Annotations for Uncategorized: Spiritualism

...of public opinion and affection, the more they think you must be something of a crank. Laughter If you happen to say that you are interested in Spiritualism or that you’re convinced of survival, they say 'oh yes, such a clever brain you know, such a remarkable man, but you know of course he’s gone a little bit off his head coughing in his old age.'

You know people are extraordinary. If you give them what they want they like you very much. But if you give them something that they don’t want or think they don’t want or something which is... ...foreign Coughing/Banging to their nature or to their upbringing and background or if you tell them something that is against the accepted beliefs, whether it is in religion or in politic or whatever it is that goes against the grain, they think, 'oh well poor old thing. He’s a dear old thing he’s contributed a great deal in his own way, but now, of course, he is getting on a bit, and he has gone a little bit soft.'

In a...in a sense, I have sympathy for this. But at the same time, it seems to me the tragedy of Spiritualism that there are so few who are...who are concerned with spiritual truth, who are concerned with spiritual knowledge, who are concerned with allowing this tremendous truth to revitalise them and make them new again.

So many seem to be on the low vibration. A vibration not very far removed from their own. There is so much astral communication. There is so much communication of a low order. There is so much that is said and done which is at variance with the truths of spirit, as we understand and we know it.

Because until you have suffered, until you have sometimes at least felt the need for the things of the spirit, you cannot understand nor appreciate them. And it is true to say that oft times, those whose tasks are many and whose path is harder, oft times they have, through their very sufferings, greater opportunity to reach through the sensitivity of things to the realities of the spirit. Because these things of which I speak are invariably revealed more to those who, by suffering and complication and difficulty of life, have become sensitised to truth.

All the great teachers, all the great prophets, all the great great seers, all the men of great wisdom, spiritual wisdom - were men who suffered. No one who wants to do the work of the spirit must ever think that the road and the path is going to be easy.

When one writes, though one has the medium of the pen, there is nothing to bar you from clearly putting down on paper, your thoughts. But when you have to use another human being to demonstrate that which you feel intensely within yourself, I find it extremely irritating. Because how can another person be responsible for that which I want to convey to you with clarity and intelligence? No individual can ever act as an instrument in the true sense. I remember way back, centuries ago now it must seem, if not to you to me...that I used to try to get people to portray characters that I had created and to say lines that I had given them. It used to sound, often, so strange to me. As if they were not my lines at all and yet they were. But the people very seldom seemed to have the proper intonation, very seldom seemed to be able to put the weight behind the right word to convey the meaning behind the sentence, to give it authority and tone and colour. Invariably people were, with all due respect, very poor mediums. The same applies here using a Medium to communicate with you from this side of life. It's like using an actor on your side to try and use that person to impersonate, to give through, as it were, oneself - or that which one has written, in the case of my plays. All very confusing.

I'm quite sure you have. And I'm quite sure the people who have stirred the cooking pot for you have been the Spiritualists.

These Spiritualists...you know, I've to many of their so-called meetings and séances. Do you know, if it were not rather sad, it would be highly amusing. I've been to some of these séances, these meetings and really, it's so...so pathetic.

Nothing has ever surprised me. And certainly nothing could possibly surprise me in regard to God, because he was a person who was always doing the most surprising things - if one was to believe all that one read in the Bible. In fact, he seemed such an extraordinary character, that he became interesting in consequence.

I met many, many people that I had admired and many that I didn't admire and since have learned to admire. For different reasons of course. And I've travelled a great deal; to many places, many spheres - many countries - if you like to call them such. Because in a sense, they are.

There are no barriers, only barriers in oneself...within oneself, in one's own mind. The barriers between human relationships and peoples are within oneself; they are man-made and one learns to discard them.

We are all entwined and in tune. Though sometimes at first it seems that we are very much out of tune. We are all very much in tune and all very much of one mind and of one spirit.

It's all very intriguing, because all God's children eventually begin to merge. Although they retain their individuality and separate personality, we all begin to merge until we are harmonious. And in consequence, we live in a condition of peace and quietude and harmony, where all and each can have his or her interests, such as they may be.

Some feel the urge...the need to work in various ways. Others do not. I prefer to continue to write because writing was, to a great extent, my life. And I am hoping to find a suitable instrument on your side - if I can - whose mind will be sufficiently open that I might be able to transmit new plays, new works, new things of interest, which will help humanity and enlighten humanity.

But always remember, that the best way to reach a man's heart is not...is not through his stomach. But to reach his heart is to realise that one must give to him, something which is far removed from material things; something of the mind and of the spirit, which will last through time itself.

May God bless you' - that is the common thing to say I believe, when you say goodbye at Spiritualist séances... 'May God bless you my friends' - I'll say it with the rest and be one of them. Goodbye.