Protection against Spirit Obsession — Robert Bayer – Editor — [2017] (172 pages) by Robert Bayer

Protection from Spirit Obsession Robert Bayer (Editor) (2017)

Table of Contents What The World of Spirits Is — Emanuel Swedenborg [p. 5] Spirit Land — HG Wood / Thomas Paine [p. 9] Spirits Influencing Mortals — William W Aber [p. 28] Educate Spirits — Walter DeVoe [p. 31] Loosening The Ties

—

Gambier Bolton [p. 38]

Planes of Debauchery and Obsession in Hell — William Walker Atkinson

[p. 42]

The Dangers of Obsession — J.S.M. Ward [p. 46] The Antechamber of Hell — JSM Ward [p. 56] The Drunkards’ Pit — James Hewat Mckenzie [p. 70] The Ouija-Table

—

Hester Travers Smith [p. 75]

The Truth about Obsession — L. Kelway Bamber [p. 80] Obsession — Annette Leevier

[p. 87]

Spirits Obsessed with Vices — G. Veil Owen Spirits — Walter DeVoe [p. 98]

[p. 92]

The Desire World — Max Heindel [p. 105] The Truth About Obsession — Josephine Possi [p. 114] Invisible Powers — The Eloists [p. 122] You Possess The Power — The Eloists [p. 123] The Choice Is Ours — The Eloists [p. 126] Spiritual Assistance — The Eloists

[p. 128]

Revelations — The Eloists [p. 131] Spirit Obsession in Everyday Life

—

Kasandra Kares [p. 133]

Life with The Spirits — Kasandra Kares [p. 136] Aura, Astral Body and the Chakras — Richard Rowley [p. 139]

The Aura and the Astral Body and more about the Chakras — Richard Rowley [p. 153]

Bertha Harris, and “Casting Out of Obsessive Spirits” — Richard Rowley [p. 163] True, True, True, … — Richard Rowley [p. 167]

What The World of Spirits Is Emanuel Swedenborg Heaven and Hell (1758)

421. The world of spirits is neither heaven nor hell; rather it is a place, or state, midway between the two. It is where a person first arrives after death, being, after some time has passed, either raised into heaven or cast into hell from it, depending on his life in the world.

422. The world of spirits is both a place midway between heaven and hell and a person’s “midway” state after death. I have been able to see that it is a midway place from the fact that the hells are beneath it and the heavens above; and to see that it is a midway state from the fact that as long as a person is there, he is not yet in either heaven or hell.

Heaven’s state in a person is the bonding of what is good and what is true within him; and hell’s state, the bonding of what is evil and what is false within him. When what is good is bonded to what is true in a person who is a spirit, he enters heaven, because, as we have said, that bonding is heaven within him. But when what is evil is bonded to what is false within him he enters hell, because that bonding is hell within him.

This bonding occurs in the world of spirits, because then a person is in a midway state. It does not matter whether you say the bonding of discernment and intention, or the bonding of what is true and what is good.

423. We need first to talk about the bonding of discernment and intention and its resemblance to the bonding of what is good and what is true, since this bonding takes place in the world of spirits.

Man has both discernment and intention. His discernment receives things true, and is formed out of them. His intention receives things good, and is formed out of them. As a result, a person calls “true” whatever he discerns and consequently thinks; and he calls “good” whatever he intends and consequently thinks.

Man has an ability to think from his discernment, and thereby to grasping what is true and also what is good; yet he does not think this from intention unless he intends and does it. When he intends it, and does it intentionally, then it exists in his discernment and his intention alike—it therefore exists in the person. For discernment alone does not constitute a person, nor does intention alone; rather it is discernment and intention together. So whatever exists in both these abilities exists in the person and has become part of him, but

anything that exists only in the discernment is with the person but not within him. It is only an element of his memory, a matter of information within his memory which he can think about when he is not “in himself” but “outside himself,” with other people. So too, he can talk about it and reason about it, and put on affections and manners in keeping with it.

424. Man’s ability to think from his discernment without thinking from his intention at the same time is furnished him so that he can be formed anew. For a person is formed anew by means of things true, which belong to his discernment as we have said. Actually, man is born into involvement in all kinds of evil, as far as his intention is concerned. This means that on his own he does not intend what is good to anyone but himself. And anyone who intends what is good only to himself is pleased by the evils that befall others, especially when they are to his own advantage.

In fact, he wants to funnel everyone else’s good things to himself, whether these be matters of prestige or of profit; and he is inwardly happy to the extent that he can accomplish this.

For the correction and re-forming of this kind of intention, man has been given the capacity to discern things that are true, and thereby to tame the affections for what is evil that gush from his intention. This

is the source of manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ability to think true things from his discernment, and to speak and do them. All the same, he cannot think them from his intention until his quality is such that he intends and does them on his ownâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;that is, from his heart. When this is a personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s quality, then the things he thinks from his discernment are part of his faith, and the things he thinks from his intention are part of his love. Consequently, faith and love are then bonded together for him, like discernment and intention.

Spirit Land HG Wood / Thomas Paine The Philosophy of Creation (1860)

Each of the inhabited planets has its Spirit Land, or place of repose for the soul, when it passes from the physical fetters with which it is bound whilst in the body. This Land, as we have called it, is situated above the atmosphere, and is a perfect type, generally, of the planet to which it belongs â&#x201D;&#x20AC; though beautified. The Spirit Land, like Spirit itself, is purely ethereal, and a shadow of the memory and imagination of each Spirit. The Spirits of each planet, when advanced to the Sixth circle, can commune and visit with each other.

I have before said that the Spirit Land appears differently to its different societies, and is only seen in all its beauty when the faculties of the soul have become developed. The desire of each Spirit is gratified seemingly, though not really. Hence the miser, whose sole delight on Earth was to hoard up and count his dollars, in the first circle is gratified with imaginary dollars, which he hoards up, clutches, chuckles over, counts, with as much delight and avariciousness as when on Earth. In idea he is gratified, and this idea seems reality, yet is not. Misers congregate in separate societies from affinity. The predominating desire governs in the selection of

societies, though not so in relation to circles. It would be a pleasing spectacle to you to behold millions of avaricious souls congregated together, eagerly bent on counting over and stowing away their imaginary treasures; to see the suspicious glances cast upon each other, the fear depicted in their countenances, the tiptoe tread, as they go to and from the haunt of, or hiding-place for their treasures; ─ in a word, to see the prominent traits of their character and disposition mirrored forth from their souls, and acted by them. But to us who have progressed, it is not a pleasing sight, and we use our utmost efforts to root out and destroy these desires ─ which we are able in time to do ─ and instigate the possessors to moral and intellectual progression.

The miser has his Heaven, and were you to ask him in relation to the Spirit Land, he would tell you that he was enjoying himself finely ─ making money, etc. His appreciation of Heaven does not transcend the dollar. But this is only the case in their inceptive condition here, for their attention is soon turned otherwise, and they come to lose their pleasures, and seek for higher and better occupations.

A person of a poetical temperament and ideal mind has his Heaven, which is a perfect daguerreotype of his imagination. Interrogate him in relation thereto, and he will tell you that he is surrounded by gentle hills, extensive plains, majestic mountains, swelling seas, running

rivers, gurgling brooks, sparkling fountains, leaping rills, foaming cataracts, wide-spread, forests ─ all echoing and re-echoing with the songs of birds, and peopled to a limitless extent with creatures of fancy. To him this is a reality, and yet it is not a reality.

The sailor, whose chief delight on Earth was to stem the fury of the sea, embarks in his imaginary ship, with comrades of the same desire, upon an imaginary sea ─ unfurls the sails, feels the imaginary winds, hears their whistle in the rigging, and sees and feels all the attending circumstances of a voyage upon the “deep.” The face of the sky is eagerly watched, each portending circumstance prepared for. Clouds arise in the horizon storms burst in fury upon the sea, the waves roll and dash, the lightnings flash and play along the sky, the deep thunder rolls upon his ear, and he feels all those emotions attendant upon the reality.

The Indian, whose delights were in the forest chase, and war, enjoys here his delights, and in his imaginary world feels and acts as under a reality. Thus you will perceive that the Spirit Land bears different phases, proportioned to each one’s desires, and is a general type of the Earth, or its peculiar planet. These desires, in time, are satiated, and progression ensues.

To give you a correct idea of the Spirit Land, it will be necessary for

me to say that it is divided into circles, or tribes, as we will term them, each of which is possessed of peculiar characteristics, and from the first,; up wards, is a step in the ladder of spiritual progression. Of this Land there are seven grand divisions, each of which, except the seventh, is yet divided into other societies to a great number. The first circle is the circle or tribe with which are connected all Spirits of the most gross propensities, and who have been guilty of the lowest species of crime which is possible to be perpetrated on Earth.

I have before said that the Spirit of man is the grand parchment whereon are written his virtues and his vices, and I may here say, that here, in this spiritual home, this record stands forth in bold relief, and each good and bad deed that one has committedâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; is not screened, but read by all. The hypocrite, who on Earth has masked his vices and seemed a saint, is here unable to conceal them: â&#x201D;&#x20AC; they stand forth in legible and intelligible characters, and it is the consciousness of this that attracts Spirits to those of their kind, as I have before said.

The First Circle is the lowest and most inharmonious circle of spiritual existence. It is the theatre of inharmony, such as you might imagine to exist on Earth, should there be congregated in a mass all the vicious elements of society; for it is the retreat of those who have neglected the development of those faculties of the soul whose

development alone elevates man above the brutes. The murderer, the pirate, highwayman, thief, hypocrite, liar, libertine, drunkard, incendiary, slanderer, miser, etc., etc., is there ─ of all nations and tongues, congregated in ungainly societies, and pursuing their various occupations with a double vigor, pushed on by the panes of conscience, that lead them to hide their vices by still deeper indulgence in them.

I have before said that this circle is divided into societies, and that, in the formation and selection of these societies, the predominating desire governs; hence those, who on Earth have delighted in the shedding of human blood, assemble en masse, and pursue their murderous career with vigor. They use imaginary weapons, and commit imaginary murders. They are continually in turmoil and strife. Like the Ishmaelite, each one’s hand is turned against the other’s’. Imagine to yourself, on Earth, two persons of gross propensities engaged in a quarrel; imagine the quarrel to have attained that point when a dagger is drawn by one of the parties. Behold the person upon whom it is drawn fleeing from his murderous foe, who, with drawn dagger, tightly clenched, is on the chase, uttering unearthly curses and cries for vengeance. Imagine the pursuer to near the pursued, raise his dagger, and with a single stroke draw his heart’s blood. See the guilty man, when the awful deed is done, stricken with fear and remorse, eagerly seeking to screen the body from the public

eye, and blot out all traces of the deed ─ and you have in miniature the condition of this society of the first circle. Millions of souls, upon whom are deep stains of blood, in one congregated brotherhood of crime, are there engaged in a series of turmoil and inhuman deeds.

In the same circle, and in an equally low society, may be seen the pirate ─ who embarks on the voyage of murderous theft, and commits depredations upon his “fellow-voyagers on the deep,” akin to those it was his delight to commit when on Earth. The same phases of life that attended him on Earth attend him here. His imaginary cannon bellow forth their thunder, and send forth their murderous balls, carrying destruction and desolation to the imaginary craft that his vengeance is being wreaked upon. The vessels are thrown alongside, and, hand to hand, with desperate fury, he fights for his prize; ─ many a victim seems to fall beneath his strokes, and with a yell of satisfaction, and maniac brutality, he surveys the bloody deck, and clutches his dearly-bought treasures. To him all seems a reality; but he has fought but empty air, and gained an unreal prize.

The highwayman, who on earth delighted in deeds of daring and robbery, here follows his favorite pursuits, and re-enjoys all the pleasures attendant upon such a life on earth. In this society are all thieves. The debauchee is there, and, in a bacchanalian society, imaginarily satisfies his appetites, and feels all those exhilarating

thrills â&#x201D;&#x20AC; and relapses â&#x201D;&#x20AC; that were his lot on earth. This society is the most beastly in this circle, for in it are committed all species of crime, and are exhibited all conditions of debasement. The bacchanalian song echoes and re-echoes through their ranks, until the vault of this part of Heaven rings with one unceasing, discordant shout. Libertines and harlots are there, and, burning with remorse, would fain enjoy the delights of passion. Oh! it is an awful spectacle, to behold human souls writhing in the agonies that do this society of the first circle! â&#x201D;&#x20AC; But we are cheered by the glorious thought that reformatory influences will operate upon its members, and in time relieve their degradation and misery. The discordant elements of which this circle is composed at times mingle, and Oh! it is sad to see the debasement of which the human soul is susceptible, as it is portrayed in these minglings; and, were you to see the misery that is there, you would think that it was Hell enough for any one.

This circle is only occupied by those of the lowest development, and there, through long ages of mental torment, are congregated miserable and unhappy souls, who, in time, will change their lives, in accordance with the unceasing and effectual law of progression, and pass to higher circles. Good Spirits, actuated by philanthropic and elevated motives, are continually laboring with, to reform and elevate them; and it is a joyful victory for us when we induce one soul after another to yield to moral influences, cast aside its miserable fetters,

that have bound it to crime, and progress. It should be the aim of every man on Earth to so Eve as to avoid this circle; for its miseries are such as cannot be described, but only known when felt and seen.

This idea of the First Circle of the Spirit Land may to some seem strange â&#x201D;&#x20AC; but nevertheless, it is its true condition; and of this you will be satisfied when you remember that man is a progressive being, and can only attain a high state of existence as he developsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and unfolds his spiritual principle.

The Second Circle is composed of Spirits who are more advanced than those of the First Circle, though, in this circle even, there is not to be found that moral and intellectual state of development that one would expect. This is the abiding place of those whose lives were not particularly vicious, but who are in an undeveloped condition, â&#x201D;&#x20AC; those who have neglected their spiritual development for physical pleasure and profit. In a word, it is the home of ignorant Spirits. There are also to be found in this circle the Spirits of many who have progressed thither from the First Circle.

In this circle are by far the greatest number of Spirits: for it is a fact that the number of ignorant Spirits, launched into eternity annually, exceeds the number of developed Spirits in a ratio of about 1000 to 1. In this circle are the people of all nations and tongues. The

Aborigines and various other people who have remained in an unprogressed intellectual and moral state.

This circle is divided into societies. In one group may be seen mechanics engaged in their favorite occupations; in another, the farmer, who is tilling his imaginary farm, and engaged in agricultural pursuits generally. And thus, all through this circle, may be found societies made up by affinity of desires,â&#x201D;&#x20AC; each one pursuing his or her favorite occupation. This circle is surrounded with a more moral atmosphere than the first, and exhibits a more progressed condition. Progression is more rapidly secured by its inmates, as good spirits find less difficulty in approaching it.

The Second Circle is much more harmonious than the First, though, from the ignorance of its inmates, perfect harmony could by no possibility exist. Over this circle, missionary Spirits, from the Fifth and Sixth Circles, have strong care, and labor assiduously to unfold the powers of the inmates. The attention of each, by these missionaries, is gradually turned toward intellectual and moral pursuits, and in course of time they become progressed so far as to exchange their residence for the Third Circle, which is the abiding place of Spirits who are more highly developed than those of the Second.

The Third Circle is occupied by Spirits well-meaning and disposed,

but who have neglected to unfold the intellectual powers of the soul, who have no, or, at most, but a partial acquaintance with Nature and her laws, so that they are unfitted to live in harmony therewith. In this circle there is a moral beauty displayed, that is seen in none of the lower circles, and which places it far, very far in advance of them. Therein are many Spirits of considerable literary talents, and scientific research, who abide in groups, according to their affinities of taste.

The occupation of the members of this circle is purely progressive; they are engaged in developing and unfolding their powers by discipline and research. To this circle are the Spirits of infants and undeveloped children consigned, who are watched over, attended and educated with the utmost care and attention. The principle of love is more fully developed in this circle than any other, and its inmates exhibit remarkable benevolence and kindness in their demeanor, one towards another. After a sufficient study of Nature, and an attainment of the requisite wisdom, the inmates of this circle progress to the Fourth Circle, where the beauties of the Spirit Land begin to appear with force and perspicuity; for this circle, besides being surrounded with an exceedingly moral atmosphere, is occupied by wise Spirits, as Love and Wisdom are the prevailing principles in development. Spirits of this circle are highly progressed, â&#x201D;&#x20AC; it being the abiding place of many scientific, literary and educated

persons. This circle is also divided into societies, made up as the preceding are.

The grand effort and aim of the Spirits of this circle is to attain Truth, which, owing to their superior wisdom and moral condition, they are able to do with much greater facility than are the members of the Third. The less progressed are assisted by those more developed, and thus, each mutually assisting the other, they are all hastening to the point when they can be admitted into the Fifth Circle, which is the highest circle possible to be reached by the new-born Spirit from the body.

This circle is composed of Spirits who have strenuously labored while on Earth to develop and unfold the full powers of the soul, and by those who have come up thither from the lower circles. Herein are exhibited the powers of the Spirit when unfolded by the discipline of thought and research. Love, Wisdom and Truth beam forth from the countenances of each, and a degree of power and harmony exists, that the human mind is not able to appreciate. The number of societies is less than in any lower circle, and there is a more general exchange of thought and sympathy than is possible to exist in any of the lower circles, or on Earth.

This circle is composed of moral and wise Spirits, whose chief study

is Nature, and whose chief aim is to secure harmony and fraternal union. Intellectual and moral pursuits are prosecuted with vigor and success. Various sciences are studied and perfected, with a view to unfold the spiritual powers, and prepare for that grand Harmonial State., between which and their own circle there is but an intermediate step.

The members of this circle make many visits to Earth, and glean all the truths possible from the minds of the most eminent scholars thereon. But in this way but little knowledge, comparatively, is gained; â&#x201D;&#x20AC; from their powers of perception, they find more advantage in a study of Nature. It requires but a short space of time, comparatively, with assiduous attention and application, to prepare for and be ushered into the Sixth Circle, which is the scat of a moral beauty, intellectual grandeur and harmony, that the human faculties cannot conceive or comprehend. Almost. perfect harmony exists throughout this circle, and Love, Wisdom and Truth seem to be stamped upon all. There is a mingling of thought and sympathy, between the societies of this circle, that is not to be found in the lower circles; there is a sort of mutual affinity and desire to assist each other in progressive advancement, that is ultimately to be consummated in the Seventh Circle.

Between the members of this circle and the inhabitants of the Spirit

Land of Jupiter, and all the planets that have attained the same point of progression, there are mutual exchanges of thoughts, and visits, that are enjoyed by none of the occupants of the lower circles. These visits and exchanges are frequent, profitable and necessary, as they serve to prepare each other for that point when the Spirits of all planets are to be united in one grand circle of harmonious union.

The number of Spirits in the Sixth Circle is much less than in any other circle. This is a kind of probationary state for the Spirit. Its chief designs and efforts are to attain a perfect knowledge of all truth, within the scope of its conditional powers, â&#x201D;&#x20AC; for, without this desire, there would, nor can be harmony of opinion and action. The faculties possessed by the members of this circle to attain knowledge and truth are extensive, and comparatively unlimited; and these faculties are employed to great advantage. All the noblest attributes of the soul are developed, and when finally developed, the possessor can pass from this circle to the Third Sphere, or Seventh Circle.

The Seventh Circle is not connected solely with the Spirit Land of our particular planet, but is, as it were, a new world, wherein are congregated the harmonized souls of all planets and nations. The beauty of this circle I cannot tell you from experience, as it has not yet been my privilege to visit it. The inhabitants of that sphere never pay you visits, nor ourselves, but commune with us by influx; and

thus have I gained a partial knowledge of the blissful retreat, whither the fully progressed soul ultimately goes.

Thousands of years are spent by us in fitting ourselves for that sphere, â&#x201D;&#x20AC; and the process, by which we pass thither, is almost equivalent to another dissolution. There are in the Sixth Circle Spirits who have been here engaged in the grand work of development for many centuries, and who have not yet sufficiently unfolded the harmonial powers of the soul, to be fitted for that sphere where all is harmony and peace, â&#x201D;&#x20AC; where the beauty of the Divine mind is seen in all its splendor, and the soul of man transformed into an almost perfect existence.

This circle, as it is commonly denominated, is more properly a Sphere. It has no connection with the individual Heavens, but is a grand Sphere, where are united all developed Spirits of all worlds.

The occupations of the Spirits in this sphere are such as are compatible with their natural desires, in the pursuit of which each mutually assists the other. Therein is to be found a combination of Love, Wisdom and Truth, such as is beyond the powers of your minds to conceive.

In speaking of the Seventh Circle. I have said that it is the home of

those Spirits who have attained perfect development, â&#x201D;&#x20AC; which if, in the common signification of the word, was the case, the progression of the soul is consummated, and would cease; â&#x201D;&#x20AC; but I have used the words perfect and fully, comparatively: I would have them signify such a state of progression as to your minds would appear perfect, but which, nevertheless, is not perfect; but such a state of moral and mental progression, that the human mind could conceive no further progression possible. Spirits are progressive, and their progression is infinite, unceasing, eternal; their object is to attain perfect development, yet perfection cannot be attained by them. They aim at an attainment of the knowledge of all truth, but nevertheless can never attain this knowledge; for should they do so, or were they able to do so, they would cease to be finite, and would become infinite beings, â&#x201D;&#x20AC; and hence Deities in knowledge and power.

The Seventh Circle, or Third Sphere, is a grand Harmonial Sphere, and, unlike the lower state of Spirits, is not divided into societies, but is one grand society, the efforts of whose members are to develop their own, and mutually assist each other in the development of spiritual powers. There is about this sphere a moral and intellectual beauty that is dazzling to behold, and impossible to describe or conceive, until seen and known.

I have said, in a preceding page, that the tendency of Spirit is

progressive, and that it cannot by any possibility retrograde. By this I mean that eternal retrogression is impossible; but that, although in its inceptive stages of existence it may (in the First Circle) retrograde, this retrocession will, and must end in progression. I will here take occasion to say that, save in the First Circle, there is no retrogression, ─ but progression stamps the efforts, and is the motto of all Spirits.

The account which I have given of the Spirit Land differs, in very many of its points, very materially from the accounts given you by various spiritual clairvoyants, ─ as Swedenborg, Davis, the clairvoyants employed by Cahagnet, etc., ─ which conflicts will appear to you as necessary consequences of propositions before laid down by me; that the Spirit Land is a perfect type of each spirit’s desires and powers, and is only seen in its true state when the spirit has attained sufficient progression to enter the Sixth Circle of existence. That the various circles are made up by affinity of desires, and that, by no possibility, can the Spirit in the body go beyond the Fifth Circle of development.

Now you will at once perceive that a clairvoyant, being in a spiritual ecstasy, would naturally gravitate to that circle for which he had an affinity, and would perceive such a spiritual state as was compatible with his own prejudiced powers, etc. Hence Swedenborg, being educated to, and prejudiced in favor of, a belief in the “Holy Writ” (so

called), would perceive in the Spirit Land such a state or condition of life as was compatible with those prejudices, because his prejudices would exist in representation before him. Hence he, believing in the existence of “hell torments for the wicked, in a lake that burneth with fire and brimstone,” tells you that he saw in the Spirit Land not solely a Hell, but Hells, burning as aforesaid, compatible with his views.

No two Spiritual Clairvoyants have ever yet given you like accounts. of the spiritual condition; and yet this difference of accounts does not militate against the genuineness of their powers, but simply illustrates the truth of what I have said in relation to the Spirit Land being a perfect type of each spirit’s desires, powers, etc., ─ these desires and prejudices being before them in “REPRESENTATION.” Davis was less prejudiced than Swedenborg, as his mind had not been subjected to the discipline of the strait-jacket sectarianism, or a great degree of any species of education, ─ hence his powers were in a more natural or favorable condition to perceive, more nearly than Swedenborg, the spiritual state. Yet, if you compare the account of the Spirit Land, given by him, with his phrenological developments, and state of education at the time, you will find that it is such an account as would naturally be expected from him, in accordance with the statement before made, that “each Spirit perceives such a condition as is compatible with his desires, powers, education,” etc. Mr. Davis, as nearly as was possible for him, gave what he saw in the

spiritual plane, but yet did not give you a correct account. Not, however, were these errors the result of any willful or intentional purpose to inculcate error, but for the reasons before stated; ─ and here allow me to say, that, as a man, Mr. Davis has not his equal on your globe. He is actuated by the most pure intentions, and is a highly advanced Spirit. His motives are purely philanthropic, and there does not exist within him, in development, a vicious principle. Yet Mr. D.’s account of the Spirit Land you will perceive to be widely different from Swedenborg’s.

Mr. Cahagnet, of France, through clairvoyants employed by him, has issued to the world opinions in reference to this sphere, which widely differ from either of the preceding, and from the same cause. The clairvoyants employed by him were but slightly susceptible of spiritual ecstasies, and withal were in an imperfect state of development in every respect, and not very well calculated to give the world much light upon either spiritual or human matters. By these clairvoyants many exceedingly imperfect accounts were given, and such as are, in fact, in conflict with themselves.

The idea is there advanced that the apparel of each Spirit, in the body, is impregnated with spiritual emanations that enable it to exist here; hence that each Spirit is able to appear in any of its “bodily” apparel that it pleases, or in such apparel as it wore on Earth. Now

this, in one respect, is incorrect. The clothes of an individual are not able to obtain an existence here, from any spiritual emanations with which they become impregnated; but Spirits may appear to be dressed in their peculiar earthly-apparel, if they desire so to do, or if other Spirits desire them so to do, â&#x201D;&#x20AC; but not because their clothes spiritually exist, though they do exist in representation, or are mirrored from the memory, at the desire of the Spirit.

Spirits Influencing Mortals William W Aber Rending the Vail (1899)

2211. Question: "Swedenborg says that 'none exist without a guardian spirit.' Is he correct?" (a) Spirit: "Man cannot, or, rather, does not exist without a guide. Every idea you have is given you from this side of life. A great many speakers and writers claim their ideas as original, but they are mistaken. (b) "Their ideas are nearly all second-hand. Very few people are cognizant of the presence of their guides. Your guide is sent to you by a committee. If such is found incompetent, he is removed and another put in his place, until the proper guide for your case is obtained." Oration No. 34 (800)

Alcoholismâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Bicarbonate of Goldâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Obsessing Influences and the Remedy Spirit: "Have you any subject for this evening?"

2212. Miss Moore: "Is the bicarbonate of gold preparation for the cure of drunkenness permanent in its effects?" (c) Spirit: "No, it is not. The only remedy for drunkenness is the stoppage of the sale, the abolition of the traffic, of the business."

2213. Question: "Is drunkenness a disease?" (a) Spirit: "Not in the

ordinary sense. Drunkenness is caused from spirits on this side of life. (b) The habit formed while in the physical forms an abnormal appetite for strong drink, which adheres to the spirit on this side, giving him a thirst for it. (c) Persons who drink attract such spirits about them, who influence them on to a habit. (d) And the person who keeps the company of persons addicted to strong drink falls under the control of such guardian spirits, and so is led on by unseen and unrecognized influences.

2214. "There is one way to reform: by will-power. A firm determination to break away from the habit, and abandonment of the old associates and choosing of other and different influences attracts other and different spirits with a will-power to overcome the obsessing spirits. (a) Then these spirits seek other channels for the satisfaction of their perverted appetites, and leave their old captive free. (b) Then, as long as by your willpower you keep the company of temperate spirits, you are safe. (c) But spirits of strong will-power overcome the weak, and while the victim is drunk he is all the more easily obsessed. (d) Suppose you turn to be a thief, a murderer; you attract around you spirits of like passions, and you are driven on in your mad career.

2215. "That gentleman over there would associate with you until he would see whither you are leading. If he be a moral man, he will

break away, because his own guides will assist him so to do; but if he should have a constitution susceptible of low influences, he is apt to fall under the control of your spirits of passion and be led on with you.

2216. "You reach the spirit world with the passions you had on earth, and you attract and are attracted to like spirits, and you seek to satisfy those passions in the magnetisms of persons yet in the physical. And whenever you suffer the physical to submit to such controls, you are on the road to destruction.

2217. "All of these debasing influences are of spirits not progressed and that do not now desire to be elevated or to reach higher. But by and by he fails to find gratification; then considers, slowly turns about, and ultimately is schooled above this low condition.

2218. "Could your world understand these laws, you would soon be a race of better men and women."

Educate Spirits Walter DeVoe You Will Not Die! (1907)

It is a very common idea among believers in spirit return that spirits need no wisdom from the earth plane, that they have transcended our limited range of knowledge and that we should accept all they give us as final. This is a misconception that has caused many to be misled by unwise spirits, and made many negative and obedient to beings less developed than themselves. The truth is there is wisdom taught on the earth plane at the present time that would be of great value to all spirits that hover near the earth and also to many who have attained to purer and higher planes of spirit activity, if they have not yet received the same wisdom from the teachers in those more enlightened worlds.

There is one law of spirit return that few spirits fully comprehend, namely, that they unconsciously injure their friends when they desire to be of help to them through ignorance of the fact that a spirit absorbs the vitality of the person with whom he is present. Spirits must clothe themselves in the auric elements of their friends in order to enter into close unity with them and when a number of spirits are around one person continually, the drain on the magnetic force of

that person is very considerable. Even the strongest and most robust will show in flabby flesh and deficient nerve force after a time, that they are supporting too many spirits, a greater number than one body can provide with material force.

This condition is not confined to those who believe in spirit return. In every walk of life, the clairvoyant will find those whose peculiarly sensitive, mediumistic temperament has drawn to them a number of spirits who seek to live out their unfinished earthly career in the atmosphere of the earth, gaining earthly experience by proxy, and these unfortunate mediumistic persons suffer from a depletion of nerve force, which is often carried to the point of producing partial or entire paralysis of the nervous system.

The writer has in his work as a healer come in touch with a great number of cases, extending from slight nervous exhaustion to complete paralysis, including epilepsy in most of its forms, where the psychic perception revealed very clearly that the presence of spirits was the cause for the disease, and this perception of the cause has been confirmed over and over by his Hindu teachers.

In one case a lady physician who had loco-motor ataxia, complained of intense pain in the feet, hands and brain, and the cause of these pains was seen to be a dwarf, who was drawing out the nerve force

from the back of her neck and had been doing so for some time. After absorbing her strength, the spirit dwarf would depart for a while and she would be left alone. Later, she grew stronger and the pains ceased until her vital strength was largely restored, and then he would return and draw on her nerve energy until she was almost crazed with pain.

In cases of epilepsy, spirits very often work upon the solar plexus until they render their mediums unconscious. In many such cases, the spirits are of a low order, using the medium to gratify their sensual natures, and personalities who have been far from gross in their habits, become even in physical expression, sensual and coarse looking through the obsession of their mediumistic nature by immoral spirits. The writer could give a host of illustrations to prove these facts. Those who believe in spirit return, try to close their eyes to these facts, and very often their eyes are closed by spirits who do not want the truth known. Knowledge is power, and only by a clear knowledge of the causes of these conditions â&#x20AC;&#x201D; can sufferers be freed from a painful death-in-life existence.

When we think of the thousands that daily enter spirit life without aspiration for anything higher than mortal gratification and who now are free to take up their abode in almost any home they may choose, we begin to see the necessity for developing within ourselves a

degree of spiritual force that will enable us to resist and put away from us, and from our friends and patients, these unwise and immoral spirits.

Even our spirit friends must be taught of the effect of their presence in our atmosphere because in their love for us and from their great desire to bless us and aid us, they are apt to lose sight of the fact â&#x20AC;&#x201D; if they realize it at all â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that they are living among us at the expense of our vitality.

A minister came to me for mental treatments. He was a strong soul and many high and beautiful spirits were attracted to him because of the beauty of his soul and the inspiration they found in his sermons. They were of the same spiritual belief as he, and although they were very good, their presence was so depleting that he had become partially paralyzed. Clairvoyants in his congregation had told him of the beauty of his spiritual company, and he was much puffed up by the thought. I told him the truth, that we had to free him from his spiritual followers or his case would become worse. It was an easy matter to educate these spirits, who acknowledged they did not know that their presence was devitalizing to their friend. The strongest among them, immediately formed a band for his protection, much to his relief.

Not all spirits are so easily convinced of the mischief they are causing and very many refuse to give up their medium, or even give relief by partial absence, so intent are they upon carrying out their selfish plans.

A man was troubled by intense pain in one arm. He interviewed a professional medium, and the spirit who was causing the pain by drawing on his force, told the medium to tell him he was with him and was treating him and would heal him. He came to me for treatment and through the discriminating judgment of my spirit teacher, it was found that this spirit was playing false. He was cut off by the power of the word and the patient experienced relief.

I do not desire patients of this kind as they take too much time: I prefer to teach the law of cause and cure that each one may become his own healer. In fact, only as people understand these laws and develop their own spiritual selves, will permanent freedom be realized. Each soul has within its being the same powers that have been developed by the mighty masters and archangels in heaven, and each one is in this life to unfold and develop these latent powers.

Every truth that the student learns should be given by him to his spirit friends, should be proclaimed very positively to the hosts of spirits that live among mortals. They need truth: they need to receive the

teaching that will enlighten their minds and prepare them for entrance into the more enjoyable realms of light and love, and very often they will receive truth much more readily from their friends on earth than from the teachers that come to them from the more ethereal realms, because truths projected to them through mortal thought seem more substantial and real than those coming from above.

While my physical senses were asleep, in spirit I have had classes among spirits seeking knowledge, teaching them the power of though t to cause happiness and to free them from mortal limitations and how its persistent use would develop within them spiritual powers such as they saw manifest in the beautiful guides and helpers around them. They were shown how much power they possessed to help sorrowful and depressed spirits newly arrived from earth and inspired to go to work with the thoughts given and uplift the fallen, strengthen the weak and encourage the hopeless as a means to their own soul development. They were faithful to instructions and much good has been accomplished by their ministry. One little Indian girl was so very bright and quick to understand. She went to the Indian village from which she passed out and instructed the village soothsayer in the knowledge of the potency of thought to heal and in the optimistic philosophy of heaven-born truth.

Each one can do a grand, good work educating spirits in the higher truths of immortal life, and there is a soul reward in doing this work in the teaching force developed and in the joy of imparting what has been learned.

When you find a truth that is inspiring and uplifting, keep it for your spiritual friends and read it to them aloud, if possible, with all the enthusiasm you can generate. Teach them of the power that comes to spirits and mortals who work from the Spirit of Love and your words will often inspire them to more spiritual endeavor, enabling them to realize a power that will bring a return in blessings to you and to hundreds of others now groping in darkness.

Loosening The Ties Gambier Bolton Ghosts in Solid Form (1914)

Q. Will you explain more clearly what you mean by urging upon us to leave all undesirable earth-conditions behind us, when we pass out of our physical-bodies at the change which we term “death”?

A. Friend, could you but witness the pitiful sights which we see around us, as we carry on our mission work amongst the inhabitants of the First Sphere, you would realize the vast importance of our frequent injunction to you all to loosen your earth-ties before passing out of your bodies, so that such ties shall not tend to draw you back to earth in order that you may obtain a sense of gratification from them. Had you developed your gift of clairvoyance (or clear seeing) there would be no need for you to ask such a question as this of us, as you would be able to see for yourself, with your spiritual sight, at any time if you chose to do so, the miseries endured by the unhappy beings from the First Sphere; the earthbound Spirits of men and women of all classes, from the very highest socially down to the very poorest and most degraded — earth-bound Spirits who crowd your cities, towns, and villages, day and night, seeking to gratify, yes, and actually gratifying, their animal natures (the ones which they have

brought over to that sphere from your earth) through the instrumentality of the unhappy beings, the carnal-minded men and women of earth of all classes, who these First Sphere entities are able to control and use for this special purpose; so true it is, in both your world and ours, that “like attracts like.” Gambling, the love of dress, the love of your cruel blood sports, and the love of gold, hold legions of well-educated, as well as ignorant, men and women, who have passed out of their bodies for the last time, closely to earth.

“He who loves, and succors and saves even the least of God’s creatures, ministers to God Himself.”

Gluttony, the inordinate desire for food, and even worse, insobriety, the craving for intoxicating drink; and yet one state even lower still, animalism, the craving for sensuality — these hold countless legions of all classes to earth as earth-bound Spirits, who seek to gratify, and do actually gratify, those desires, through the carnal-minded people who exist in such vast numbers on your earth today. Round your banqueting halls, your restaurants and eating-houses, swarm legions of those from the First Sphere who still crave for the food of earth — the carnivorous man or woman, the gourmand, the glutton — endeavoring to gratify themselves, as Spirits, through the excesses of the human epicures they overshadow as they feast. Round the drinking saloons of your hotels, round the bars of your inns and

public-houses, swarm legions of those from the First Sphere, craving for alcoholic drink; and not only satisfying this craving as the wretched mortal imbibes his (or her) wine, beer, or alcohol, but actually urging that mortal to buy, or even to steal, more and more, until at length he (or she) falls to the ground helpless, as miserable drunkard; the controlling, overshadowing being from the First Sphere reveling in their drunkenness, as it satisfies their craving for alcohol for a time. And this is true also of animalism, sensuality: your public parks and open spaces, your brothels and “dens of infamy,” as you term them, are surrounded day and night by countless legions of those from the First Sphere, who seek to gratify, and do actually gratify, their animal desires, through the actions of the men and women of earth, the carnal-minded ones, who are imbued with similar desires and are able to carry them into effect; the controlling, overshadowing beings from the First Sphere urging them on to greater and still greater excesses, until at length the unhappy mortal drifts into the hospitals specially prepared to receive such cases, into the prisons, the asylums, or even terminates his (or her) earth-life as a suicide, through his animalism.

Can you wonder, then, that knowing as we do of the horrors awaiting those who pass out of their earth-bodies with their animal passions still enthralling them in their deadly embrace, can you wonder that we urge upon you to “loosen the ties” of earth; to so master yourselves

here and now that you shall leave behind you for ever all undesirable conditions on earth, when you pass out of your physical bodies for the last time and enter upon â&#x20AC;&#x153;the spheres of active lifeâ&#x20AC;??

Planes of Debauchery and Obsession in Hell William Walker Atkinson The Astral World (1916)

Looking around you, in the dim, ghastly light of this region, you perceive countless human forms, of the most repulsive appearance. Some of them are so low in the scale as to seem almost beast-like, rather than human. There are still lower forms on the subdivisions just below this one, but I shall spare you the disgusting sight. These creatures are disembodied souls, in the astral body, living on the low plane to which they descended when awakening from their very brief astral sleep.

If you will peer through the enveloping fog, you will become conscious of the presence of the material world as a sort of background. To you it appears detached, and removed in space, but to these creatures — these low souls

— the two planes seem to

be blended. To them, they appear actually to be abiding in the scenes and among the persons of the lowest phases of earth life. Even you find that you can see only the very low earth-scenes in the background — the higher scenes appear blotted out with great smears, like a censored newspaper page in war times. To these poor souls there is no earth world except these scenes which accord with

their old desires.

But while apparently living amid these old familiar and congenial low earth-scenes, these souls are really suffering the fate of Tantalus. For while they plainly see these scenes, and all that is going on in them, they cannot otherwise participate in the revels and debaucheries which they perceive plainly

— they can SEE only

— as for the rest they participate only vicariously. This renders the place a veritable hell for them, for they are constantly tantalized and tormented by sights of scenes in which they cannot participate. They can exercise simply "the lust of the eye," which is but as a thorn in the flesh to them. On all sides, on earth-life, they see their kind (in the flesh) eating, drinking, gambling, engaging in all forms of debauchery and brutality

—

and while they eagerly cluster around, they

cannot make their presence felt (under ordinary circumstances) nor can they participate in the scenes which they witness. The lack of the physical body is indeed a very hell to them, under such circumstances.

The astral atmosphere of low dram-shops, pool rooms, gambling halls, race tracks, "free-and-easies," brothels, "red-light" districts — and their more fashionable counterparts — are filled with these low astral forms of souls across the astral border. Occasionally, they are able to influence some earth companion, who is so saturated

with liquor, or overcome by drugs, that he is physically open to such influences. When they so influence him, they strive to lead him into further degradation and debauchery, for, in so doing, they obtain a reflex gratification, as it were. But I shall not dwell upon this subject â&#x20AC;&#x201D; it is too loathsome. In some instances, the sojourn on this low astral sub-plane sets up such a strong desire for rebirth in the flesh, among similar scenes, that the poor soul eagerly presses forward toward reincarnation on a similar low plane. In other cases, I am glad to say, the experience so sickens and disgusts the poor soul that it experiences a revulsion and disgust for such things, in which case the current of its desires naturally carries it in the opposite direction, and it is given the opportunity to rise in the scale of the Astral, where its better tendencies are encouraged, and a better rebirth finally results.

At the end, however, in nearly all cases "living-out" results in "out-living," and even the lowest rises in time. Some few souls, however, sink so low as to be incapable of rising, and they meet the final fate (not of damnation) of annihilation. Even in these hells of the astral, however, the degraded souls are "punished not for their sins, but by them" as an old writer once forcibly stated it.

But this particular scene is not the only one on this sub-plane of the Astral

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; it has many counterparts. I cannot take time to show

them all to you, or to describe the m in detail. I can illustrate the idea, however, by stating that close to the scene you have just witnessed, is another in which the actors are those miserly, money- loving souls, who have sold all their better nature for the mess of pottage of worldly gain. The punishment, by the sin rather than for it, is similar to that of the low souls in the preceding scene. They are tormented by the sight, but are tantalized by not being able to participate. The result is practically similar to that mentioned in the last case - some find desire increased, and others find disgust and nausea and thus seek the way to higher things. There are hundreds of similar regions on the lower Astral, some of which are much higher, however, than those we have just considered. All of them serve as a Purgatory, or place of the burning-out of desires of a low kind

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; not the burning

of material flames, but by the fire of the desire itself, as we have seen. This idea of burning away, or purging, of the low desires, is found to permeate nearly all religions, and has its basis in the facts of the Astral.

The Dangers of Obsession J.S.M. Ward A Subaltern in Spirit-Land (1916)

REX

After my uncle, H.J.L., had arrived, and you had gone, he

said:

UNCLE

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Now Rex, you are on the astral plane.

You are still

partly material, though you are now, as it were, refined matter, the same as gas is compared to solid matter.

The astral plane impinges

on the earth plane, and partakes of its nature far more than the plane of the spirits in which I properly dwell.

[H.J.L. is acting as a temporary guide for his nephew until he gets settled in with his new life in the Spirit World, and his regular guide can be located].

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The astral plane corresponds fairly well to the idea of purgation, but the spirit plane contains what you know as Hell, and also part of the lower Heavens, but not the real high Heavens. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In the astral plane you will find that you are still subject to earth influences. It is usual to speak as if earth influences are all to the bad, but this is not so. Here you can redeem past failings by doing good on the earth plane,

and cleanse your spirit of earthly faults, but also, of course, you can hanker after forbidden earthly pleasures, and, in a dim mockery of a way, can enjoy them [vicariously], but to your bane.

Here you can

commit further sins, and, finally, cause your soul to drop down into that part of the spirit plane which is properly called Hell, and from thence it is far harder to climb than from this plane to the happy planes above. “I said ‘properly called Hell,’ for there are parts of this astral plane which, to the superficial observer, appear very much like Hell.

Still, this will hardly surprise you, seeing even on earth itself

are to be found very close imitations of Hell. It is natural that where evil people congregate, there a condition will be found which approximates to Hell. “The thing you have to do is to shun such districts carefully, and especially avoid people of an obviously evil nature.

Those who suggest obsession, and so forth, are to be

avoided at all costs.

REX

UNCLE

You know what obsession is, I perceive?”

Yes, Jack explained that to me once rather fully.

Unfortunately, your guide seems to have drifted

rather far from you, but, doubtless, we shall rectify that in time.

you are a young man, you will probably find that your astral form is a strong one, and will last for a considerable time.

Therefore, you

must prepare to stay here for a considerable period, and, as it were, make it your home.

Further, you will find that the “earth pull” is very

strong, and you must resist it.

Above all, you must resist any

temptations to obtain the old earth pleasures by obsessing, and so forth.

You will come across a fair number of beings who will try to

lead you astray in this matter, just as on earth there are always plenty of people ready to show a man the shortest path to destruction; so be wary. Again, you have separated your Guardian Spirit from you by a wall of misdeeds, and so forth, and your first work must be to dissolve that barrier by doing good deeds, and especially by helping people both on earth and here on this plane of existence. Not that I mean to imply that you have not any good deeds to your account. I know you have a great many, but what we want are more, and especially unselfish deeds. I mean that you should do things that you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like for the sake of helping others.

Not merely doing

things that your nature inclines you to do. Thus, you are by nature fond of children, and have many meritorious acts recorded on that score in your favour. What you need to do is to make a special effort, as it were, to level up that score in other directions.

REX

UNCLE

What is the geography of this place?

All things that have material form have an astral form.

To this plane come the astral forms.

REX

What, do you mean that if I made a toy, and it was

destroyed, I should find its astral form here?

UNCLE

Yes, and when you come on to the plane of pure form in

the spirit plane you might find it there also, unless, indeed, it was so ugly or so badly made that it had gone to Hell!

REX

Then we are like God, who is said to create things?

UNCLE

Certainly, to create is Godlike.

Thus buildings which

perish come here, and also to the plane above.

Here come animals,

and trees and flowers, rocks and landscapes and so forth.

REX

But what is the difference of the forms or bodies, on the

two planes?

UNCLE

It is easy for me to know the difference, but not so easy

to explain it, especially in the case of inanimate objects. Roughly, the form remains entangled in the astral body for some time after the astral body escapes from the material.

This latter process on earth

we call death. Here, in the astral plane, the astral body goes on, and is inhabited for some time by the soul which is enclosed in the spiritual body or form. In time, sooner or later, we â&#x20AC;&#x153;shed our astral body.â&#x20AC;?

This is the best phrase to describe this second death. Then,

freed from the astral body, the soul rises to the spirit plane, either to

enter one of the three divisions of light, or sink to the realms of darkness called Hell. From the divisions of light it passes through the “great wall of fire,” and there loses its mixed form. What happens after that I know not. But that is a long way off for both you and me. Now, when the “form” leaves the astral body the latter continues to last often for a while, just as a corpse does.

In some cases it breaks

up almost at once, particularly in the cases of old people, whose astral bodies have become worn out like their physical ones. I am a case in point. I hardly realized I was on the astral plane before my astral body dissolved and I had passed on to the spirit plane. But often, in the case of a young man, he cannot get clear of his astral body. If he goes in for obsessing, however, his spiritual body seems to become too gross to remain in the astral body, and shatters it, and he drops down to Hell.

On the other hand, if he does a lot of good

his spirit form will shake itself clear of the astral body and rise to our plane.

Then that astral body, now an empty “shell,” may dissolve or

may drift about aimlessly.

I have known cases where a “shell” has

hung round some old haunt of its earth life for several centuries. Many of the famous ghosts which haunt the country houses of Great Britain are of this nature, though not all by any means.

[See Derek Acorah’s TV series, “Most Haunted” and “Ghost Towns” and many “Haunted” series in the USA and “Rescue Mediums” and “Creepy Canada.” here, and now some more “Down Under.”]

But most of those aimless, purposeless ghosts, who simply turn up on certain anniversaries and do nothing in particular, belong to this group. As to animals, the highest types of animals, those closely associated with man, often attain to our realms, but the less human ones, as it were, seem to remain more or less permanent on the astral plane, e.g. lions and wolves, and most of the prehistoric creaturesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; progress.

I rather think some of them do, but that was one of the subjects I was studying when I broke it off to come and help you. As to the inanimate, as we call it on earth, it is well to realize that everything has life, even to the tiniest atom; taking a house as an example: as soon as destroyed, but not before, it comes to the astral plane. Here it remains for a long time, as a rule.

So long as there are any

astral beings on the astral plane who knew it on earth, and recognize it, there it will remain. When there are no longer any such left, it fades away, and breaks up into astral elements, just as its material elements on earth break up and fall back into the general mass of matter. From these astral elements new astral forms are always being built up.

Then there are those astral beings who were never

on earth, but Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll tell you about them at another time. The form of a building, on the other hand, goes straight to the realm of form, and from there, so far as I can discover, remains for ever.

According to

its beauty, it will go to the realms of light and to the various divisions of them, or to Hell. Even a building partly rebuilt will come to that realm.

Thus, Westminster Abbey may be seen in the various

stages of its development. Thus, also, on the astral plane and on the spirit plane, one may see the same building to all appearances. But the astral form is temporary, and the spirit form fixed and permanent.

REX

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wonderfully interesting, and I can see I have a vast deal

to learn!

UNCLE

The first thing to do is to give you a chance of settling

down among these new surroundings, and, above all, to get your thoughts off the battlefield and such-like scenes. So, now, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m going to isolate you from all this. Indeed from the present world itself.

Then Rex described to Jack what happened to him next while his uncle and another officer in spirit, the Adjutant, listened too: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Then we rose and started on a long and seemingly endless journey, amid a thick fog, and overshadowed by tumult and fear. Every now and then I caught a fleeting glimpse of the landscape, which steadily grew wilder and stranger.

I passed over what appeared to be great

ice-fields, and then through primeval forests across tropic swamps, and on and on till life failed, till even the strange monsters of

prehistoric times ceased, and a great silence settled on all.

Slowly

this silence ate into my brain. At times it was almost painful, and acted like a cauteriser, burning away the hideous tangle of shattered nerves. After a while this stage passed, and it began to act like a soothing balm.

Gradually my whole being seemed to expand and

drink it in, and my surroundings grew clearer and plainer. I realized that I was seated in the midst of a stony waste, where perpetual silence reigned. Then, far away in the distance, I saw a faint speck of light.

It grew brighter and brighter, as if it were approaching, but I

could see no form. Yet I knew at once there was a form, only distant from me an immeasurable space. As when, seated on a river’s bank some dark night, one gazes down into the black waters and sees just one star reflected there, and the dark waters reflect not only the lone star, but also, in some mysterious way, the vast space which lies between our world and it – so it was now between me and my Guide. Then, across the limitless space, came a sound and a voice – like the note of a mighty organ far, far away.

It swelled and swelled as it

grew nearer, and finally it burst like a tempest upon me. was superb and yet and yet awful.

In some such way I could

imagine the angels’ trump will sound at the last day. there is a last day.

Its music

If, indeed,

Or is it, that for me this was the “last day”, and

this the trump of the archangel calling me to judgment? I know not. But in that manner I can best describe the effect of that mighty cadence.

The music was exquisite, yet the pain was intense. It

burst on me and over me. It beat me to the dust.

It overwhelmed me and shattered me.

Yet it was articulate, and the words it spoke

were words of comfort and good cheer.

GUIDE

My son, you have started on the right path. You have

broken down the outer darkness which shuts me away from you. Go on and prosper little by little. I shall draw nearer, and remember, though you may drive me away from you, yet will I never desert you. I cannot draw any nearer than this lest I overwhelm you utterly.

see how even this first vision of me has shattered and dazed you. Grow strong in good works, in loving acts, in unselfish thoughts, and so, as you grow more able to bear the sight of the Glory, it shall be revealed to you.

Rex told Jack: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Slowly the cadence receded, and a great silence took its place. I gazed on the lone star, and it changed from white to blue and blue to green, and green to orange, and orange to red, and red to purple.

The purple grew pale and became like lavender, and the

lavender was diffused with pink which flashed into an extraordinary colour which melted into silver. Then waves of darkness rolled over my star, fold by fold.

I could see it no more. Slowly the wall of the

house became visible and then I saw my uncle again.

REX

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s impossible to describe that beautiful colour, is it not?

UNCLE

Yes, there is no such colour on earth. It cannot be

described.

Jack, who was out-of-body visiting the astral realms, and the Uncle and another officer, an adjutant, in spirit, had been listening to Rex’s account of his experiences.

OFFICER

Youngster, that was the most wonderful description

I’ve ever heard. I felt that I was actually witnessing the episode.

JACK

UNCLE

So did I.

So did we all, we saw the forms of his thoughts. It is

not so easy here as in the sixth plane, where it is the normal thing, yet here it can be done. Indeed, even on earth it is occasionally done, so it is not surprising that it should be possible here. Jack.

Rex, by helping the Adjutant, has helped himself.

Yes,

He has

drawn a little nearer to his guide. A good start. A good beginning – but there is a long journey yet.

The Antechamber of Hell JSM Ward A Subaltern in Spirit Land (1916)

Again, as before, I was aware of the hideous conflict of the good and the evil powers. I determined to try and note some of these strange beings, so unlike anything I had ever even dreamed of. I saw a good number of bloated, shapeless monstrosities, with slanting eyes and masses of feelers, more animal than human in shape, such creatures as the foul animal that had barred my path the first time.

There was a creature that looked like a serpent, save that its head was almost human but viler than the most depraved human could be. Another type was of the nature of an enormous bat, but the head was different. These creatures mostly had huge goggling eyes and beak-like mouths. There was quite a number of huge dragons, not unlike the fabled monsters of legend, together with strange creatures like griffins, huge spider-like monstrosities, and curious masses of fungous growth, which moved and floated amid the red waves.

The only thing they bad in common was their eyes, which were either large, goggling, and globular in shape, or else narrow and slanting. All were yellow or red, and absolutely malevolent in expression.

Here and there I saw creatures which looked like men, and yet were not, and also strange composite creatures, half-human, half-animal.

One of these man-like monsters, huge, in stature, and apparently a leader, barred my path. Enormous he was, and his shape, though blurred and indistinct, took the form of a naked man, with huge, distorted, and misshapen limbs. His face was black, save for the eyes; no nose and mouth at all, just two long, narrow, slit-like eyes, set at a curious angle, the top reaching towards the ears, the bottom almost joining just below where the mouth should have been.

Yet the thing could speak, or, rather, deliver its thoughts, for it cried out, â&#x20AC;&#x153;I have heard of your coming and going thus unmolested through our ranks, but this time they shall end. Stay!â&#x20AC;? And I stayed. Cold dread seized hold of me. My heart seemed to stand still, but, of course, I had no such organ, yet such is the force of habit that I experienced just this feeling. I cried on my guide for help as the evil monster rushed on me; and my angelic guide came.

But though the other creatures fell away before the rays of blinding light which poured from him, yet the leader moved not. Instead, he seemed to pour forth in answer from his whole body clouds of dull brown smoke. A kind of darkness which beat up against the light

and held it there, while from under the shadow of the darkness his followers gathered and shrieked defiance at my guide.

Fiercer and fiercer grew the light, and denser grew the mass of brown-black smoke.

Then I perceived that we were moving. I sensed it, as it were, for I could see nothing but a ring of darkness around the spot of intense light in which I stood, and which burnt me fiercely.

On we moved, and suddenly the wall of darkness shivered, and I perceived why. We had reached the spot where the powers of light came up against the powers of darkness, and their light had joined hands with that of my guardian spirit.

Then it faded away, and on I went through similar scenes to those described before till I came to H. J. L. and R. L. W. in their house. Here I told them of my adventures on the way, and inquired: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Do you think that this power of my guide's to make me unaware of what is happening would be effective if I were dead, or do all who die have to pass through that field of struggling spirits?â&#x20AC;?

R. L. W. "Well, if it helps to elucidate that point, I've never passed through it, but I've seen quite a number of elementals on different

occasions.”

H. J. L. "Let us ask my guide."

Slowly the great white figure appeared, and, as its whiteness grew in intensity, R. L. W. covered his eyes with his hand, and then sank to the ground. The sight of the majestic figure almost blinded me, but I was just able to bear it. Then the bell-like voice pealed out:

“Those who deserve to be hurled into such surroundings will see them, and, since they must be very evil to go there, their guides will long since have fled from them, therefore no help will reach them. This is the antechamber of Hell. Though it is on the astral plane, seldom, if ever, does a man escape therefrom. Thence the road lies, through the valleys of Hell, and so to the hill which leads to redemption.

“It is well that you should see these places, for they are springs from which flow so much that is evil both on earth and on this plane. As much as you can bear is revealed to you, and no more.

“The ordinary mortal passes through the earth plane even as your brother did, and there sees the newly slain still fighting as on earth, but the region where the evil powers well up is the antechamber of

Hell, and only after a time does the hardened sinner sink there.

“Just as those who grow better weary of the strife between man and man and wander away into the regions where you now are, so those who grow more and more evil sink away from the conflict with men into the conflict of the powers of evil, where these destroy their astral bodies and hurl them into that part of the spirit plane which you call Hell.”

The voice ceased and he vanished, and after a while Rex recovered. Then I spoke to H. J. L. "What of those who wander away from the fight, yet after a while fall into the sin of obsession and so sink to Hell?"

H. J. L. “There are many roads to Hell, just as there are many roads to the realms above. The regions of hate are the planes where the conflict between the powers is raging. Most of the sins of obsession fall under other headings, and so to Hell, when the sinner has destroyed his astral body, but it would be quite possible to work back to that very strata via the road of obsession. There are many such cases where an astral obsesses a man to murder or worse. That astral will pass through the same red sea to Hell.

Spirit Vices J.S.M. Ward A Subaltern in Spirit-Land (1916)

“But have you had a really decent drink over here one like you used to have on earth?”

“‘I admitted I had not, and that the drinks one got at the bill simply made one crave for more and brought no real satisfaction;’

“Ah, you haven’t learnt how to drink, and until you know how you won’t possibly understand how to get married here.’

“You trot along to your friend the Captain, and ask him to give you a wrinkle or two.”

“‘I soon found the Captain, and explained what had happened.

“I’ll soon show you how to get a drink, a proper drink, and the ‘little lady’ can then explain how to get married. Here, T., take our young friend down to earth again, and initiate him.”

“So T. and I went off together.’

“He ceased for a moment, apparently trying to pull himself together to make the further revelations, which he felt to be of a most unpleasant nature.

“The Officer spoke to me (R.L.W.): ‘It’s a devilish clever scheme ... I have known for some time that they were working against us, but this is the best account I have had yet. Note the ingenuity displayed. The real controlling entities keep absolutely in the background. If they dealt with these young fellows direct, their evil natures would be so evident that the youngsters would avoid them like poison. So they get other men, themselves newcomers, and not wholly bad, to do their work. As it is almost impossible for one man to deceive another here, they trade upon their ignorance rather than upon deliberate deception.

“‘The members of the counter-organization have no real knowledge of the absolute wickedness of obsession, nor of its terrible results. They have a smattering of knowledge about this plane, and none of the spirit plane, and so can genuinely think what they say about me and it.

“It is clever, too, how they utilize the truth about my former evil life, and yet miss its real significance. Then, too, imitation of our organization is absolutely diabolically clever, for it catches the

unwary in a trap.

Again, the gentle, downward path, at first

appearing perfectly innocent, the appeal to the material and earthly instincts of their victims, and the way in which such an attitude is justified by the apparently earthly surroundings in which the newly slain find themselves, shows that there is a master mind at work.

“But the Subaltern wants to continue his narrative:”

“He later continued:

‘He took me down to the earth plane, where we entered a famous nightclub in the West end. We passed through the walls, which seemed wan and shadowy, into the saloon, where we saw many mortals dancing, and many astrals watching them. From thence we entered a bar where men and women were seated at tables, drinking liqueurs and various other drinks.

“What would you like?” my companion inquired.

“A good stiff whisky and soda,” I replied.

“Do as I do” he remarked, and began to twine himself round one of the drinkers in a most extraordinary manner.

“‘There were several men drinking really heavily, and I tried each in turn, but could not find out the knack.

“‘At last, after closely watching several other astrals, I discovered the secret, just as the show was coming to an end. I got my drink, however. ‘The effect was extraordinary, and more closely resembled drinking whisky on earth than any of my previous experiences in the astral club.

“‘But as soon as the mortal threw me off, and staggered out of the room, the craving grew on me and I longed for another.

“‘T. took me to a large hotel, but owing to the drink restrictions, we found the private bar empty. There were other astrals there already, but I could not restrain my impatience, and going behind the bar tried to pull out the cork of a bottle of brandy. Of course I could affect nothing, so wandered up and down impatiently till at last the doors were opened, and customers began to enter.

‘Most of them were quite moderate drinkers who took a glass or two and then went about their business. We rushed at them, but were quite unable to get hold of them.

‘At length a commercial traveller came in who had already had as

much as was good for him. The landlord eyed him suspiciously, but evidently came to the conclusion that he was not sufficiently far gone to justify a refusal to serve him. There was a rush for this man, and being less cunning than the rest, I was shouldered aside, and had the great mortification of seeing another astral finally obtain control, though not till after a fierce struggle with T. Presently the landlord refused to serve the commercial with any more liquor, and the man went out cursing, and the astral with him still entwined with his body.

“‘As the day wore on others came in, and at last I got my chance, and attached myself to a cardsharper, through whom I obtained several drinks. At 2:30 we were all turned out, and I stuck like glue to the cardsharper. He had bought a couple of bottles of whisky, and went off with two others to a dingy little office in Pimlico.

“‘The three men sat round a dusty table, telling yarns and drinking hard till they had finished not only my man’s two bottles; but three others which the other two had bought.

“‘One of the men collapsed in a drunken stupor, but the other two, though a bit dazed, pulled themselves together and. after being violently sick, started out again.

“‘While they were feeling sick, I felt the same, and I also felt very

stupid. I felt as though I could not leave these two, although I had had enough of the whole business. I had to go with my man, who drifted into a very second-rate “pub” in the Euston Road, and there began to work various card tricks. He drank fairly heavily, and I with him. I found now that I could not get away, try as I would, and began to regret my conduct most bitterly.

“‘In the midst of one of his cleverest card tricks he was arrested by one of his supposed dupes, who revealed himself as an astute detective, who had been put on his track. His confederate was also arrested, and the pair taken off in custody.

‘While in jail he was, of course, unable to obtain any liquor, and by degrees I found the invisible chain which bound him to me growing weaker. At length I shook myself free, and after wandering about the earth plane, succeeded in returning to the club of the astral plane.

“‘Here I met my lady friend, to whom I described my adventures, but when I went on to say how disgusted I was about the whole business, and how ashamed of myself, she rather laughed at me, and said, “You were new to this business and overdid it. You must be more moderate in future; then you won’t get tied to the mortal.” She then explained that we could get “married” in a similar manner. I was rather afraid of a second experiment after my first, but for fear of

being laughed at by her, and called a milksop, I consented.

“‘I need not go into the whole business. You probably understand the whole beastly affair better than I do, but you have to bear in mind that this was a more complicated business than the last one. There were two of us and two mortals needed to complete the experiment but at length we were successful.

“‘After a time the vice seemed to grip both us and the mortals in a fiendish grip, and though after a time we tired of each other and of our mortal victims, we were unable to get free.

“‘At length the man became ill, and this, as in the case of the card sharper’s imprisonment, procured my release. My lady friend also obtained her freedom, but by now she was tired of me, and took up with another astral officer.

“‘I should doubtless have drifted back into my old ways had it not been for my mother.

“‘I was startled one day by hearing my Christian name shouted in my ear. I looked round, but there was no one, and again and again my name was called. I seemed to be drawn in the direction from whence it came. As I drew nearer, I recognized my mother’s voice. ‘My pace

increased, and I found myself in her room. She was praying.

‘As I

heard her prayers, my heart was filled with remorse, and I realized how degraded I was becoming. She was grieving still for me, and I rushed instinctively towards her, but was instantly hurled back by some tremendous power. So I turned and fled in utter misery, not knowing where to go. I would not go back to the club. I felt somehow that it was the cause of all my troubles, so went back to the battle-field, of all unlikely places. It was more by instinct than from any intelligent reason, but I fancy it was because I had made a false start, and wanted to begin all over again.

“‘Almost at once I was picked up by a man belonging to the Officer’s organization. At first I thought it was one of the old gang and told him to be off, but he stuck tight to me, and after a while he said something about the Officer. At once I remembered the Captain’s attack on the Officer. I promptly said to myself, “That last organization led me astray. It was avowedly a counter-blast to this one. Perhaps, after all; this is a good organization.”

“By now I was feeling desperately lonely, and moreover, the old desires were coming back. I felt that if I did not get with someone who would help me to keep away from these temptations, I should have to give way to them. So I determined to chance it.

“‘So I told the private to lead me to the Officer himself. He demurred at first, but I insisted, and at length he did so.

“‘As soon as I saw him I felt the magic of his influence. He seemed to sum me up in a moment. He was strong, and I gained new strength from his proximity, which helped me to resist the terrible temptations which were beginning to worry me once more.

“‘Now, I’ve told you everything I can remember. I am thoroughly ashamed of myself. This obsessing is a horrible habit. It’s like drug-taking on earth, and once started grows and grows on one till it becomes absolutely one’s master.

“‘The Officer “has been a brick, and without his help I should have given up the struggle.’

The Drunkardsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Pit James Hewat Mckenzie Spirit Interaction (1917)

A dwelling of drunkards was shown, where men and women were congregated in varying stages of dejection and filth, and where the craving for drink was felt more or less keenly. Some who had been there for years were beginning to lose the desire for alcohol, and occasionally interested themselves in others around them. In course of time this awakened interest would lead them also to a happier state by lightening the spirit body, and enabling it to scale the cliffs which kept it prisoner.

Attention was called to one woman who was walking to and fro, demanding from others how she might return to earth, swearing that if once there she would be able to find her thirst for drink satisfied. Some laughed, telling her they believed it was possible to get there, but by what means they did not know. Learning of the possibility, she became more and more determined, and the higher watchers helped her to the accomplishment of her object, seeing that only in this way would she learn her lesson. It is commonly supposed that evil spirits of a low order can leave their spheres whenever they feel disposed, and haunt the neighborhood where they once lived, but this cannot

be done without help from others who know the way. When such visit the earth, they are actually unconscious that they are being helped to accomplish their purpose, as the guides who assist them are unseen by them, owing to the fact that these guides function in a body less dense, and so are invisible to their sight.

The bodies of spirits living upon the astral planes are of such a dense nature that gravitation affects them, and so they are afraid to visit the earth by flight, even if they knew how to journey there. Tippling Nell, the drunkard to whom we have referred, found herself one night upon the earth near her favorite public house, but how she managed it she could not say. She arrived at “The Red Lion” about 9 p.m., just as a poor, hard-working charwoman entered for some refreshment, determined to have one drink and no more. Here Nell was left by the guide who had assisted her to earth, and who knew how and where to find her again when required. Now began a drama similar to many that are enacted not only within public-houses, but in many homes and places of business, though realized but by few, How could Mrs. Brown, the charwoman, quietly sitting in the bar, know that one from spirit spheres stood beside her? She was totally ignorant of the fact, and altogether unconscious of the latter’s power to influence her actions.

Mrs. Brown had half-a-crown in her pocket when she entered the

bright and comfortable public-house where she intended to spend but a few moments, as she knew her children waited at home for something to eat. She did not leave, however, till eleven oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;clock that night, when her funds were reduced to a few pence, and when she was in capable of walking straight. Meanwhile, the unseen occupant of the saloon had endeavored to enjoy by proxy the alcoholic drinks taken by Mrs. Brown, but although Nell tried again and again to gain satisfaction in this way, each drink taken by her victim only tantalized her the more, and though she haunted the public-house for days and weeks, she never once secured that pleasure which she had so long anticipated. Wearied by her effort, she began to hunger for the company of those whom she had left in the spiritual world, where she was able at least to see and communicate with companions, for here on earth, to her surprise, the people completely ignored her, for to them she was non-existent. Her wish was quickly gratified through the agency of her unseen guide, who assisted her return to her lowly place in the heavens. When Nell had settled again in her rocky gorge, she sulked for some time, and more and more held herself aloof from her companions. Sitting thus alone, her mind wandered back to her early days on earth when she was a child. She remembered her motherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cottage, and the clean and happy life she lived there, and comparing it with her present filthy surroundings and her degraded friends, she wished that she might be a child again.

How long this mental agony continued it would be difficult to say; probably weeks and months elapsed while she sat in this state, until the feeling of disgust became so powerful, that she determined to make an effort to free herself from her surroundings. With this object in view she diligently sought a means of escape by the only way that seemed possible to her, by mounting the rocky walls of her prison. After long effort she at last scaled their precipitous steeps, and was met at the summit by one who to her ignorant eyes seemed an angel. Grasping the extended hand held out to her they rose together into the atmosphere, Nell surprised at the lightness of her own body, which until then she had scarcely observed, but which had gradually been purified during the months of mental suffering she had endured. After travelling for some considerable distance, they presently drew near a country most beautiful to her eyes, and she longed to ask questions from her spirit companion. No encouragement to speak was given, but by some means she was able to recognize that the intentions of her companion were good, and that she was being taken to friends who would be able to help her to begin an entirely new life. Drawing near a little cottage situated on a hill-side, they saw one approaching, who seemed to Nell to be her own mother. In a moment she found herself weeping in her arms, while her guide who had brought her thus far in safety was no longer to be seen. This typical incident in the translation of souls as they rise from dens of sin and ignorance to higher spheres of light was an ascent from the

lower to the upper astral plane, passing through the middle degree.

The question may be asked, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Why should such temptation by unseen spiritual beings upon mortals, as mentioned in the above incident, be allowed?â&#x20AC;? First, it must be realized that no spirit can force a mortal to do what he does not wish to do; and secondly, the temptation offered is exactly similar in kind and degree to that which the mortal has to face from his own fellow-creatures.

The Ouija-Table Hester Travers Smith Voices from The Void (1919)

Be careful that the room in which the sitting is to take place is a quiet one; a noisy street or sounds in the house are very disturbing to a sitting, a ticking clock in the room even may annoy the control.

Be sure that the seats at the ouija-table are high enough to allow the sitters' hands to be on a level with it so that there is no strain on the arm and the hand can rest on the traveler in a completely relaxed state.

The light in the room should be sufficient for the person reading at the board to see the room should be agreeable. Any discomfort to the sitters keeps back results.

Not more than two people outside the sitters are desirable. Any crowd or feeling of strain or even whispered conversation is sure to interfere with the controls.

Everyone present should be calm and patient. Do not press for results. One disturbing presence in a room can ruin a sitting. Select

those who habitually come to your sittings with great care.

Be sure that you have all that is necessary for the sitting conveniently at hand before you begin. A silk duster for polishing the glass, a bottle of methylated spirit and some French chalk are generally useful. It is essential that the glass should be well polished and the traveler properly shod so that jerking and creaking may be avoided.

Arrange that no one is admitted to the room during the sitting. The most interesting communications may be broken off by a servant entering the room or even knocking at the door. The sitters should rest at the end of every half hour or so. No sitting should ever continue for more than two hours.

It is almost useless to sit in disturbed or stormy weather. Turmoil in the atmosphere seems to affect psychic communication.

Never sit when you are tired and ailing. This is a useless expenditure of force and the controls will at once recognize your physical condition. If a control (no matter how familiar you are with him) suggests seizure or obsession take your hand off the traveler at once and break off the communication.

Treat your controls and the communicators they bring with courtesy

as you would any guest at your house. If they are undesirable you will probably soon discover it, if you observe carefully. A mocking or discourteous attitude very naturally retards the communication.

Never encourage communicators who profess to have led evil and criminal lives. The fact that they tell you these facts generally means that they will eventually attempt obsession.

It is best not to call up any special communicator. There are two obvious objections to doing so; it may bring the sub-consciousness of the sitter into play and assuming that impersonation is frequent it opens the door to fraudulent spirits.

Do not interrupt your communicators with frequent questions. Let them talk as much as they will and only say what is necessary. Otherwise if you reflect on what has passed you will find the communication comes chiefly from yourself.

Do not sit more than twice a week at most. It is far better to sit regularly in this way for a reasonable time than to have an occasional sitting of longer duration.

Take a record of every sitting whether interesting or the reverse. It is only by heaped up evidence, good and bad, that you can attain to

any conclusion as to the nature of your results.

If either sitter shows signs of trance conditions coming on or becomes excited or hysterical, break off the sitting at once. You cannot foretell the result if you continue.

The preceding hints may be useful to beginners for whose benefit I have jotted them down. I have perhaps hardly emphasized enough the importance of the careful selection of sitters and the fact that good work must be the result of patience and regularity. Strangers in the room nearly always check free and satisfactory communications. The control or discarnate spirit or sub-conscious mind seems more sensitive to atmosphere than the living human being.

Curiously enough I find sex is a factor in the choice of sitters. The best combination for ouija-work is a man and a woman. Two women sometimes work excellently together, but I have never come across an instance of any results worth speaking of being achieved by two men.

Many inexperienced people think that because a discarnate spirit professes to speak to them this entity must of necessity possess miraculous powers. "Can it tell what horse will win the Derby?" or "Ask it when the War will end." These persons must learn that, so far

as we can tell, discarnate spirits and controls are much in our own position unless specially gifted with prevision, and that when this quality is present it is almost invariably personal-connected with some sitter in whom the control or communicator is interested. Discarnate spirits seem to lose touch with this world rapidly; they have only an occasional flash of memory at most I believe.

My last word to those who purpose to experiment in automatic communication is, be patient, be prudent, never let an unbalanced or hysterical person be present at your sittings; be satisfied with small results and look for nothing sensational, work regularly and do not let dull sittings discourage you. With caution and wisdom much may be achieved.

The Truth about Obsession L. Kelway Bamber Claude’s Book (1919)

You

want

know

the

difference

between

“Astrals”

and

“Thought-Forms?” They are quite different and by no means interchangeable terms, though people often speak as if they were, for the latter is only a “picture” and not a “spirit” at all.

There are two kinds of “Astrals” (so called because they are functioning on the “Astral” plane). First, there are the spirits existing there in their Astral bodies, which are made out of actual atoms. The Astral, though fine in comparison with the physical body, is still coarse (for it is only undeveloped people who are not spiritually evolved who live on that sphere). There is a great difference between it and the bodies of those on the third sphere.

There is no “death” after you leave earth, but this further difference in degree makes people think sometimes one has to undergo that ordeal again on going higher through the different planes. This is not so, though a great change certainly does take place in the “astral body;” the chemical condition alters, it becomes refined, but it is no greater than that which takes place in your earth-body continually, all

the cells of which change and renew several times in the course of your life there, though you are not conscious of it in either case.

When a man in the Astral changes mentally, his body changes too in sympathy with his development, and in corresponding degree, but more quickly than with you.

If a man longs to progress very fast, and makes up his mind and concentrates on it, he can change in a very short time; but if he makes no special effort, and progresses slowly mentally, his body changes slowly too. This gradual refinement continues through the spheres; the change comes from within.

The second kind of Astral is a spirit connected with a physical body, and functioning temporarily only on the Astral plane, while its earth-body sleeps or is unconscious. It looks much the same as the other, but its body is actually different, for it has an astral â&#x20AC;&#x153;huskâ&#x20AC;? only, much on the same principle as the temporary body made for a materializing spirit at a sĂŠance, and like that composed of astral atoms consolidated.

These astral atoms collect round the aura of a developed man, and on his soul emerging (as I have already described to you) from the centre of his body, these atoms close round his spirit and form a

“husk” or covering to protect it in its travels.

He could not function in his real “astral” body, for that is not complete; it is not complete for a curious reason. It is this: that a certain amount of the material that makes his astral body is not available while he is connected with his physical body, for it goes to make the vital cord or connection between his travelling spirit and his stationary body, which is only severed at death (for the severing means death).

After this has occurred, of course, no cord being then required, this material is available for his astral body, and so he no longer requires to borrow astral atoms to protect himself; his spirit is sufficiently clothed, being complete.

As I am not in the Astral I find it difficult to tell if a person is in their permanent astral body or not.

This accounts too for the difficulty a clairvoyant sometimes has in being able to say if a person is in or out of their physical body permanently. They too are, it must be remembered, seeing in other conditions than their normal. Sight varies enough even on the earth-plane; no two men there see exactly alike.

If you took a collection of people to a hilltop and asked them to

describe the view without artificial aid, they would all see in different degrees: some only things near, others only things distant, some as it were through a haze, and others clearly. This is why normal clairvoyance is often incorrect — things are difficult to see in the right perspective; and it varies too according to the bias of the medium’s brain on which it is registered by the sight.

A “Thought-Form” is a picture, a thought-photograph, projected through the atmosphere by someone, but the recipient would have to mentally “develop” it, as it were, in order to see it; by that I mean they would have to be thinking of the sender at the right moment, and in the right way. Space is nothing, for it takes no longer to think four or five hundred miles than into the next room. So if you are in the right mental condition you can see a thought-form; it’s only a picture in the atmosphere.

This explains certain things; for instance, visions of Christ to the dying. Hundreds on the battlefields may see Him individually and spontaneously. If He is projecting His thought to all who are lying there, all who are attuned in mind can and may be able to see Him.

Just as when a ship at sea sends out a wireless message or a call for help, it is not confined to one receiver, but is open to all ships and receiving stations which are suitably attuned. So all who are suitably

attuned and harmonized can receive thought pictures, impressions, and inspiration. This explains also how various people in widely separated places may simultaneously be “inspired” by one individual. “Inspired” I said, not “controlled” remember, Mum; that is a very different matter (people should always use common sense in judging what they are told). Personally, I don’t believe spirits from the higher spheres ever “control” people on earth. It is hard enough for us who are only on the third sphere to get back into the old conditions, for those it would be exceedingly difficult and a deliberate waste; it would be like engaging a tutor of the highest scholastic attainments to teach an infant its ABC’s!

Now as regards a so-called “ghost” haunting a particular spot. If it is a persistent haunt that has continued for many years, even for centuries, it is almost certainly a thought-form and not a spirit; for it is very unlikely that any spirit would be so unfriended as to be permitted to go on in this aimless and unhappy manner indefinitely, for as soon as any one desires help here it is forthcoming.

What happens is this. Certain events (probably tragic), which are felt very intensely by the participators at the time, leave a very clear cut and well-defined picture in the atmosphere, and at first for a short time the actors in the scene may return in spirit to the spot, and by thinking over what happened revivify and intensify that thought

picture.

Ordinary people then come to that place knowing its history, and some may see the “ghost,” and they see it because they are psychic and unconsciously psychometrize the atmosphere, and so mentally develop the picture that is there, and so constantly renew the image, which thus becomes almost permanent. Yes, I know it does seem difficult to realize, but it also applies to “feeling” as well as “seeing” past conditions; thus a medium feels pain and discomfort when describing the illness of any one. The medium is psychometrizing the condition connected with the spirit while it was a body, and not the spirit itself.

I say this because I have been told and have noticed myself that spirits are surprised on returning to earth to hear themselves described with symptoms of disease they have almost forgotten they ever suffered. For instance, your father, who “died” over thirty-five years ago, here is in perfect health, yet whenever he returns to earth the mediums describe him as having a cough, and discomfort in his chest; that was true when he passed over (he died of pneumonia), but of course is totally unlike his present condition.

Another man I know, who had some very painful disease which affected one leg, tells me he gets quite angry when he hears it

described now, as he no longer feels it at all even when he returns to earth-conditions, and yet the mediums describe it most accurately, and one might imagine he was still in suffering instead of in perfect health!

Obsession Annette Leevier Psychic experiences of an Indian princess (1920)

Obsession has given me unlimited food for thought. The subject is so large, so expansive and engrossing that volumes upon it could be written. But in the short space allotted in this work, it is hoped that the statements and references will cause the reader to desire more knowledge of same.

No one who is obsessed by a good spirit can go into bad company or commit evil; it won't allow you to. It's easy to attract a good spirit if we understand spirit return and obey the laws set forth by those who are capable of doing so. Unless the gateway the inclination to resist with the indomitable strength of higher thoughts and aspirations the influences of a lower nature is open, such influences of a lower nature cannot enter as obsessing forces. That's why I wish everyone would concentrate; we are all psychic; not only the mediums but everyone.

Thoughts are things living things; therefore give out your best thoughts toward everyone and nothing but good comes back to you. By doing so we cannot attract an evil spirit wandering around on

earth commonly called the devil who may have left the body under peculiar circumstances, and who may induce others to do likewise. Have you ever stopped to think that through obsession a cause can be found for innumerable crimes committed, for the hosts of suicides and maniacs? The organization of the obsessing force must be similar to that of the obedient obsessed being. Realizing this and knowing that a spirit enters the spirit world just as it left this, there must be an innumerable host of low, uneducated, and evil spirits about. Hence if the obsessed party offers a deficiency of will power weakness in control of their individuality the gateway is open for an evil spirit of a harmonious organization with that of the obsessed to enter. The ensuing result is a heartbreaking chapter of evil for which inevitable retribution must be received.

Think of those who give themselves to drink. One drinking man came to me while I was in Sandusky, Ohio, to ask me to help him. I said to him, "You have the spirit control of a man who passed out while intoxicated." "Yes, I know it," he replied. "We were both out fishing some twelve years ago in Sandusky Bay and became drunk. The result was that the boat capsized and he drowned.

In going down the last time he yelled, 'I hope you drownâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Since that time I've been a drunkard. Whenever the thought of that drowning man comes to me I have to go in and drink. Furthermore, I neglect

my family and their suffering makes me feel wretched when I'm sober."

I told him how to "brace up" how it was possible to throw off his spirit condition. I had him come often; I prayed for him and gave him a prayer that he had at hand and repeated at any time the desire for his former debauchery seized him. I impressed on his mind the necessity of concentration on keeping straight the fact that he still possessed will power and that he had to trust in it. In following up this man's case, I found that in obeying instructions, his home life had as a result been revolutionized from a heart-broken to a happy state of existence.

Many spirits in similar instances of souls transient have

obsessed the living person to live out the time they should have lived in their own house of flesh. In the above example, the spirit of the drinking partner had been back here on earth using this man's body just the same as if the body had been its own.

Spirit enlightenment of "earthbound" spirits can be accomplished by having them enter a circle. The spirit of Stanford White was in this terrible plight until I brought it to light. This spirit followed me for a long time, but didn't try to obsess me because he was too busy guarding Harry K. Thaw his murderer and keeping him in prison. I was holding a seance in Columbus, Ohio, when the spirit took hold of me. I was under control and tried to fight; I was so angry that I had to

be held tight by those earnest sitters until the strife was over, and the spirit of his mother had joined him. Then came calm.

Then he said, "Now that I'm with mother, I cling no more to this earth. My desire is to get away if I can and Harry K. Thaw can go free." This was before Thaw's freedom for the sitters made note of the message and watched the newspapers.

Within a short time less than a year Thaw's escape was announced and at this writing he is still a free man. The spirit of White has returned many times to thank me for uniting his spirit with his mother's. Had this spirit not been enlightened, it may have wandered on earth until it had attracted some weaker person and had made them die as he did.

Those gunmen of New York who paid the penalty with their lives in the electric chair also came in spirit, asking prayers, so that they, too, might get away from this earth having passed out before their time had arrived. But such is in our life. The spirit missionaries, the spirit friends, and loved ones are incessantly helping those terribly hypnotized "earthbound" spirits from their lowly cycles on the upward path to the love that is ultimately awaiting them.

No wonder enmity and war never cease whether individual, family,

commercial, state, or international once a start is made. There are more spirits fighting than human beings in any strife.

As an instance, while conducting a circle in Cleveland a short time after Senor Huerta's the former Mexican President demise from earth life, the spirit of my guide Pontiac came and told me that Huerta was busy at the time lighting for and aiding that faction that had been his while he was Dictator.

If people knew what they were made for they wouldn't cause so many heartaches of others. But they don't understand the life they, live and pass out to the Great Divide without knowing why and where they are going.

Honor those whose words or deeds; Thus help us in our daily needs; And by their loving overflow; Raise us from whate'er is low.

Spirits Obsessed with Vices G. Veil Owen Beyond the Veil â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Part Two: The Highlands of Heaven (1921)

Q. Has spirit in the form the same ability to control man as it has when disembodied?

A. Spirit, whether in the form or not, may be deemed just the same, except, by being intensified, it becomes more capable of lifting or moving ponderable matter than in earth-life it is capable of doing. In all cases where such a feat is needed, increased numbers are enabled to affect that in which one or two must fail. To give you a living illustration of this fact, the minute a living entity (the ant) through aggregated help, performs wonders that have oft astounded philosophers and men of learning. Thus, in spirit-life, the law of combination â&#x20AC;&#x201D; almost without a limit, renders simple demonstrations daily given through physical mediums, who are oft denounced imposters. But let these opponents make trial for themselves, and, in justice to the mediums, honestly confess a failure, rather than persist in base denials of a truth they cannot comprehend.

Q. Is the same power to return to earth accorded to evil or wicked

spirits as to others?

A. Assuredly it is, my son, a beautiful thought that God, with all his grand omnipotence, must thus be seen and known to be a just and righteous God. Are not his acts based upon this immutable law, Impartiality? The field of Nature lies open to the bad as well as good. The same unerring love pervades the whole; no undue obstacles are placed in the way of either; every traveler depends upon himself, or some guardian friend, to reach the goal he seeks. Thus is he left entirely free to act in such direction as he pleases, or, by attraction may be led.

Q. Do spirits when enfranchised from the body, carry with them the same proclivities into spirit-life as they had on earth?

A. Assuredly they do, and cling with great tenacity thereto; acting under a sad infatuation, that spirit-life presents a larger field for action, that in the sphere to which they gravitate legions of lewd and wicked souls, closely corresponding with themselves, will readily afford a more extended scope for sinful practice than when on earth they had been permitted to enjoy; thus, for a time, they are expectant, only awaiting opportunity, when, in bitter disappointment, they find the desire alone exists. The power is left behind on earth â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a sphere more suited to them than the Heaven which might be theirs if sought

in Spirit and in Truth. If such a thought exists within their natures, is it not strange they should prefer the noxious atmosphere there surrounding them, till their pent up passions become ascendant; driving them to almost madness by their heated force they rush in headlong haste to ventilate their over-charged natures, by obsessing some poor embodied spirit with whom they can affiliate, and thus indulge an appetite of deep depravity, but which seems an act of mere imagination only, leaving the friend and ally the victim of a sad delusion.

Q. Can spirits in the second sphere, while probationers, of themselves acquire improvement?

A. To this we answer, they having gravitated to such a condition does not stultify a single effort they might make to change and improve themselves. The contrary would rather hasten such an effort, for often in their silent moments are they carried back in thought to times when spirit intuition reached them and almost persuaded them to accept their proffered blessings. Such reminiscences would brighten their dimmed capacities to think again, and thus in recognition does some angel answer such an aspiration as is then engendered and progression, hitherto retarded, is commenced anew, and heaven becomes again the goal of their ambition.

Q. Progression being so easily obtained, I would ask how it is that such myriads still remain inert and passive occupants of such a dismal place?

A. My son, to them it is not dismal in the main. Take, for example, the many thousands on your earth who congregate around your every sink of vice and infamy within your city, waiting but the secret shades of night to perpetrate the every crime that history records; seeking the dens of infamy in all their squalid, filthy state, preferring such to the broad green fields of nature, in all their loveliness, where they might breathe the pure invigorating atmosphere in which the human soul, it pure, might almost revel in the embryonic thought of heaven itself. It is theirs if they will take it, offered by some angel voice. But to the impure man or woman it is lost. In love and kindness is the offer made, but listlessly rejected. And so it is within the sphere we have named. Desire for change is seemingly outlived; the deadened soul cannot rise upward from the lethargy of ages to claim that freedom which still might be its own for asking. No limit has there ever been presented for repentance, but unending time is theirs to fit themselves as aspirants for ethereal life.

Q. Are not angels sent as messengers to arouse such souls to action in the matter of removal from that state of wretchedness and misery supreme?

A. Men and women of your world endure more misery and wretchedness than is needed; in such condition as fate or destiny may have placed them, for such they are best fitted, and however gross their natures, assimilation gives enjoyment to them, much greater than could be realized by them in what the world calls respectable society. For such must be a failure; like oil and water they would separate; repulsion must ensue; disgust, abuse and almost violence would form the sequel, thus showing how needed adaptation seems to happiness. A host of Angels never could effect a change in such society till nature and art combined in time might reconstruct them, making them in form and comeliness more like their God and father as once they had been, but through perversion had become the very opposite of what they might have been. God, as their father and their friend, will so adapt them to a fit and glorious life continuous, that those who had seen them in their low estate might then exclaim, a miracle is now performed. Is that a miracle, we ask, when God in grand omnipotence gives forth his mandate to create? Where exists the power that can contravene a single act of God's omnipotence? The puny voice of man may possibly be raised in ignorant opposition to his will, and transient, as it is, becomes the more ridiculous to those who witness the abortive effort. Hence, in everything is seen God and nature in harmony, and love working for the benefit of man, misery forming no part of God's behest respecting

him.

Spirits Walter DeVoe Where Spirits Live (1924)

Most people do not realize that they receive impressions that emanate from the realms of spirit on a frequent basis. Most people do not realize that they frequently have feelings and impressions that are caused by the presence of human spirits. Most attribute these thoughts, urges and sensations to physical causes, but as they come to understand the facts of the spiritual worlds and realize that their own spirit selves are already living in the realms of spirit, they begin to realize that they have been suffering under an illusion of separateness. Once this is fully realized then, and only then, can they fully appreciate the importance of studying and practicing the things we teach. The details of the path may be varied, but in a general sense there is no other way to become a spiritual success in conquering the destructive influences caused by the presence of a world of undeveloped spirits.

When they go into a shopping center, for example, they encounter the mental atmosphere created by a multitude of earth plane spirits. When conditions are particularly vexatious for whatever reasons, it can leave them feeling weakened or depressed for hours afterward

because they have clothed themselves unconsciously with the mental atmosphere of those they contacted. If there are twenty people greedily excited at a bargain counter, there are about the mental atmosphere of that group perhaps hundreds of greedy spirits enjoying the same excitement and living again in contact with those mortals who are on the same mental wavelength. Only a well-organized pleroma of angels, whose protection can be gained only through faithful co-operation with their Purpose, have the power to shield mortals from the debilitating effects of the lower spiritual realms.

When mortals enter any area or building where the frenzy of mundane excitements can be found, they will also be subjected to the presence of earth-bound spirits. This can include anything from the obvious, such as casinos, bars and mardi graâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s to the not-so-obvious, such as banks, stock exchanges and boardrooms. The hordes of spirits who passed their time while in the body with just such excitable daily activities are drawn into that mental atmosphere and they continue their old habits of living over again from day to day the same mental life they had in the past. As a result, hundreds of such spirits may attach themselves to mortals that frequent the same haunts. Spirits of gamblers, for example, are the source of many of the hunches, impressions and dreams that mortal gamblers experience. The problem is that these spirits are in a state of

declension that affects their astral bodies in a negative way, almost like a disease. As a result they absorb vortex-ya (or the life essence) from the mortals whom they are with, and so the people who habitually follow these activities gradually become depleted of the vitality necessary for the spiritual health of their astral beings. As a result of this depletion of mental energy they often begin to experience depression, nervousness, neurosis, or even chronic physical ailments such as neuralgias, fatigue, lowered resistance, or autoimmune diseases. The specialized work of our organization over the years has made us acutely aware of the devitalizing influence of the hordes of undeveloped spirits who remain in the mental atmosphere about the places in which they worked, dined or played while they were in mortality.

In the atmosphere of a bank, for example, you will find the spirits of bankers who are still concerned with the affairs of this world for they have never learned to appreciate anything else. Those who did not develop aspirations and desires above a greed for gain naturally remain in the same state of mind in which they were in this world. The spirits of gluttons and drunkards will be found in the mental atmosphere of the places devoted to feasting and drinking. Dance halls and palatial hotels which are materially grandiose and imposing often house a spiritual atmosphere that is tainted by the presence of countless multitudes of sensual, gluttonous and excitement craving

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spirits. In such an atmosphere people are often swayed by

the

desire for self-gratification because of their close proximity to the mentality of such spirits.

It is unfortunate that most religious leaders and institutions are unaware of the reality of these conditions and have therefore been of little use in raising people's awareness of this important spiritual principle. It is also an unfortunate reality that those who are most ignorant of the circumstances are the same ones who are most subject to the detrimental effects of these mental and spiritual conditions. Because these principles are not understood by the teachers of ethics, metaphysics, religion, or psychology, there is no effort made to educate and protect children and adults from these universal and commonplace darkening spiritual conditions that breed much of the distress under which most of humanity suffers both mentally and physically.

These pictures of the spiritual condition of the world in which we live will help you to understand how important it is to help raise the awareness of others to appreciate the influence of the unseen realms on our quality of life. The work we do strives to not only reveal the spiritual causes of human suffering, but also to reveal the cure as well. We also work to open people's awareness of their potential to create on earth as the angels create in heaven. The world's people

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need to be made aware of their own Inherent Divinity as co-creators with their Creator. They need to become aware of the Host of Angels who stand ready to help when we learn to recognize their presence and work cooperatively with them in unity of Purpose.

Through the development of an intuitive perception of the Will of the Creator and of the Purpose and Method of the "Government" of Heaven, we have learned in some measure how to fulfill the spiritual and physical conditions necessary to gain inspiration and protection from the angelic realms of peace and order. Through cooperation with the angels, one can learn how to bless and benefit others more abundantly.

We believe that in the work we do, we are well protected by a Host of Angels. Were we not protected, we would soon be depressed and debilitated by the thousands of dark spirits who have been drawn into our crescent as we work to lift them into the presence and influence of more capable and loving hands above.

Early in our learning process, before we learned to attain to the organized protective power of the angels, we too suffered from the effects of selfish, hateful and opposing spirits of darkness who thwarted our efforts to change the spiritual condition of low plane spirits as well as their friends, families and even mediums on the

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earth. These spirits did not want to be disturbed in their control of human minds, nor did they want to be removed to purer realms more conducive to their growth. At times their resistance can be vicious. We both saw and felt the great opposition from the inhabitants of the lower spiritual realms. We also saw people who tried to teach and help humanity while not understanding these principles succumb to the depressing or debilitating influence of these realms of selfish spirits without ever discovering the cause of their failure. Seeing these spiritual causes for many of the woes of humanity motivated us to seek the Wisdom of the angels which would show us how to overcome these realms of destructive spirits. We were shown through a variety of avenues of spiritual revelation that there are ways in which people who are yet bound to the limitations of the mortal plane can work actively, consciously and cooperatively with the Angelic Hosts. Such groups of people can function as an anchor or conduit through which the Angelic Hosts may more readily contact and influence the lowest states of human thought and feeling.

By years of devotion to the will and wisdom of the Creator, we have found a mechanism that has the potential to significantly influence one of the root causes of the chaos in our world. When enough people become aware of the fundamental principles of Truth, of their oneness with their Creator and the principles that logically follow from this realization, then will our world be transformed into that

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which we all know can be, but has as yet eluded our grasp.

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The Desire World Max Heindel The Passing â&#x20AC;&#x201D; And Life Afterward (1971)

Purgatory: If the dying man could leave all his desires behind, the desire body would very quickly fall away from him, leaving him free to proceed into the heaven world, but that is not generally the case. Most people, especially if they die in the prime of life, have many ties and much interest in life on Earth. They have not altered their desires because they have lost their physical bodies. In fact, often their desires are augmented by a very intense longing to return. This acts in such a manner as to bind them to the Desire World in a very unpleasant way, although unfortunately, they do not realize it. On the other hand, old and decrepit persons and those who are weakened by long illness and are tired of life, pass on very quickly.

The matter may be illustrated by the ease with which the seed falls out of the ripe fruit, no particle of the flesh clinging to it, while in the unripe fruit the seed clings to the flesh with the greatest tenacity. Thus it is especially hard for people to die who are taken out of their bodies by â&#x20AC;&#x153;accidentâ&#x20AC;? while at the height of their physical health and strength, engaged in numerous ways in the activities of physical life; held by the ties of wife, family, relatives, friends, pursuits of business

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and pleasure.

As long as the man entertains the desires connected with Earth life he must stay in his desire body, and as the progress of the individual requires that he pass on to higher regions, the existence in the Desire World must necessarily become purgative, tending to purify him form his binding desires. How this is done is best seen by taking some radical instances.

The miser who loved his gold in Earth life loves it just as dearly after death; but in the first place he cannot acquire anymore, because he has no longer a dense body wherewith to grasp it and worst of all, he cannot even keep what he hoarded during life. He will, perhaps, go and sit by his safe and watch the cherished gold or bonds; but the heirs appear and with, it may be, a stinging jeer as the â&#x20AC;&#x153;stingy old foolâ&#x20AC;? (whom they do not see, but who both sees and hears them), will open his safe, and though he may throw himself over his gold to protect it, they will put their hands through him, neither knowing nor caring that he is there, and will then proceed to spend his hoard, while he suffers in sorrow and impotent rage.

He will suffer keenly, his sufferings all the more terrible on account of being entirely mental, because the dense body dulls even suffering to some extent. In the Desire World, however, these sufferings have

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full sway and the man suffers until he learns that gold may be a curse. Thus he gradually becomes contented with his lot and at last is freed from his desire body and is ready to go on.

It possible, of course, to avoid this problem in the after-life by disposing of material possessions while yet incarnate on Earth. If we use judgment, when we see that we have lived our lives to the end of usefulness, we may say: Here are things that I have no more use for, and I know I am getting towards the end; where can I do the most good with them, who will enjoy them most, or whom can I help to establish in business so he can do something for himself?

The same thing is true with regard to the affections; we should hold ourselves in check so that we do not love anybody with an inordinate love â&#x20AC;&#x201D; such love as that which makes idols of others and puts them before everything else. If we thus get ourselves free from all earthly ties so we are ready to go, then we cannot be kept earthbound.

The drunkard is another case in point. He is just as fond of intoxicants after death as before. It is not the dense body that craves drink. The dense body is made sick by alcohol and would rather be without it. It vainly protests in different ways, but the desire body of the drunkard craves the drink and forces the dense body to take it, that the desire body may have the sensation of pleasure resulting

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from the increased vibration. That desire remains after the death of the dense body, but the drunkard has in his desire body neither mouth to drink nor stomach to contain physical liquor. He may and does get into saloons, where he interpolates his body into the bodies of the drinkers to get a little of their vibrations by induction, but that is too weak to give him much satisfaction. He may and also does sometimes get inside a whiskey cask, but that is of no avail either, for there are in the cask no such fumes as are generated in the digestive organs of a tippler. It has no effect upon him and he is like a man in an open boat on the ocean, “Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink;” consequently, he suffers intensely. In time, however, he learns the uselessness of longing for drink, which he cannot obtain. As with so many of our desires in the Earth life, all desires in the Desire World die for want of opportunity to gratify them. When the drunkard has been purged, he is ready, so far as this habit is concerned, to leave this state of “Purgatory” and ascend into the heaven world.

Thus we see that it is not an avenging Deity that makes Purgatory of Hell for us, but our own individual evil habits and acts. According to the intensity of our desires will be the time and suffering entailed in their expurgation. In the cases mentioned it would have been no suffering to the drunkard to lose his wordly possessions. If he had any, he did not cling to them. Neither would it have caused the miser

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any pain to have been deprived of intoxicants. It is safe to say that he would not have cared if there were not a drop of liquor in the world. But he did care about his gold, and the drunkard cared about his drink, so the unerring law gave to each that which was needed to purge him of his unhallowed desires and evil habits.

This is the law that is symbolized in the scythe of the reaper, Death; the law that says â&#x20AC;&#x153;whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.â&#x20AC;? It is the Law of Cause and Effect, which rules all things in the three worlds, in every realm of Nature â&#x20AC;&#x201D; physical, moral, and mental. Everywhere it works inexorably, adjusting all things, restoring the equilibrium wherever even the slightest action has brought about a disturbance, as all action must. The result may be manifest immediately or it may be delayed for years or for lives, but sometime, somewhere, just and equal retribution will be made. The student should particularly note that its work is absolutely impersonal. There is in the universe neither reward nor punishment. All is the result of invariable law. This is the Law of Consequence.

In the Desire World it operates in purging man of the baser desires and the correction of the weakness and vices which hinder his progress, by making him suffer in the manner best adapted to that purpose. If he has made others suffer, or has dealt unjustly with them, he will be made to suffer in that identical way. Be it noted, however,

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that if a person has been subject to vices, or repented and, as far as possible, made right the wrong done, such repentance, reform, ands restitution, have purged him of those special vices and evil acts. The equilibrium has been restored and the lesson learned during that embodiment, and therefore will not be a cause of suffering after death.

A word must be said here about the suicide, who tries to get away from life only to find that he is as much alive as ever. His is the most pitiable plight. He is able to watch those whom he has, perhaps, disgraced by his act, and worst of all, he has an unspeakable feeling of being “hollowed out.” The part in the ovoid aura where the dense body used to be is empty, and although the desire body has taken the form of the discarded dense body, it feels like an empty shell, because the creative archetype of the body in the Region of Concrete Thought persists as an empty mold, so to speak, as long as the dense body should properly have lived. The archetype — the “model” of each Ego’s dense body, around which the body takes shape — is made of mind-stuff and set to vibrating for a previously determined period of time. When a person meets a natural death, even in the prime of life, the activity of the archetype ceases, and the desire body adjusts itself so as to occupy the whole of the form. In the case of the suicide, however, that awful feeling of “emptiness” remains until the time comes when, in the natural course of events,

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his death would have occurred. The impression of this particularly unpleasant experience remains with the Ego, and is instrumental in preventing him from falling prey to the temptation of suicide in future lives.

In the Desire World life is lived about three times as rapidly as in the Physical World. A man who has lived to be fifty years of age in the Physical World would live through the same life events in the Desire World in about sixteen years. This is, of course, only a general gauge. There are persons who remain in the Desire World much longer than their term of physical life. Others again, who have led lives with few gross desires, pass through in a much shorter period, but the measure given above is very nearly correct for the average man of the present day.

It will be remembered that as the man leaves the dense body at death, his past life passes before him in pictures; but at that time he has no feeling concerning them.

During his life in the Desire World also these life pictures roll backward, as before; but now the man has all the feeling it is possible for him to have as, one by one, the scenes pass before him. Every incident in his past life is now lived over again. When he comes to a point where he has injured someone, he himself feels the

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pain as the injured person felt it. He lives through all the sorrow and suffering he has caused to others and learns just how painful is the hurt and how hard to bear is the sorrow he has caused. In addition there is the fact already mentioned before that the suffering is much keener because he has no dense body to dull the pain. Perhaps that is why the speed of life there is tripled â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that the suffering may lose in duration what it gains in sharpness. Natureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s measures are wonderfully just and true.

Nature, which is God in manifestation, always aims at the conservation of energy, attaining the greatest results with the least expenditure of force and the least waste of energy. If we study the effect of change in the Physical World, we shall learn something of its consequence in the realm above us. A person who is here suffering acutely for a short time usually feels pain very intensely; whereas those who suffer for years in succession, though the pain which is inflicted upon them may be as severe, do not seem to feel the suffering in the same measure. They have, as it were, grown used thereto, and their frame has in a certain sense become emaciated and adjusted to pain; hence suffering is not felt as keenly as by the person in the first case.

It is similar in the purgatorial existence. When a person has been very hard and harsh in life, when he has thought nothing of the

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feelings of others, when he has inflicted severe pain here, there, and everywhere on whatever occasion offered, we shall find that his suffering in Purgatory will be very severe, intensified of course by the fact that the purgatorial experience is shorter than the life lived upon Earth; but the pain is intensified in proportion. Now, therefore, it is evident that if his experience were continuous, if the pain engendered by one act were followed immediately by the next, much of the effect of the suffering would be lost upon the Spirit because it would not feel its full intensity. Therefore, the experiences, as it were, come to him in waves so that there is a period of respite after each period of suffering in order that the full intensity of the next may be felt.

The motive in this is for a greater good, for Nature, or God, never seeks to revenge or avenge any wrong, but only to teach those who permit themselves to do wrong not to repeat the act by giving the wrong doer exactly pain for pain. The tendency in a future life is to cause him to respect the feelings of others and so be merciful to all the world. Thus the very highest intensity in pain is necessary for the conservation of energy, and to make him good and pure sooner than would be the case if the pain were continuous and the suffering correspondingly lessened.

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The Truth About Obsession Josephine Possi The Faithist Journal (1981)

As Jehovihâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s channels of light impregnate the consciousness of man at this time of earth living, we find a more receptive attitude towards the things of spirit. Man must know the truth: that the physical and spiritual worlds are united as one, that is, that the lower heavens, which revolve with the Earth, are part of the Earth.

In the dawn of Kosmon greater illumination pertaining to the realities of life is necessary in order to cope with new conditions.

One of them is humanities indifference to the necessity of spiritual enlightenment while living in the physical body. Fortunately to offset this we have Oahspe. But this book is such that in the main, it can but reach intellectuals in this age.

Many others will also feel the impact of the Light that is a part of the dawn of the Kosmon Age. The influx of spiritual force is stimulating the psychic, or soul centers in man, and with the conjunction of the two planes, spirit and matter, much discord is taking place because few are prepared mentally, emotionally and physically. Many persons

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are becoming mediumistic due to these highly charged elements that are in the atmosphere. They are opened up and receptive to the influx of spiritual communication from around themselves, and they do not know it. Some are becoming obsessed. It calls for attention. We should give it some thought because unless we do, it can be a very sad story for many families for in those families are those who have mediumistic tendencies and do not know how to use them.

In this time of reckoning, many on Earth are being touched by the conflagration of souls that are earthbound, seeking to give ideas and projecting strong thoughts and desires into the consciousness of man.

The atmosphere of Earth is loaded with these discarnate entities. Some may be called good â&#x20AC;&#x201D; they lead man upward, lead him into wider awareness, lead him toward the Creator and toward becoming better, wiser, more unselfish and better educated in every way that ultimately matters. Some may be called bad â&#x20AC;&#x201D; they lead man down, into ignorance, sensuality, selfishness, cruelty, war and away from the Creator.

Some are extremely vicious. They remain in the aura of the Earth because their desires when they lived an Earth life were principally physical and physical appetites and after passing on, they continue

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to seek further gratification of those appetites.

Not knowing how to get out of the Earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s atmosphere, they attach themselves to those with whom they associated in the physical life, with those they liked or those they disliked, (to gratify their feelings of revenge), and even move about in the same houses and localities.

These spirits do not seek light or deliverance from their deplorable state but are glad to bring confusion into the minds of all those that are touched by them.

We know that in the spirit planes it is necessary to desire help before one can receive it. In passing through the threshold of death, we find ourselves in a spirit counterpart of the physical body we have just left. This might be called our body of desires.

Now the free will we exercised on Earth is no longer at our command. Those who failed to control and refine their spirit or emotional body while they had the opportunity on Earth, will find that they are slaves to their baser instincts when they function on the spirit plane, until the process of purification can take place. Therefore we are creators of our own heaven or hell.

Naturally those souls who have vicious desires will try to gratify these

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desires through the body of anyone who will permit them to stay in his aura. This is what accounts for drink, smoke and sex obsessions and contributes enormously to cruelty, intense anger, jealousy, suicide, insanity, and many other failings that humans of Earth are heir to. Many times one’s sense of physical exhaustion is due to nothing else but a discarnate entity, a druj in one’s aura, following one around and absorbing ones vital energy in order to “survive”.

Many Earth-bound spirits are pathetic cases. Most people do not realize that after passing on, souls who were sick, crippled or diseased in the mortal body often retain that idea in the mind when they are Earthbound, thus manifesting the same infirmity in their astral bodies.

In such a pitiful state they remain earth bound through their own ignorance and become aimless wanderers in the vicinity of their earthly haunts, some completely helpless in a semiconscious state. These spirits are lonely but seldom malicious. They fail to respond to help by spirit missionary workers because they cannot discern them — manifesting on a lower grade.

Whether on the battlefield or otherwise a great many people who have died are unaware of the fact that they have passed on, and the effort to prove to them that they are what mortals call “dead” often

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assumes a pathetic, and sometimes amusing aspect. They often resort to a stupid and nonsensical argument, through the instrumentality of an entranced medium, or through the obsessed person himself, to prove that they are not dead.

They ignore the suggestion to “will” to see some departed relative or friend or a spirit helper who can assist them into higher conditions.

Usually they are not aware of the harm they have caused the one whom they are obsessing. It is only after enlightened guidance and persuasion by those on Earth who have been trained to work with these entities that they finally “awaken” to their true condition.

There may be legions of helpful spirits standing by, but the desire for help must emanate from the soul in distress, the earnest cry from the heart must go out before freedom and elevation can take place. In this manner the unripe spirit raises the direction of its grade to communication with Jehovih and His channels of light, some of whom it can then behold. Then it can be assisted by Missionaries of Light into a higher plane where it is taught the ways and laws of spiritual light.

If all the lower discarnate entities could be taken from the atmosphere of Earth a great burden would be lifted from humanity’s

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shoulders and many of mankind’s troubles would be solved permitting peace and harmony to reign throughout the world.

How do we attract entities? Now let us turn our attention from the plight of the earth-bound spirits to the manner in which sensitive people become affected by these retarded souls. Before a discarnate entity impinges on the aura of a mortal, it is sometimes attracted by a magnetic light emanating from that person.

This psychic “light” is especially attractive to ignorant spirits because of the semi darkness which enshrouds them. It is comparable to the attraction of a light burning at night for moths and other insects. In persons with a greater degree of psychic sensitivity, the attraction is augmented because of the increased brightness of the “light”.

It is the sensitive person who is unconscious of mediumistic faculties that usually becomes the victim of obsession because ignorant of psychic and spiritual facts, yet with the psychic centers of his soul open and unguarded, he permits these invisible intruders to enter in.

How many of us are aware that most of us are sensitive to a degree? We are all potential mediums. Ill people, especially when delirious, or those overworked or on the verge of a nervous breakdown, are easily obsessed. Victims of obsession are sometimes entirely robbed

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of their normal mentality and are classed as insane. Nevertheless their own soul mentality is there, and the fight for complete possession of the body ensues, causing external reactions and symptoms which those unaware of these psychic undercurrents termed `insanityâ&#x20AC;?.

How unfortunate then, when a psychiatrist on learning there are 2, 3 or more personalities fighting for possession of the body uses his time, education and will to help the â&#x20AC;&#x153;bestâ&#x20AC;? personality take possession of the body, instead of the rightful owner.

Not only are there many forms of insanity, but epileptic attacks and similar conditions are widely due to obsession. Removing the obsessions, removing the spirits possessing one, promotes the cure and gives palpable proof of the fact of life after death and of the dominance of spirit over the corporeal, to the beholder.

Even when a complete healing is not brought about by this work of extraction of the intruding spirit, at least it removes the underlying cause and leaves the way open for medical procedure to complete the way back to better health.

The greatest number of obsessions are found to be with drunkards and drug addicts who attracts entities of a similar type, and grade.

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Lacking will power they are unable to repulse those entities whose sole desire is to satisfy their burning appetites through the bodies of their earthly companions.

On the other hand a large percentage of the insane come from the ranks of religious fanatics. During the time of meditation and devotional prayer, their psychic centers open. When this takes place, unless the person is well-balanced and is living a high moral life and spiritual life, there are bound to be repercussions in the form of obsessions â&#x20AC;&#x201D; spirits hanging around who intrude.

Quite often, their loved ones are at a loss to understand why such a â&#x20AC;&#x153;kind, religious soulâ&#x20AC;? should suddenly become insane.

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Invisible Powers The Eloists Radiance (1983)

There are invisible powers at work in the affairs of mankind. The dead are not really dead. Some are progressive in pursuing high ideals, others are not. Spirits of both high and low degree have an effect upon the minds of mortals. World leaders as well as ordinary people are affected and, according to their character, they are led to carry out their various programs. Some heads of state have high ideals, but there is a preponderance of pressure on them to act as instruments for carrying out materialistic aims, rather than to serve lofty, god-like purposes. It is not the leaders of mankind who will change the world for the better, but the common people who are inspired with the light of heavenly worlds, who have a burning fire of divine will within their souls. Through them will our Creator accomplish a transformation of great magnitude and the world will become a place of peace, goodwill, love and cooperation.

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You Possess The Power The Eloists Radiance (1984)

If mortals could see the spiritual side of life, they would see the spirits of those who have passed on. They are everywhere, and they are no more advanced, or enlightened, than mortals; for they think the same and desire the same.

Spirits are attracted to people of the same habits and tendencies as their own, and by living near these people make themselves a burden and a limitation, so that it is harder for the mortals to overcome their limitations and causes of suffering.

The good aspirations of mortals help them to rise above their psychic world, and this influences the spirits for good. But mortals who are drifters, without purpose or aspiration, or who are evilly inclined, attract many spirits who become rulers over their actions.

Mortals actually have a superior power to rule over the spirits. Where spirits rule, it is only because of the mortals' acquiescence or passivity.

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By affirming the Presence, Power, and Benevolence of our Creator and His plan of progress to higher worlds for all His children, mortals can clear the spiritual atmosphere about them, and extend their influence into many hells in which spirits are bound. This cannot be done by a single mortal working alone, for there is too much opposition for one person to handle. But mortals working together in a group for the purpose of upliftment gain the help of higher beings, and can do a successful work of liberation.

Bless the spirits? Why not?

Thou art inspiring and strengthening us as we give them our love, O Creator.

You have our recognition as divine souls, all ye spirits. Your Creator loves you and watches over you. You are His children. You are potential angels, instruments of His will, wisdom and love. We praise the Creator's Presence in your souls. We give our faith to the Star of Jehovih within your natures. You are destined to blossom into beautiful creatures of light. We sing songs of praise to the beauty and perfection that lies within the centers of your being. We love you because you are children of the Almighty, just as we are. We do not love the darkness or evil or bondage, but we love the essence of your natures, your true selves. The light of the higher heavens is

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reaching you, and lifting you up. We do not condemn, nor reprove, nor despise any one of you, no more than we would our neighbors here in the corporeal world. Rather do we see the good in you, praise you, and wish you joy in your awakening to the reality of your oneness with the Creator.

We, your co-workers while on earth, join with you and the angels of Jehovih as instruments through which spirits in darkness and chaos can be gathered together on our plateau for their education and growth. The spirits who are brought to us are mostly souls who have reached a place of desire to progress. We also deal with children of all ages from babes up through childhood to young adults. It is a joy to be of service to those who seek light. This plateau is a happy place for all to grow and expand in service to Jehovih, as well as to learn the unlimited aspects of our Creator's unlimited universe. All of us are learning to create in our small endeavors, and are constantly improving our abilities as we grow.

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The Choice Is Ours The Eloists Radiance (1986)

Each of as has two sides to our natures, the one which strives toward the ideal, and the other which fights against it. Every experience is a challenge; and we, ourselves, determine whether to take the high road or the low. If we choose the high, the Angels of Light strengthen and help us; if we choose the low, spirits of darkness egg us on. Who are these angels? Who are these spirits?

We believe that when a person dies, he simply casts aside his old coat, the physical body, and awakens in the next world, which is very similar to the world he left behind. He does not feel different. Friends or relatives who have passed on before him greet him; and after a few days or weeks or months, depending upon his spiritual development, he takes up life again. There are nurseries, schools, colleges, homes and everything we have here. We do not change. We only lose the physical limitations of earth.

If a person has developed spiritual understanding, and made efforts to live a kindly life, his lot will be happier and more progressive than one who is a miser, a luster or a glutton. Those without spiritual

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development continue to live close to the earth, trying to influence mortals, and enjoy earth life through them vicariously. Those with high ideals leave the atmosphere of earth to learn more of the laws of progression, and how to help others. We call the low-grade ones, "spirits", and those who aspire, "Angels."

Spirits can wreak havoc in mortalsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; lives. They resort to pretense and deceit, and embody all the qualities they expressed on earth. Spirits are the cause of nine-tenths of the suffering in the world. We unite with the Angels to lift away the spirits into schools where they can learn the joys of being angels, and thus leave mortals free to express their own souls, one with the Creator.

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Spiritual Assistance The Eloists Radiance (1996)

What can we do to help suffering souls manifest then-inherent perfection?

In the quietness of the council room in our Places of Radiance, we concentrate all our faith and love to help others. Our spirits leap the chasm of space through the subtle power of empathy and touch their spirits with strength as truly as if they had been in the same room. We have faith in the potential perfection of all spirits. We realize that within their nature is locked power, strength, and intelligence sufficient to reorganize every cell of their physical body. We have faith that this inner power of their souls will respond to the concentrated love of our souls, and will awaken from their latent condition to positive activity. We believe that there is an image or pattern of a perfect human being in their nature, just as there is an image of an oak within the acorn. We believe that this potential perfection will grow into actual perfection, if we vitalize it with our realization of love, as the acorn is vitalized by the sun's rays.

Love is life and life-giving. It is our work as ministering spirits of love

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to speak words of life to arouse those souls into activity and to feed their awakening powers with the love of the Creator which we feel surging forth from within the depths of our souls. By exercising our love collectively,

we call forth greater love. We feel that love which

is immortal life. We are conscious of that which is the Eternal in every soul. We are lifted above the limited life of time and space. We are immortals with the Glorious Immortals. We are consciously one with the power of the Ever-Present within our souls and within all mighty, immortal souls in a heavenly state of mind. We are not alone in our effort to heal souls in distress. We feel the Ever-Present inspiring us and the Glorious Immortals with us, and we can truly say, "It is not we, but the Creator who doeth the work."

We have not been satisfied to offer a temporary happiness to people. We have sought for the permanent healing of the woes of humanity, physical, economic and spiritual. We can see that most of the sufferings of humanity are due to the very small degree of love which human beings have for one another, and that they will be saved from suffering when they forsake selfish desires in the effort to create more ideal conditions for all. Selfishness is the spiritual cause for human suffering. Love will create a world of peaceful, prosperous homes when it is expressed through and organized by human beings.

Because we see the great need for cooperation by those who can

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learn to be lovers of humanity, we urge all to develop a Place of Radiance on earth like that of the Angels in Heaven, in which all serve together for the good of all.

By focusing daily in spirit to uplift those who are suffering, we develop the spirit and power of love within our souls, and make ourselves a channel through which love can flow to others. This stream of love has grown in the act of joining together in thought for greater service to others.

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Revelations The Eloists Radiance (1998)

Humanity can outgrow its limitations while in this world.

There is a definite science of regeneration or soul culture by which this can be done.

There is a scientific method by which the causes for disease, poverty and crime can be overcome.

The practice of this method will bring to humanity the inspiration and protection of the benevolent Immortals of heaven.

We are entering a New Age in which children will know more of divine love and express it more fully than the wise men of the past.

Unprogressive souls do not leave their earthly associations after death, but remain earthbound.

Earthbound souls hinder the intellectual and moral development of souls on earth.

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Myriads of earthbound spirits must be lifted from the mental atmosphere of the planet before humanity will outgrow its selfish propensities and express its divine nature

The elders of the races of humanity are now returning from their exalted abodes as a vast angelic organization of Light.

The present purpose of the Immortals is to cleanse the lower spiritual worlds of earthbound spirits, to reveal spiritual principles and extend their protective power to all who will cooperate.

The Immortals have established Places of Radiance on earth.

As human beings cooperate with the Immortals to fulfill the Creator's purpose, they will establish a harmonious and prosperous social order which will be of a higher caliber and unlike anything we have known in the past.

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Spirit Obsession in Everyday Life Kasandra Kares The Faithist Journal (2001)

When you look you can see spirit obsession behind the scenes at work all around you, and in most of the movies on television, you might ask just what happens to allow a disembodied spirit to take control of a mortal person?

Sometimes when a person becomes unstable, gets suicidal, has frequent uncontrollable rages, a dark spirit is on board. It may be a strong malevolent spirit, or even have an entourage of fifty or a hundred more spirits.

Many spirits are earthbound because before they died they were not very spiritual, and

now they are still spirits of high intelligence but

of low morality, troublemakers who even use cleverness to get mortals under their control.

There are many homes with several

earthbound spirits in residence. Some spirits love violence and will drive the mortals around them to commit whatever the mortals will go along with.

To keep them away from you, watch carefully how you feel about

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people. Do you catch yourself being critical of them? Are you annoyed by anything you see or hear from them? Supposing you broaden your viewpoint. Put yourself in their places. If you find yourself criticizing people for their imperfect treatment of you, be on guard for thoughts about getting even.

You are smarter and in a better position than these spirits. You can suggest attitudes for them that they may accept. Visualize a place or an activity for the spirit that could do some good.

You can run a tape and if you have pretty good hearing, can hear them talking on it.

You can get them to go somewhere else.

One very foolish way to pick up a spirit is to invite the spirit voluntarily to enter your mind and body. It's not a lark. It is all too easy to pick up one, and become possessed in seconds.

If a child has been good natured and suddenly becomes disruptive, he may have become possessed and maybe by a relative who wants to be with the child.

A good way to become intruded upon by alcoholic spirits is to

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frequent public places where liquor is served. Such an intruding spirit can drive the host to drink, to suicide, to murder.

When feelings are over-expressed, negative energy is discharged. Negative thought forms may be in the making. Negative entities can be drawn to such expressions and caused to commit regrettable acts. A pendulum can detect such negative energies. Imagining a cleansing torrential rain over such places can help clean them.

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Life with The Spirits Kasandra Kares The Faithist Journal (2001)

When you are alone, when you are walking along, when you are doing almost anything and you are fairly passive do you often experience a reasonable, uplifting conversation-like situation in which one part is your own conscious mind?

The thoughts of kind, caring spirit folks who want to guide and protect you and others to do the right thing is not uncommon and can be experienced almost anytime. If it happens when you are asleep you call it a dream. If it happens when you are awake you might consider it an unimportant daydream or a meditation, but you can be counted on to profit by it, to learn by it and let it influence your actions. If this were not so, then The Great Spiritâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Holy Angels would not waste their time coming to you. As long as you respond, your spirit companions will hold conversations with you. They will consult and contend with you and if you were to talk aloud they would use your organs to make you seem to talk both sides.

Writers experience a lot of this and often what they write is practically dictated to them. Shakespeare was attended by a vast number of

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spirits and they even spoke their parts when they came close enough to enter within his aura. You might call this inspiration.

The difference between this and insanity is vast. In insanity, many low grade spirits seek to get possession of a person and in some cases there is both a diseased organism and evil spirits.

As we know, evil spirits do come back to haunt the living. We should probably look upon them with sympathy. They don't know, really, what happened, or where they belong, or how to rise to anything better. If they are really evil, you won't want them around you and will do and think things that will bore them enough that they will leave you. If they are poor ignorant drujas, you might try reading Oahspe aloud to them.

When we pray for inspiration, we can pray for good and pure spirits to come to us, and to drive hence those which are evil.

What do evil spirits want anyway? They are like thieves wanting your strength, your spirit food, your sustenance. The best way to get rid of them is to keep on with your disciplined life and you will bore them enough that they will leave you, for something more exciting to them.

What is going on when one mortal lives in fraud and rascality and

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riches, having amassed a pretty good fortune and not being very honest about it while an honest person lives in poverty and struggles by all his life? One is laying up treasures in heaven and the other treasures on earth. Some rich people are honest and help many people with their resources.

Even in your prayers, pray for what will hurt no man.

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Aura, Astral Body and the Chakras Richard Rowley Rescue Circles (2010)

The physical body is a living energy system like a miniature solar system or an even smaller replica of the universe. Though the Eastern traditions have described this living system in terms of the chakras, prana and kundalini energy, and chi, acupuncture points and so on, in Western terms it is probably easier to understand our energy by examining the aura and the etheric and astral bodies. An interesting journey through these was described by Vera Stanley Alder in 1940 in her book, â&#x20AC;&#x153;From the Mundane to the Magnificent,â&#x20AC;? reprinted in 1979 by Rider and Company, London, and by Samuel Weiser, New York, 1980. She described how her guide Raphael led her on an inner journey to the body of a nurse in a mental hospital, and then to some of the patients.

The whole book is recommended as a guide to development, and an understanding of disease and healing, but for now I will just whet your appetite so that you can compare the essential details with the knowledge of the chakra system.

Vera related how she relaxed in a meditative state, and Raphael, her

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guide, led her out of body. At first she became aware of peculiar feelings within herself, like the rotating of wheels. It seemed as if there were several wheels whirling within her as if the inside of her body was like a watch. The movements changed as if the wheels suddenly reversed and went round the other way. They speeded up tremendously, and she felt as if she was being whirled around too. Eventually she calmed down and went over to look at her inert physical body lying on the divan. She started to see a beautiful delicate blue light which spread through all the flesh, giving it a hollow, transparent look. Then she could see it as if in an x-ray. Raphael strengthened her inner sight, and the blue light became stronger, and extended about an inch beyond the skin. It shimmered softly with quivering life.

It was the etheric body, duplicating every bone and vein, a complete and firmly knit second body, composed of millions of tiny interlaced threads. Raphael told Vera that this etheric body was her real physical body, which fed and formed and built the solid, physical one. It formed a link between the inner chemical matter which composed the physical body, and the electrical forces of life which could reach it only through the medium of the “ether.” Every living thing, particle, atom, cell, plant or animal, has its own “double” or organized ether to act as a conductor.

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Vera looked back at her own body lying on the divan, noticing little patches and spaces, or blemishes here and there, interrupting the fine webbing of the etheric body. Raphael explained that they were only temporary, reflecting Vera’s anxieties. Clairvoyants and medical intuitives make their diagnoses of internal disease with this type of vision, but with most people, focused as they are on the physical senses, they have not developed the gift.

Raphael explained to Vera that the emotions or feelings, sometimes termed “affects” so as not to confuse them with the physical feelings, such as pain or nausea or delicious tastes, these emotions can sometimes overwhelm the mind and will-power. But without the emotions we would have no driving force, no incentive, no attractions, no love. They give us the impetus into every action. Emotions are lawless and irregular, beyond the etheric body which obeys certain regular laws of electricity and electromagnetism. [This explains why parapsychologists’ measuring devices and ghost-busters’ equipment cannot measure the activities of spirits and ghosts, beyond their traces in the etheric body and the physical atmosphere, room temperatures and the like]. Each creature therefore has an astral body, made up of the emotions.

Astral atoms are much finer than physical and etheric atoms, and we cannot see both physically and astrally at the same time. Looking

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now with astral vision at her body on the divan, Vera saw a thick, grey smoke like substance, like a ghost. Raphael told her that astral substance was completely different from physical matter and its reactions. It was finer and more rapid in motion than ether, along which electricity and other forces travel. The astral body can travel more quickly than electricity, faster than sound. Astral stuff is non-physical and beyond the law of gravity. Hence the ability to fly. Such dreams are real experiences, in the astral.

Looking at the room with astral eyes, Vera saw that every object was permeated with intermingling colours, and she saw her own aura, and Raphaelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. He explained that all our emotions are coloured. We can actually be green with envy, yellow with cowardice or blue with melancholy. In an unevolved person, the colours are dark and turgid, but as we seek the light of Truth, that light literally irradiates us, and the colours gradually grow brighter and lighter, until they fuse back into one perfect original white light. Then we have the perfect human being, surrounded, not with a coloured aura, but with a halo of light.

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through another life and oblivious to all else but their own sphere of vibrations. There may be an astral planet passing through our earth at this very moment, while we are quite unaware of it.

On subsequent evenings Raphael took Vera out to view the solar system. Then they went within to examine the activity inside an atom. Finally they visited a mental hospital. There they examined the astral body of a nurse talking to a doctor. Vera saw the solar system within her, with the glowing “planets” or chakras near the heart, throat, brain and solar plexus. As her sight strengthened, she saw the beautiful etheric web, taking the shape of the human form, with the brilliant sun which shone in the region of the heart. Seven serpentine coloured rays streamed forth, their convolutions embracing the glowing planets within the various organs of the body. Their various colours gradually intermingled and wove with a rotary movement until by the time they all reached the periphery of the body, they had assumed the familiar look of the astral body. This could be seen encircling the figure of the nurse.

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me of the Deva spirit which I had seen brooding over the countryside. As I remembered all the little lives I had witnessed flowing out from his form to do their work, I recognized the same mysterious activity once more before me. Delicate beings of many sizes were streaming through this nurse’s aura, each intent upon his work. These busy lives passed through each other without hindrance. The effect was of several films superimposed one upon the other.”

Touring the aura from within, Vera saw opposite her in the stomach a beautiful spirit or fairy of a transparent orange hue. He was swaying back and forth with a careful rhythmic movement. Raphael explained “That is the living creature, sometimes called an elemental, who takes care of the stomach – one might say that the stomach is his physical body. He controls within himself many smaller lives who produce the various digestive juices and activate the lesser movements of the stomach.”

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electrical life forces as they flowed rapidly along the various coloured “neon wires” which formed a heart of cobweb, as it were, as the living basis of the physical heart. Vera noticed that the racing electric channels each hummed a different note according to its colour.

They then turn to astral vision, and the coloured rays which poured serpent-like from the centre of the heart swirled around it until they blended into its enveloping astral bubble or aura. At the centre Vera could just discern a golden ball of fire. It was loveliest sight she had ever seen. Raphael explained the mysterious link of each creature’s heart with the solar system. “Our entire solar system has as its goal the expression of love. This planet will achieve that goal by means of human beings whose hearts are the instrument through which it will be transmitted. We do not yet know what love is. The love which humans and animals show is only the faintest beginning of the real thing. The heart of the solar system is the Sun, and the heart of the human is also, in its inner essence, a little sun.”

Raphael then showed Vera the being who inhabited the heart and made it work, the heart’s “elemental”. She saw the very beautiful Deva hovering or crouching within the sphere of the heart’s astral bubble, or aura. His body seemed to be formed of warm golden light from which flowed a wonderful sense of peace, of comradeship and of understanding. The wisdom of the heart. The spirit or elemental

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did not appear to see them. He was sunk in deep concentration as he worked to produce the muscular and etheric activities within his body, the heart. Various small beings could be seen under his control, working busily at the functioning of the different valves.*

“Every organ in the body is run in the same way” explained Raphael. “All the chemical compounds and juices, of which there are an infinite number, are compounded by little elementals, as clever or more clever than our modern chemists. These chemical compounds in the blood don’t just ‘happen’. Complex happenings must have an intelligent initiator of some kind. All these lives within a person’s body are his servants, over whom he is intended to develop not only complete and wise control, but cooperation. He is always able to communicate with them and express his wishes to them. If he is sufficiently single-minded they will understand and obey him. But their vices are a reflection of his own – be it laziness, lust for power, self-importance! If their lord and master allows any of them to become self-indulged, the whole organization of his life becomes unbalanced.”

Looking next at the nurse’s brain, they saw another solar system. The sun of this solar system was right in the middle of the head. Its most important neighbour seemed to be a luminous planet at the root of the nose. High above them through the top of the skull, they could

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discern a most beautiful glowing fire-ball. Its many rays flowed out and curled over until it gave the effect of a great chrysanthemum made of living coloured. That was the channel through which spiritual life flows into the human beingâ&#x20AC;Ś. The thousand petalled Lotus. Each petal connects with an aspect of cosmic life. All these centres in the body, or chakras, rotate just as the great planets do. Vera noticed that the chakra in the centre of the head (pineal gland) had comparatively few petals or rays, and the one behind the eyes (pituitary or â&#x20AC;&#x153;third eyeâ&#x20AC;? fewer petals still.

Within the aura or astral bubble of the third eye or pituitary planet hovered a living, luminous being, very intent upon its work. Into and out of this very complex centre passed a constant flow of swirling coloured waves, crowded with tiny little creatures. It was like a telephone exchange or bureau of information, where every experience and effort of thought is registered. The more abstract or idealistic thought produces strong radiations which reach out towards the central or pineal gland, which is controlled by the little sun in the centre of the head. This sun is a transmitter from the upper-most centre, the thousand petalled lotus, In a perfect human being these three centres or planets are firmly linked together, so that the personality (the pituitary) is influenced by the spirit through the higher mind (the pineal), and all the elementals and living workers in the body can thus come under control. The nurse was a decent and

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balanced person, so everything was working normally.

Raphael then took Vera off to one of the mental patients in the wards, to show her how unbalanced minds contrasted with that of the nurse’s. In each of the patients one or another of his elemental workers had swollen to abnormal proportions, and was conducting a reign of tyranny over the whole of the person’s organism. In one, the thirst of an alcoholic reigned, and the elemental had become swollen, thickened and hideous. The other elementals at work within the patient’s body were all demoralized and paralysed by the fumes of alcohol, and the beautiful etheric web had many rents and gaps in it. Through these gaps floated astral forms of snakes, toads and rats. The patient evidently saw them, for he shivered and shouted in terror.

“A case of delirium tremens,” explained Raphael. “Those snakes and rats are the forms taken by certain low types of elementals who enjoy alcohol and are only able to function when they are near to it. If this patient were to pull himself together and conquer his craving for drink, it would mean that he had regained control of his drink elemental, who would gradually shrink back to his normal size and shape. Our elementals

take

our

human

egotism,

power-lusts

and

self-importance. They reflect us, their masters – and they can become our Frankenstein monsters.”

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They next moved on to contemplate a patient who was sitting shivering with fear. From his brain a kind of astral cable linked him to a large dark grey ball of smoke which was packed within his aura. Inside this smoke many activities were taking place – figures running, knives glistening, a kind of living nightmare.

“That cloud is what we call a “thought-form” or an “obsession”. It all began with self-pity which a most dangerous activity and undermines the health very much. In this case one of the thought-elementals began to grow fat on this self-pity. He built himself up until now he rules his master from that little some-world of congealed thought he has made, so that now his master has developed persecution mania. If human beings knew of these elementals and exercised a balanced and disciplined will, these things would never happen, for the elementals are wonderful and willing servants, when controlled.”

The next patient’s aura was quite hollow and empty. There were no swirling colours, only a thick grey shell of smoke which prevented any rays from passing either in or out. Within the cold empty shell its owner brooded, lonely and insulated from everything around him. He made not response to patients or nurses around him. He was a very loving person, but he had centred all his love possessively and exclusively upon one person, his wife. When she died, there was a complete vacuum in his life which he preserved in selfish grief until it

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became an impenetrable shell. Call it melancholia or depression. He prevented his coloured etheric rays from flowing outwards from the chakras. They curled in upon themselves, forming tangled congested knots of force like short-circuited live wires. This smouldering coagulation was gradually burning and disrupting the body cells. The beautiful structures of both web and tissue were destroyed already over a large area.

“You are looking at a cancer,” said Raphael. “Brooding and resentment are very often the cause of a malignant growth. When you look at this man you can understand how it happens. It is always a case of misplaced energy. That which we call love is really a radiation which flows to us and from us from the Sun. It should link us with all living creatures on the Earth in an exchange of understanding and cooperation. We human beings have made a travesty of the part we are meant to play in respect of that might Sun force. The result is disease, both mental and physical.”

The nurse they had observed earlier came towards her patients. As she approached, her aura could be seen radiating from the central sun of her heart soft golden rays which were indeed very like sunshine. She paused a moment and stretched out her hand to touch a bowl of flowers appreciatively with her fingertips. There was a vivid response as the blossoms awakened, but this response came

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from their quivering etheric counterparts which seemed literally to drink up those golden rays with a passionate thirst. “Love feeds!” remarked Raphael. “Ignorant folk would say she had green fingers, and not trouble to wonder what that really meant!” The nurse then talked to the patients, and the healing rays from her heart and her fingers linked her up with them so that her mind could travel down their length and literally dwell within her patients’ brains with complete understanding.

While she was there the obsessions and the fog clouds melted and wavered, but when she left them the old conditions re-asserted themselves once more. “She is a fine person and loves enough to heal, but not lastingly,” explained Raphael. For a real cure, knowledge is needed as well as love, the sort of knowledge that I have given you today, which would enable the patients to be taught how to heal themselves. So you have seen what lies at the back of disease.”

I would recommend those interested in this subject to obtain and read the rest of this book, and those of Caroline Myss. Very Stanley Alder has written six other books with the publishers listed above:“The Finding of the ‘Third Eye’” “The Initiation of the World” “The Fifth Dimension” “Wisdom in Practice” “The Secret of the Atomic Age” “When Humanity Comes of Age”

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[*We can but wonder, in our heavily medicated bodies of 2006, that perhaps these elementals are almost drugged out of existence and unable to function, leading to all these health and environmental problems. Modern science and medicine does not recognize these other levels and dimensions of existence, only the impersonal functioning of chemicals, waves, particles and genomes. For example, the progress of the HIV virus can be arrested by a costly cocktail of drugs, but we wonder what is going on at the elemental level. Something else is out of balance - perhaps our misuse of nuclear energy, and promiscuous behaviour generally and lack of care and control of the blood plasma supply, needle use, and contraception.

The

Catholic

Church

still

forbidding

the

precautionary measures which would cut down AIDS cases by 90%. That is a criminal proclamation, not a spiritually enlightened one. Some intense research into all this is urgently needed, as well as realistic practical political and religious action. ]

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The Aura and the Astral Body and more about the Chakras Richard Rowley Rescue Circles (2010)

Vera related how she relaxed in a meditative state, and Raphael, her guide, led her out of body. At first she became aware of peculiar

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feelings within herself, like the rotating of wheels. It seemed as if there were several wheels whirling within her as if the inside of her body was like a watch. The movements changed as if the wheels suddenly reversed and went round the other way. They speeded up tremendously, and she felt as if she was being whirled around too. Eventually she calmed down and went over to look at her inert physical body lying on the divan.

She started to see a beautiful delicate blue light which spread through all the flesh, giving it a hollow, transparent look. Then she could see it as if in an x-ray. Raphael strengthened her inner sight, and the blue light became stronger, and extended about an inch beyond the skin. It shimmered softly with quivering life. It was the etheric body, duplicating every bone and vein, a complete and firmly knit second body, composed of millions of tiny interlaced threads. Raphael told Vera that this etheric body was her real physical body, which fed and formed and built the solid, physical one. It formed a link between the inner chemical matter which composed the physical body, and the electrical forces of life which could reach it only through the medium of the “ether.”

Every living thing, particle, atom, cell, plant or animal, has its own “double” or organized ether to act as a conductor.

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Vera looked back at her own body lying on the divan, noticing little patches and spaces, or blemishes here and there, interrupting the fine webbing of the etheric body. Raphal explained that they were only temporary, reflecting Vera’s anxieties.

Clairvoyants and medical intuitives make their diagnoses of internal disease with this type of vision, but with most people, focused as they are on the physical senses, they have not developed the gift.

[This explains why parapsychologists’ measuring devices and ghostbusters’ equipment cannot measure the activities of spirits and ghosts, beyond their traces in the etheric body and the physical atmosphere, room temperatures and the like].

Each creature therefore has an astral body, made up of the

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emotions.

Astral atoms are much finer than physical and etheric atoms, and we cannot see both physically and astrally at the same time. Looking now with astral vision at her body on the divan, Vera saw a thick, grey smoke-like substance, like a ghost. Raphael told her that astral substance was completely different from physical matter and its reactions. It was finer and more rapid in motion than ether, along which electricity and other forces travel. The astral body can travel more quickly than electricity, faster than sound. Astral stuff is non-physical and beyond the law of gravity. Hence the ability to fly.

Such dreams are real experiences, in the astral.

Looking at the room with astral eyes, Vera saw that every object was permeated with intermingling colors, and she saw her own aura, and Raphaelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. He explained that all our emotions are colored. We can actually be green with envy, yellow with cowardice or blue with melancholy. In an unevolved person, the colors are dark and turgid, but as we seek the light of Truth, that light literally irradiates us, and the colors gradually grow brighter and lighter, until they fuse back into one perfect original white light.

Then we have the perfect human being, surrounded, not with a

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colored aura, but with a halo of light.

When we are in our astral body, we can pass through physical things, including people, without affecting them. They will not notice. There are many degrees of astral matter, or astral atoms, each functioning independently. Within and around us there are creatures, spirits and entities, carrying on their own lives and activities while flowing through another life and oblivious to all else but their own sphere of vibrations. There may be an astral planet passing through our earth at this very moment, while we are quite unaware of it.

On subsequent evenings Raphael took Vera out to view the solar system. Then they went within to examine the activity inside an atom. Finally they visited a mental hospital. There they examined the astral body of a nurse talking to a doctor. Vera saw the solar system within her, with the glowing â&#x20AC;&#x153;planetsâ&#x20AC;? or chakras near the heart, throat, brain and solar plexus. As her sight strengthened, she saw the beautiful etheric web, taking the shape of the human form, with the brilliant sun which shone in the region of the heart. Seven serpentine colored rays streamed forth, their convolutions embracing the glowing planets within the various organs of the body. Their various colors gradually intermingled and wove with a rotary movement until by the time they all reached the periphery of the body, they had assumed the familiar look of the astral body. This could be seen encircling the

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figure of the nurse.

Raphael then showed Vera the lives or intelligences which produced and ran the nurse’s body. She was a splendid, well-balanced person. Vera watched and began to see or sense a great form which hovered with the aura. It appeared to be made of auric substance, and it vibrated with life, feeling and intelligence. Vera recorded “It reminded me of the Deva spirit which I had seen brooding over the countryside. As I remembered all the little lives I had witnessed flowing out from his form to do their work, I recognized the same mysterious activity once more before me. Delicate being s of many sizes were streaming through this nurse’s aura, each intent upon his work. These busy lives passed through each other without hindrance. The effect was of several films superimposed one upon the other.”

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They then went to examine the heart, and the tremendous pipes of various hues which connected up with it, and saw the intricate way in which it was suspended from the surrounding walls of the ribs. The noise was tremendous, a succession of pumping, bubbling, sucking and creaking sounds. Then the beautiful etheric form of the heart came into view as the physical heart began to fade. They could faintly hear now the slight hissing or humming sounds of the electrical life forces as they flowed rapidly along the various colored “neon wires” which formed a heart of cobweb, as it were, as the living basis of the physical heart. Vera noticed that the racing electric channels each hummed a different note according to its color.

They then turn to astral vision, and the colored rays which poured serpent-like from the center of the heart swirled around it until they blended into its enveloping astral bubble or aura. At the center Vera could just discern a golden ball of fire. It was loveliest sight she had ever seen. Raphael explained the mysterious link of each creature’s heart with the solar system. “Our entire solar system has as its goal the expression of love. This planet will achieve that goal by means of human beings whose hearts are the instrument through which it will be transmitted. We do not yet know what love is. The love which humans and animals show is only the faintest beginning of the real thing. The heart of the solar system is the Sun, and the heart of the human is also, in its inner essence, a little sun.”

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The next patientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s aura was quite hollow and empty. There were no swirling colors, only a thick grey shell of smoke which prevented any rays from passing either in or out. Within the cold empty shell its owner brooded, lonely and insulated from everything around him. He made not response to patients or nurses around him. He was a very loving person, but he had centered all his love possessively and exclusively upon one person, his wife. When she died, there was a complete vacuum in his life which he preserved in selfish grief until it became an impenetrable shell. Call it melancholia or depression. He prevented his colored etheric rays from flowing outwards from the chakras. They curled in upon themselves, forming tangled congested knots of force like short-circuited live wires. This smoldering coagulation was gradually burning and disrupting the body cells. The beautiful structures of both web and tissue were destroyed already over a large area.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;You are looking at a cancer,: said Raphael.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Brooding and

resentment are very often the cause of a malignant growth. When you look at this man you can understand how it happens. It is always a case of misplaced energy. That which we call love is really a radiation which flows to us and from us from the Sun. It should link us with all living creatures on the Earth in an exchange of understanding and cooperation. We human beings have made a

160

travesty of the part we are meant to play in respect of that might Sun force. The result is disease, both mental and physical.”

There

was a vivid response as the blossoms awakened, but this response came from their quivering etheric counterparts which seemed literally to drink up those golden rays with a passionate thirst. “Love feeds!” remarked Raphael. “Ignorant folk would say she had green fingers, and not trouble to wonder what that really meant!”

The nurse then talked to the patients, and the healing rays from her heart and her fingers linked her up with them so that her mind could travel down their length and literally dwell within her patients’ brains with complete understanding. While she was there the obsessions and the fog clouds melted and wavered, but when she left them the old conditions re-asserted themselves once more. “She is a fine person and loves enough to heal, but not lastingly,” explained Raphael. For a real cure, knowledge is needed as well as love, the sort of knowledge that I have given you today, which would enable the patients to be taught how to heal themselves. So you have seen

161

what lies at the back of disease.â&#x20AC;?

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Bertha Harris, and “Casting Out of Obsessive Spirits” Richard Rowley Rescue Circles (2010)

I was glad to hear mention of Bertha Harris in a recent post, since it reminded me that she did some rescue work with Carl Wickland back in 1932. Dr. Wickland was looking for a medium to help him after the death of his wife, Anna, and he spent 6 weeks with Bertha in a London hospital treating mental patients. However, even with offers of generous financial rewards he was unable to lure her back to the USA to work with him as his ‘rescue’ medium. After WW II Bertha Harris did tour the States several times, and worked with George Meek among others. Wickland, along with Hugh Dowding, Arthur Guirdham, Johannes Greber and a few other more enlightened professionals was sure that much mental illness is the result of spirit obsession, and can be cured in most cases with the help of a medium.

Here are a few more cases of rescue work recorded by Hugh Dowding. He writes: “A Scotswoman in late middle age joined a development circle in Scotland with a view to becoming a medium. She became obsessed by a malicious spirit, apparently of foreign origin judging by his speech and accent. This case was peculiar in

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that the services of the medium in trance were not required, because the patient herself was a natural medium. She sat down in a chair to tell us of her symptoms and the history of her case, and within ten seconds she was no longer speaking to us; the obsessing spirit had taken control and she was in trance. At first the spirit was very blatant and triumphant, boasting that he had prevented the development of a first-class medium and delighted with the pain and distress which he had caused to his victim. As soon as the electric treatment was started, however, he changed his tune and began to express penitence for what he had done, and to ask to be helped to break the connection which he no longer desired. But he was an unpleasant creature, and I formed the opinion that in spite of his protestations he was hanging on like grim death. The patient had been in a mental home, and had been subjected unsuccessfully to the heavy ECT shock treatment which is given in such places. Possibly this unsuccessful attempt had toughened the resistance of the spirit to electricity, because, except for the change of tone in his babblings, it seemed to have little effect on him. Patiently, minute after minute, the aura specialist and the medium continued to converse with the spirit, persuading him to leave of his own free will. We were told that there was a cowled monk with a St. Bernard dog who had come to meet the obsessing spirit and to take charge of him when he was willing to go. The spirit could not see the monk at first, but eventually he saw him and â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;a fat dog.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; This went on for nearly half an hour, and then,

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suddenly, he was gone â&#x20AC;&#x201C; like a cork out of a bottle. The patient came out of her trance, and could not believe at first that the spirit was gone [this is a very common symptom]. She was in mortal dread of being sent back to a mental home for good by her relatives; but she was asked to sit in a waiting-room with a member of the circle, and after about an hour was quite composed and able to leave in a taxi with her husband. Unfortunately in this case the expelled entity later returned to his victim, and is still in possession, although the fight has by no means been abandoned by the circle.

Psychiatrists and the medical profession as a whole are not ready to accept as a fact the separate existence of those discarnate spirits who are the cause of obsession. It is also necessary to recognize the existence of and the conscious co-operation of agents of the principle of Light [spirits and angels from the higher spheres] in the never-ending fight against the darkness [the influence of low-level or â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;astralâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; spirits]. In point of fact, these higher spirits are the directors and we the co-operators, and this is scarcely a point of view likely to be widely accepted by professionals at the present time [THEY still like to be in control of things!]. The onus is with the rescue circles to provide an adequate number of verifiable case-histories of people who have been restored to sane normality after orthodox methods have failed, before professionals can be expected to register anything in the nature of a practical interest. [This is still true, in 2006].

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My own attitude is that, as in the time of our Lord, people are invaded by unclean spirits, and, as in Biblical times, these spirits are susceptible to eviction in accordance with the power and knowledge of the exorcist. The laws of nature are immutable; all that changes is the fashion which determines the type of window through which we look at them.â&#x20AC;?

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True, True, True, … Richard Rowley Rescue Circles (2010)

Now, Hugh Dowding has a lot more to say about rescue work and possession, so here is what he relates in a chapter of “The Dark Star”:

“Cognate with this subject [of rescue work] is the question of the relief of sufferers from obsession by alien entities, or possession.

In the time of our Lord the fact that human beings could be possessed by unclean spirits was universally accepted, and the Gospels contain many accounts of the casting out of these spirits by Jesus and His disciples.

Nowadays our spiritual pastors and masters are mostly engaged in explaining away the manifestations of the power of the Founder of the religion which they profess, so they explain that Jesus did not really understand what He was doing, and that the people whom He cured were only epileptics; or, if there be some who are unwilling to denigrate their Master, they will maintain that the age of miracles is past, and with it have passed those conditions which made this

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particular kind of miracle necessary; In other words, human beings are no longer possessed by alien entities.

I am not quite sure how long our learned theologians allow that the age of miracles persisted after the Ascension of Jesus â&#x20AC;&#x201C; I presume they allow some latitude for the miracles of Paul â&#x20AC;&#x201C; but I suppose that at some date in the first or second century the age of miracles came to an end, and the cosmic laws which govern the evolution of humanity were abruptly altered.

What nonsense! The accounts in the Gospels of the casting out of unclean spirits are precisely borne out by happenings today, some of which I am about to describe.

Souls of all degrees of development pass into the Astral world at physical death. Those who have depended for their enjoyment of Earth life entirely upon the gratification of their physical senses are acutely unhappy in the Astral, because the physical desires remain, while they have no means of gratifying them.

Some of these souls (instructed by more experienced sinners) find that they can occupy the body of a living person, and thus experience at second hand the longed-for sensations of physical life. These excite their victims to excesses of drink or rage or sensuality, and

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wallow in the gross satisfaction of their appetites. Not infrequently they drive their victims to suicide or to murder, and leave them to face the consequences of a deed of which they were innocent in intention. This is perhaps the worst form of obsession; but there is a very wide range of variety in the attendant circumstances. Some spirits obsess from loneliness, and some obsess their own children in the belief that they are helping and protecting them. Some obsessions are entirely innocent and accidental – an inexperienced wandering spirit gets caught up in the aura of a living human being quite by mistake, and sometimes without ever knowing that it has passed through the gateway of death.

Unfortunately the possibility of spirit obsession is not generally recognized by the medical profession. The two or more personalities in a single sufferer are observed, and a disease of the mind is at once diagnosed. I feel quite certain that many of the occupants of our mental homes [many now wandering the streets] have nothing wrong with their minds at all; they have an ‘unclean spirit’ and if that could be disposed of, they could walk out sane into the world.”

Hugh Dowding mentions the work of Carl Wickland a few decades earlier, and then goes on to give accounts of circles in London doing similar work, using a Wimshurst machine for the generation of frictional electricity to give a mild shock to the ‘possessed’ person to

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zap the spirit out of him or her and into the medium, where it can be reasoned with.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The first case which I wish to describe I have chosen because it went exactly according to plan. The patient was a grey-headed widow, quietly but smartly dressed, and having had some connection with the theatrical profession.

She had been sitting by herself for the development of automatic writing, and was regularly receiving messages which she was satisfied came from her husband and personal friends. Suddenly an alien entity began to control her hand â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a dominant character who refused to allow any but himself to communicate. He had nothing useful or constructive to say, but would allow no other to write.

This was naturally distressing to the patient, especially as the stranger began to intrude upon her privacy at times when she was not attempting to write. When she had described her symptoms the electrical treatment began. She was asked to hold one of the terminals, and the operator passed the other terminal repeatedly across her head from front to rear, so that little trains of sparks jumped across to her scalp. Then the treatment was continued down the spine and across the shoulders.

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After five or ten minutes of this the spirit was dislodged and passed into the body of the medium, where he was able to converse freely with the members of the circle and with the patient whom he had just left.

It turned out that he was an American whom the patient and her husband had met in the Eastern States about 25 years ago. His story was that his parents were English and that he had never renounced British nationality; that he had come across the Atlantic with an American contingent in 1944, transferred to a British unit, and been killed in France by a German sniper.

PATIENT (indignantly) Why did you pick on ME?

SPIRIT Well, I saw you like an open door with a light all round it; so I went in. I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t do you any harm.

It was explained to him that he had indeed done harm to the lady; and, in answer to further questioning, he stated that for some time after his death, he had hung around with a bunch of his friends, killed about the same time; but that one by one these friends had â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;gone onâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; with a person who was always on hand to give them help when required and whom he called the Missionary. [NOT a Grim Reaper! Richard R] He said that his mother and a brother were on the other

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side, but that they had ‘gone on’ and were living together, so that he was now alone. Asked why he didn’t ‘go on’ too, he said that he didn’t want to leave the earth and its contacts.

After a little more discussion he agreed to ‘go on’ with the Missionary and join his mother and brother, who had been brought to look on from a short distance away.

He was asked to promise not to go back into the lady in any circumstances, and he said, ‘What? Into that fire? Not likely!’

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