Spiritualism - What
is it?
Spiritualism is a way of life. It combines
philosophy, science and religion. It covers a very wide field, and
therefore, you cannot expect to understand it without a certain amount of
study.
Spiritualists mainly
agree on seven principles:-
1. The Fatherhood of God.
2. The Brotherhood of man.
3. The communion of spirits and the ministry of
angels.
4.The continuous existence of the human
soul.
5. Personal responsibility.
6 Compensation and retribution hereafter for
all the good and evil deeds done on earth.
7. Eternal progress open to every human soul.
The primary object of spiritualism today is to prove the
survival of human personality after death. Death is the doorway to a new
and wider life. From the day of our birth we each have two bodies, the
material or earthly body, which can be seen, and the spiritual body, which
is unseen during life but is a counterpart of our earthly body. These two
bodies are linked by a cord. In a similar fashion, before birth a baby is
joined to it's mother by a cord. When it is born the cord must be cut.
When we die, the cord linking our two bodies is severed. The
material body returns to the earth whence it came, and the spiritual body
becomes the vehicle of our spirit. We are spirit here and now - we don't
have to wait until death to become spirit. Death, as a rule, becomes like
sleep - there is no pain. When we awake, conditions seem much the same to
us as before we "died." We take with us into the beyond no material possessions, such as clothes or money - they are no longer needed. But we
do take our character and our individuality. In every way we are the same
individuals immediately after death as before, with all our faults and
virtues.
The home that awaits us in the spirit world depends upon the
life we have led on earth. If we have honestly tried to do the best we
can, then we need have no fear of death. We have fitted ourselves for the
result which is automatic, a better, happier life where we are reunited
with our loved ones and friends.
If on the other hand, there has been more selfishness than
goodness and service in our lives, we will automatically have to pay the
price. This is part of the law of sowing and reaping, which is only
another way of saying that effect must follow cause. It is perfectly
summarised in the sixth principle (printed above) which says that
hereafter there are compensations and retribution for all the good and
evil done on earth.
Acts of service that we have performed will naturally
increase our spiritual status. Sins of omission or commission will just as
naturally retard it. There is, however, no hell in which its inhabitants
are colonised for eternity. Once self realisation dawns and the soul is
ready to advance, there are enlightened spiritual beings who will show the
way to progress.
The practical application of Spiritualism is the supreme
necessity for all of us to lead the best kind of life we can on earth, to
practice qualities of compassion and kindness and to give service wherever
we can.
Heaven and hell are really states of mind, not geographical
locations. Even here we can live in heaven or in hell, the choice is ours.
The world we inhabit after death is not far away up in the sky. It is
round and about us, interpenetrating the world in which we now live. Those we have "loved and lost awhile" are not in some far off,
inaccessible place seated on pink clouds at the right hand of God and
playing golden harps. Very often, they are close by our side, striving to
help and guide us, and loving us just as they did before
parting.
The evidence reveals that love, like life, is
stranger than death. It is love that proves to be the compelling force,
striving to break down the barriers, which man in his ignorance has
created, between this world and what is called the next, in order to
achieve spirit communication. Often there is grief on both sides of the
veil. There are the tears shed over loved ones who had died and the grief
they experience when they try to reach us but fail to make their presence
known.
There are many spheres of existence that are
invisible to us because they function in a different manner from the
earth. Millions of vibrations of sound are lost to us because they are
outside the range of our hearing. And millions of vibrations of sight fail
to be registered because they are beyond the scope of our eyes.
Microphones and radio receivers enable us to
hear what is normally beyond the range of our ears. The telescope and
television will bring into focus what is beyond our vision. The
inhabitants of the spirit world are very real even though we cannot see or
hear them.
There are, however, highly sensitive
individuals who have developed their innate psychic faculties with the
result that they can tune in to the spirit world and its denizens. These
human television and radio sets are mediums. They become the agents
through whom spirit communication is achieved.
There is nothing supernatural about this
happening, though it is supernormal. Everything in the universe is in
accordance with natural laws. They are devised by God, and God is perfect.
If it was God's will that we should be ignorant about His natural law then
we would know nothing about them.
God in not only perfect but all-powerful. God
is spirit. He is not an old man with a long white beard who sits on a
throne in heaven. To picture God as a human being is to impose
limitations. Were He human He could not be in all places at once, neither
could He hear every prayer.
God is not a person but the creative universal
spirit. Wherever there is life there is spirit., and wherever there is
spirit there is life. We exist because a spark of divinity is within each
one of us. This is a divine relationship in which God is our Father and we
are all His children.
We can, by our lives, fan the spark into a
flame so that a greater expression of divinity is made known through us.
The result will be to sustain, uplift and help us in our spiritual
development. And we have the free will to reject and ignore the spark of
divinity. The result is that we fail to make the progress we should and
deny ourselves the beauty that life has to offer.
We do not believe in vicarious atonement as
preached in some orthodox religions. We regard Jesus as an example, not a
saviour. Man has no saviour but himself. We are each personally responsible for our sins and must atone for them here or hereafter. It is
far more moral to acknowledge our sins and try to make amends than to try
to place them on the shoulders of another. We believe that Jesus was
divine, but only in the sense that we are all divine. There is a
difference of degree but not of kind.
We also believe, as the Bible states, that
Jesus developed His psychic faculties and was a master of spiritual law.
More over he was in close touch with the spirit world and demonstrated his
survival after his death. His teaching of brotherhood, love humility and
service is the basis of Spiritualism as we know it today.
We do not claim to know everything - no one
does. Knowledge is infinite and we shall always be learning. What we do
maintain is that we have caught a glimmer of truth. It inspires us to
search for more, rejecting anything that does not appeal to our God-given
reason and accepting that which is logical and uplifting.
What makes Spiritualism unique is the evidence
of survival after death that is obtainable through mediumship. Whereas,
most religions preach an after-life as a hope, faith or belief, we
maintain that any reasonable person can prove it for
themselves.
We do not ask you to believe what we say. What
we do suggest is that you study the literature and then make your own
inquiry.
There are several excellent books available
which will help you to gain a greater understanding of spiritualism and
everlasting life.
The Implications of
Spiritualism - by Maurice
Barbanell
All religions are founded on the fact that
there is some principle in man which defies death and survives. Orthodoxy
has built a system of reward and punishment hereafter, based, to a large
extent, on the acceptance of certain creeds, dogmas and
doctrines.
Nearly every sect has taught in the past, and many still do
today, that acceptance of their particular brand of teaching was the only
sure passport to heaven.
Obviously, the people who are really competent to tell you
what happens in the life beyond this are not theologians, who can only
speculate and theorise, but individuals who live there and speak from
personal experience.
You soon learn from the dwellers in the after-life that
their earthly religious views do not determine their spiritual status in
the Beyond. Many an avowed agnostic has reached a higher spiritual sphere than individuals who were most punctilious in their church
attendance but neglected the application of ethical principles to their
lives.
The truth about religion is that creeds do not matter.
Whether you accept the Thirty-Nine Articles of Faith or not, believe in
the Nicene Creed or not, are a Christian, Jew, Buddhist, or Parsee - all
these have no relevance to the things that matter.
There is only one acid test regarding your spiritual status
when you die. It is the way you have lived your daily life. We learn that
all the actions we have performed, the words we have uttered and the
thoughts that have risen in our minds, are indelibly registered on our
spirit body. For the reason we are known, after death, for what we
are.
We take with us the character that we have moulded in our
earthly lives. This determines our position hereafter. We cannot cheat. We
cannot pretend. The sinner, to use a very clumsy word, cannot escape the
consequences of his actions by uttering a magical formula on his deathbed and thus have all misdeeds absolved for him. He must make restitution for
whatever wrong he has committed. There is no progress for him until he has
done so.
It is a mockery of divine justice to believe that the saint
and the sinner are on level terms from the moment they die. And it is not
true. The essential fact that is stressed by all who have had any lengthy
experience of spirit life is that we are personally responsible for the
life that we live, that is, of course, if we are normal human beings.
Forgiveness does not release us from personal
responsibility. The mere fact that the one whom we have wronged is willing
to overlook our action does not alter the wrong we have done. A true
balance can be struck only when we have made retribution.
The true spiritualist is always conscious of an
urge from the other side of life which stresses that real religion
consists of the way one's daily life is led. You may call this morality
and not religion, but I reply that religion cannot be divorced from
ethics.
Spiritualism enables you to realise that in all
ages, prophets and seers have been inspired by revelations emanating from
the spirit world. But these revelations were suited to the age in which
they came.
The spiritualist does not despise the
inspiration of the past. He recognises that the same natural laws which
enable him to obtain revelation today caused the ancients to receive it in
their time. But the world has altered, even in the past 2,000 years. New
conditions have arisen and science enthroned as the latest god to be
worshipped.
There are different problems and difficulties
to be mastered. It is foolish to argue, as some clergymen do, that God
inspired the children of the year called one, and has nothing to say to
His children of today. It is foolish to argue that God had a special
preference for Palestine that He does not possess for any other country
today.
It is not necessary, in religion, to live in
the past. Spiritualism proves that the fountain of inspiration still flows
into the world, wherever it can find necessary channels.
Spiritualism is not only a religion. More than
that, it is Religion itself. Without Spiritualism, religion is
meaningless. Almost every religion was founded around a medium, in whose
presence psychic phenomena, wrongly called "miracles," occurred and who
could be inspired from the same sources that are still at work.
Properly understood, Spiritualism will be the
means of unifying opposing religions, proving that none of them is
superior to the other, but that each possess some grain of
truth.
Here, in Spiritualism, is the nucleus of a
brotherhood of man and a religious United Nations, that would give
religion its rightful place in the world, enabling it to become a force to
inspire humanity in its highest ideals.
How foolish does the thought of a "holy war"
become viewed with this new knowledge? You can look with pity on the
frequent wrangling of theologians and the bickering over scriptural
interpretations, realising these are trivial. Whether you accept them or
not makes no real difference to life here or hereafter.
Spiritualism has no creeds or dogmas, but most
Spiritualists accept what are known as the Seven Principles. These were
given through mediumship at a time when it was necessary, for churches
owning or leasing property, for a Spiritualist organization to declare its
religious beliefs. The law demanded that this body, the Spiritualists'
National Union, should submit the religious principles on which its
members agreed.
Even acceptance of these Seven Principles
caused controversy. Many Spiritualists said they would not be bound by any
formal statements of belief. To surmount this difficulty it was decided to
give Spiritualists' National Union members complete liberty of
interpretation
These principles very aptly sum up the religion
of Spiritualism. Sincere religious people could not quarrel with any of
them. To a large extent, they would be accepted by most modern minds in
the Church..
Spiritualists recognise that every individual
must work out his spiritual salvation and that, in the end, man must stand
on his own feet. They know we cannot transfer the burden of our
responsibilities to somebody else's shoulders. We get out of life just
what we put into it - no more and no less.
We are here to equip ourselves for the next
stage of life. Earth is the school of our experience. If we fail to learn
our lessons here, we will have to learn them when we pass on.
We take with us the character we have evolved.
Nobody else can evolve it for us. We accomplish our own growth and
evolution by the way we live our lives. Selfishness and greed thwart the
character. Altruism and idealism help the spirit to grow.
These are natural laws. Man cannot cheat them
for they operate in-exorably. The more good we do, the better persons we
are. The more we fail to help others, the worse we are.
This is no new teaching. It has been taught
through the ages by seers, prophets, saints and mystics. Spiritualism
proves it. The purpose of life is not to enrich us materially at the
expense of others. If we do, in reality we are the poorest of all - poor
in spirit and character.
Opportunities for service come to each one of
us, irrespective of our lot or position in life. We can always do good, if
we choose, no matter who or what we are. We can be kind to others no
matter whether we are princes or paupers.
Spiritualism is the declared enemy of
materialism. It proves that man survives death by a natural law of the
universe. It provides mankind with a religion founded not on faith, or
fear, but on knowledge.
Spiritualism demonstrates that God is the
"Father" of all people. God is not a Christian, Jew, Roman Catholic,
Protestant, Methodist, or a Spiritualist. Nor is God even an Englishman,
as some people seem to think!
Whether you are orthodox or agnostic, rich or
poor, educated or illiterate, a cabinet maker or a crossing sweeper,
dictator or peasant, you cannot alter the law of cause and effect as it
operates in your life. That is the great message of
Spiritualism.
Because you are a spirit you survive death. And
because you are a spirit you are alive today. The spirit within you, which
causes you to live, is the same spirit that animates every member of every
nation, of every race and of every colour. Spiritually, the people of the
world are one. Spiritualism reveals the spiritual oneness of all mankind.
God has made us all members of one vast spiritual family.
When that fact is understood and applied in
human, national and international life, war will be driven from the face
of the earth. Man will have learned not to kill his spiritual
brother.
Properly understood, Spiritualism will become
one of the greatest forces for the good in the world. When its truths have
spread far and wide, and the majority of people accept its teachings and
regulate their lives accordingly, a new era will dawn for
humanity.
God's blessings of light, love and wisdom to
all.
Judy
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