This has not changed for thousands of years and once again the snake is beginning to rise. (Sir Winston Churchill in POG, 221.)
Your wars and your wholesale murderings are even more fearful. You settle your differences with your neighbours, who should be your friends, by arraying against each other masses of spirits—we see not the body; we care only for the spirit temporarily clothed with those human atoms—and those spirits you excite to full pitch of rage and fury, and so you launch them, rudely severed from their earth-bodies, into spirit life. You inflame their passions, and give them full vent. Vengeful, debased, cruel, earth-bound spirits throng around your earth-sphere, and incite the debased who are still in the body to deeds of cruelty and lust and sin. And this for the satisfying of ambition, for a passing fancy, for an idle princely whim, for lack of something else to occupy a king. (Spirit leader Imperator in Moses, ST, 31.)
Wars are but the product of your lust for gain, your ambition, your angry, proud, vengeful passions. And what is the product? God’s fair works destroyed and trampled under foot: the lovely and peaceful results of man’s industry destroyed: the holy ties of home and kindred severed: thousands of families plunged into distress: rivers of blood shed wantonly: souls unnumbered rent from their earth-body to rush unprepared, uneducated, unpurified into the life of spirit. Bad, all bad! earthy! evil sprung from earth, and resulting in misery. Till you know better than this, your race will progress but slowly; but you are perpetually sowing seeds which produces a crop of obstables to our work.
Much there is in social knowledge and in the conduct of State affairs that you must unlearn: much that is to be added to your knowledge. (Spirit leader Imperator in Moses, ST, 32.)
The Spirit-world looks with awe on the near future. War is probable, and everything tends to a great European convulsion. Wars will cease when man is perfect, but that can never be while he is incarnated.
Times of trouble are now at hand. Whenever Truth is manifested, the adversaries range themselves against it. Those who sigh for peace will have reason to sigh, but those who see in the contest between the true and the false the method of striking out the sparks of Divine Truth will not be without good reason for rejoicing.
Meanwhile, you must look for wars and convulsions, for turmoil and distress, and for much that those who consider the Second Advent to be Christ’s return to earth have led you to expect. You live in the last days of this era which is called Christian. Christ is now returning in spirit and in power, bringing the new revelation which should enfranchise the souls of men. (Unnamed Egyptian spirit in Moses, MSTT, n.p.)
In the life of the Christ you will find prophetic utterances which apply to the city in which you dwell [i.e., London], as well as to that over which He wept. He saw not only His own times, but also those in which you are living. His wail over the Jerusalem He loved might be poured forth over those amongst whom your lot is cast. Money is taking the place of God; and in the luxury and idleness that prevail among you are to be found the elements of dissolution. Across the face of your country is now written ‘Ruin.’
Prepare, then, for the final struggle; it will be between good and evil, between faith and agnosticism, between law and order on the one hand and lawlessness on the other. It will be a time of grievous trouble, such as the Christ foretold. Then will the work be attributed to blind force or diabolic agency. Then will be seen among you the ‘sin against the Holy Ghost.’ Blessed are they who remain steadfast, for many will fall away; and for those who have seen the light and have then denied it is no salvation, either in this world or in the world to come.
Now is being fulfilled the prophecy of Christ’s return, as He said: ‘The Comforter shall come.’ That is the permeating influence of His own Spirit, and thus His return is being actually accomplished amongst you. Those who have reached the spheres of blessedness are now operating in your midst. The first effect of this will be increased discord, more active opposition of the adversaries, and a great shaking of the powers now established among you. The outpouring of the Spirit will produce pronounced antagonism and that violent display of bigotry and intolerance which always attends the advent of new Truth. We stand in the midst of two armies of adversaries; those powers of evil which love darkness rather than light, and those incarnated amongst you who regard all that is progressive as something to be shunned. (Unnamed Egyptian spirit Imperator in Moses, MSTTT, n.p.)
The rising generation is being acted upon in a way of which you know but little; centres of spiritual influence are being formed on your earth. On the other hand, the destitution of the human spirit and the powers of the adversaries are sources of constant trouble to us. They are spirits who have developed an antagonism to the progress of all that is good amongst men. The days are coming when there shall be such an outpouring of the Divine Spirit as shall reach to the uttermost corners of the earth, driving the adversaries into open revolt, and bringing home to receptive souls the message of truth for which they are longing. (Unnamed Egyptian spirit in Moses, MSTTT, n.p.)
The spiritual atmosphere is now much disturbed, and the clouds do not seem to lift. It is from your world that the darkness chiefly comes, and it would appear that trouble is at hand. Men never pass from an inferior state to a superior state without great and intense distress, the throes and agony of a new birth.
You live in an age of dire disturbance. There are hopes in the future, but between now and then there is the shadow of death. In the far future, the listening ear can catch the notes of the angels, and their hymn is the anthem of peace. (Spirit leader Imperator in Moses, MSTTT, n.p.)
Warnings to Nations - Reassurance
Many young people today are wondering if this planet will survive for very long because of what man is doing to it.
The planet will survive.
Will man?
Yes, man will survive too. There is a limitation placed by natural law on what man can do to the planet on which he lives. He cannot destroy the whole of the planet and all that it contains. (Silver Birch, SBT, n.p.)
The Great Spirit will not allow His children to destroy themselves. (Silver Birch, TSB, 44.)
No man, and no combination of men, have the power to thwart divine will. They can delay, they can harass and they can impede. Infinite wisdom and love rule the universe. These will prevail because that is the law. (Silver Birch, SBT, n.p.)
Gradually [your world] will rid itself of the greed, selfishness, disruption, violence and all that prevents it from being the kingdom of heaven upon earth. (Silver Birch, LSB, 104.)
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? … So there is no guarantee that any scientific pronouncement must automatically be right when it concerns the future. (Silver Birch, SBA, n.p.)
We have destroyed many things which can never return to what they were. This applies to much of what was in the ground and it is a limited place that we inhabit.
But it has tremendous potentialities. There is much to be revealed in your world, much to be discovered. You are not at the end of evolution. You are still in its early stages.
Those who are familiar with the truths of the spirit never despair. Their optimum is based on the knowledge that has been revealed to them. With that knowledge they can have complete faith in the overriding power.
In its long history your world has had many disasters. Man has survived them. Man has progressed in spite of himself. He will continue to evolve because evolution is part of the natural law. And spiritual evolution is part of that same law. (Silver Birch, SBT, n.p.)
The higher authorities who use us as messengers … are the ones who have control of world affairs…. They have the power to stay the hand of evil if it seems that a great disaster might arise. (Gordon Burdick to Grace Rosher in TR, 50.)
I was shown briefly some of the areas set aside for the recovery of earth – as they call it! Ways for destroying pollution and recultivating the earth. These are the plans to give earth a new vibration. You are running out of the present vib, that is your trouble, as well as all the elements that go with it. So another vib or set of vibs is being prepared to take over on earth. This will be quite a new method of living, thinking, and believing. The leader in all this is the Christ. (Sir Alvary Gascoigne in AL, 140.)
I do not think we will ever see fascism recur as it flourished in the Thirties and Forties in Western Europe. (Sir Winston Churchill in POG, 245.)
Some people absolutely froth at the mouth about the possibility of mankind destroying one another or the planet. That will not be allowed to happen. There is danger, to be sure, but the danger is being corrected now, and it will be contained before it gets too far out of hand. (Nikola Tesla, NTR, 83.)
The earth as a civilized community will continue to exist in great glory and there is no need to fear awesome destruction. That is not going to happen.
I will drop an odd rock in your pond, to stimulate your curiosity. It could happen, but most likely it won’t. And it’s not up to any specific group, no matter how odd they are, to decide whether it will or whether it won’t. [Laughter.] It has to do with the state of evolution of humanity and civilization. (Nikola Tesla, NTR, 57.)
‘Will the world ever come into true Christianity?’
“It will come eventually. Every individual has the power to bring that blessed time a little nearer. The work goes on from here as well as there, and all are needed; for the strife between good and evil grows daily more vicious on the side of evil and needs daily reinforcements on the side of good."
'You believe that final victory will be with the good?'
"I know it will. But there must be greater power both here and there. We see the evil; but not in the hopeless way you see it, for we see also the remedy." (Spirit control Mary Bosworth to Charlotte E. Dresser in SWSL, 138).
Special efforts are being made now to spread a knowledge of progressive truth: efforts by the messengers of God, which are resisted, now as ever, by the hosts of the adversaries. The history of the world has been the story of the struggle between the evil and the good; between God and goodness on the one side, and ignorance, vice, and evil—spiritual, mental, and corporeal—on the other side. At certain times, of which this is one, extraordinary efforts are made.
The army of the messengers of God is massed in greater force: men are influenced: knowledge is spread: and the end draws nigh. Fear for the deserters, the half-hearted, the temporisers, the merely curious. Fear for them: but fear not for the cause of God’s truth. (Spirit leader Imperator in Moses, ST, 24.)
God is giving far more than you think. In all parts are springing up centres from which truth of God is being poured into longing hearts, and permeating thinking minds. There must be many to whom the gospel given of old is satisfying yet, and who are not receptive of further truth. With these we meddle not. But many there are who have learned what the past can teach, and who are thirsting for further knowledge. To these it is given in such measure as the Most High sees fit. And from them it flows to others, and the glorious tidings spread until the day comes when we shall be called on to proclaim them from the mountain top! and lo! God’s hidden ones shall start up from the lowly places of the earth to bear witness to that which they have seen and known: and the little rills that man has heeded not shall coalesce, and the river of God’s truth, omnipotent in its energy, shall flood the earth, and sweep away in its resistless course the ignorance and unbelief and folly and sin which now dismay and perplex you. (Spirit leader Imperator in Moses, ST, 24-5.)
Cast your eyes beyond the present. Look to the far future, and be of good courage. (Spirit leader Imperator in Moses, ST, 25.)
God and War
God has many ways of working to bring certain things about and, when gentle means fail, He has to try sterner measures. …
Don’t listen to anyone who tells you that God cannot intervene in this war; (1) He has done so many times or the Germans would have swept you over your land long ago. He watches every movement of this war and so does the Christ, also those High and Holy Spirits who specially direct the affairs of earth. Always cling to the Fatherhood of God, which Christ specially came to reveal for if “He numbers the hairs of your head” and notes when a sparrow falls to the ground, how deeply must this gigantic upheaval affect Him! (J. W. Sharpe, M.A., in FMABL, 130-1.)
(1) The First World War.
[A] marvellous power [is] contained in the soul of each human being when consciously united with the power of God. I say consciously because it must be consciously exercised to be effective. When this power is combined with others like-minded, it is of such extraordinary potency that it becomes a faith that can literally remove mountains.
Will you let others know this truth so that they may combine their efforts…, and I am quite certain the result will surprise them. But remember it is a power for good only when all self is eliminated and the inner Spiritual Power of each one is linked on to the Great Central Force of God. Then do we in very deed co-operate with Him. (J. W. Sharpe, M.A., in FMABL, 131-2.)
Here we watch, and wait, and pray, for the hosts of evil are abroad everywhere (1) and the cloud is over the whole earth. We know there is sunlight behind that cloud, but the power is given to man to let the sunlight break through or he can delay that blessed event. So pray, and pray, and pray, below all your outward work, that the dynamic power of prayer may break down these clouds of sin and horror and let God’s smile through. (J. W. Sharpe, M.A., in FMABL, 133-4.)
(1) Written on August 9, 1920.
I believe the decision is near whether humanity will have rest for awhile, or whether the raging of the elements should continue. Are these holy and exalted currents strong enough to overcome the weapons and the wild elements? I do not know. I have heard of all this through a high mediator who, albeit, was not present there. I was permitted to convey to you, however, the few things I have been told. It is the most important news nevertheless; consider it a great gift therefore. (Sigwart, BOTR, 90.)
Earth Changes and Treatment of Nature
I know you are wondering why in the world and throughout the world you are having so many catastrophes.
Don’t you see the answer?
The world has gone completely, or almost completely, materialistic. They worship money and power on this plane and on the lowest level and so to break their mad rush, groups of people have to be withdrawn suddenly so as to shock those who remain into some sort of fear or a questing state of mind. (Sir Alvary Gascoigne in AL, 51.)
There are going to be [earth] changes because the planet is evolving. The planet has changed; ever since its creation it has changed. Some of the geological changes have been abrupt, but not nearly as abrupt as rumor would have it. (Edgar Cayce’s spirit control Michael to Robert Leichtman, PP, 60.)
It is extremely encouraging that man has realized his error [in his treatment of nature] in time to do something about it. And, of course, he will. (Nikola Tesla, NTR, 83.)
Spirit’s Work for the New Order
We have aided those who have become faint-hearted, given strength to those who were weary, guided those who had lost their way and acted as an incentive to those who strive to work for their fellows, giving them the realization that behind them there is a mighty host of spirit spurring them on in all their endeavours for the Great Spirit and His children. (Silver Birch, TSB, 44-5.)
I wish you could see the extent of our influence. We have helped to break barriers, to remove obstacles and to bring knowledge. These are the things your world needs, the simple truths that will enable spiritual, mental and material freedom to come to your world. (Silver Birch, TSB, 45.
