15.0 Spiritual Development - Introduction Page 1 of 20

15.0: Spiritual Development - Introduction

Development of our is crucial to our current and subsequent lives on earth. This has not always been realised. The English religious philosopher, Don Cupitt, expressed his view that: 1

Earlier generations of doubters - for example, many Victorians - roughly divided Christianity into two parts, the doctrine and the ethics. The doctrine, they said, is regrettably not true but we can and will retain the morality. But there is something else more important than either the doctrine or the ethics, and that is the spirituality.

This, of course, presupposes some sort of description or definition of what spirituality means. We could take a very simplistic attitude, as did another theologian Peter Toon, and, with him, suggest that: 2

'Spirituality' is a word with many meanings in contemporary English. In fact what it means in any context is determined by the understanding or definition of 'spirit'.

But this is far too limiting a starting point to uncover the whole gamut of what I believe is spirituality and spiritual development. Over the next few pages, I’ll try to put a few bones on that skeleton. From the internet I found: 3

One description of spirituality is the self's search for "ultimate meaning" through an independent comprehension of the sacred. Spiritual identity appears when the symbolic religious and spiritual value of a culture is found by individuals in the setting of their own life. There can be different types of spiritual self because it is determined on one's life and experiences. Another definition of spiritual identity is “a persistent sense of self that addresses ultimate questions about the nature, purpose, and meaning of life, resulting in behaviors that are consonant with the individual’s core values.”

The Unitarian parish minister William Houff believed that each of us is in search of meaning to life and for God. In the introduction to his book ‘Infinity in Your Hand’ he expressed this as: 4

In his 'Speeches', Friedrich Schleiermacher wrote: 'Religion must be some intuition of the infinite in the finite.' This, I think, defines the task of the serious spiritual pilgrim. All of our theological systems, religious institutions, and spiritual practices are attempts - sometimes productive, too often otherwise - to facilitate that search.

In my own terms, this spiritual search or spiritual development is an attempt to understand the God created Laws, both physical and spiritual, which govern our lives now and in the hereafter, and subsequently, then, to follow those Laws as best we can. Putting it another way, it is to develop our own Philosophy of Life and to make sure that this is enabled as our Philosophy for Life.

Notice, that in all the above, there has been no mention of religion, God, the Spirit World or any of the other topics which need to be considered in order to form a rounded view of

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:06:59 15.0 Spiritual Development - Introduction Page 2 of 20 spiritual development. One of the most comprehensive and stirring descriptions of what it means to be spiritual came from the pen of Rudyard Kipling in his poem ‘If’.

IF you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, ' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch, if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Not only a Man, but a Man on a spiritual pathway. This search for a rounded description of spirituality has been undertaken by many people. The Reverend Bill Houff provided us with three essential ‘rules’ which he believed describe a spiritual pilgrim; these are: 5

Attention to what is before us at this moment of time. A sense of inclusiveness (love) that rises above all separation, And a life of devotion unhampered by attachment.

Colin Fry, a British television medium, recorded some of the points which he considers appropriate to a person’s spirituality: 6

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There are so many attempts to define what spirituality is or what it can do for us. Some of the ones I like are: • It is a general sense of peace and connectedness to others as well as to ourselves. • It is a source of strength in the presence of distress • It is at the heart of our well-being • It is an integral component of healing • It enriches all aspects of our physical, mental, emotional and community life • It is expressed in the attitudes, beliefs and practices that influence peoples lives • It enables us to experience the transcendent or higher power • It embraces fullness; meaning; love and hope in the journey of life • It is a life force that promotes hope, encourages healing, and helps us to embrace others and ourselves.

Furthermore in the same book, Colin did re-state the problem when he wrote: 7

Spirituality is our attempt to make some sense of the world around us.

In addition to this overall view of spirituality, a healing spirit, known as Dr. Letari described what he called ‘Divinity’ which somewhat expands the view of by adding a healing dimension. Divinity’s work, it is said, is threefold: 8

(1) to cure those in disease whether of mind or of body; (2) to reveal the hidden spirituality of man; (3) to achieve the unfoldment of the soul in man.

Collectively these are not complete descriptions but are consequences of undertaking a spiritual journey. Summarily, Dr Letari also explained that: 9

Spirituality is the goodness of Man to Man.

To achieve this goal, on our own spiritual journey, we should be trying to uncover and appreciate the Natural Laws which govern our total existence. It is forcing us to ask difficult questions about life now and how it continues when we die. Many other people take this one step further and seek to develop the same qualities which our God manifested when these Cosmic Laws were created. That is to see Love in all things and live in a ‘loving’ way. This was articulated by the Anglican priest Martin Israel in his book ‘Summons to Life’: 10

The quest for love and its final manifestation in the freedom of the spirit is the whole path of spiritual development.

Although love has many facets, it seems to be the key which opens, and keeps open, the door which leads to spiritual development. Understanding, and then making part of our lives, each of these faces of ‘love’ not only makes life simpler but allows us to demonstrate it within our daily activities. According to the spiritual healer Alan Young, the legendary spiritual master St. Germain recognised this and conveyed the idea that: 11

The more we understand Life and Perfection, the simpler life becomes; and finally we need to do only one thing, which is constantly to fill our thoughts and feelings

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with Divine Love.

Other masters and mystics express this search for spirituality as a search for our ultimate ‘being’ – to try to capture the essence of what being a human is about. The mystical writer Evelyn Underhill, according to Brenda Blanch, was one such person. In describing what constitutes a spiritual life, Evelyn believed that most people spend their lives: 12

...conjugating three verbs: to want, to have and to do. Craving, clutching, and fussing, on the material, political, social, emotional, intellectual - even on the religious plane, we are kept in perpetual unrest: forgetting that none of these verbs have any ultimate significance, except insofar as they are transcended by and included in, the fundamental verbal, to Be; and that Being, not wanting, having, and doing, is the essence of the spiritual life.

In other words, if we can overcome our urge to place ‘self’ at the centre of everything we do, slowly but surely we become more focussed on service to others and the development of our spiritual nature. Describing this spirituality, the German born Canadian author Eckhart Tolle wrote that by doing this: 13

...you become like a deep lake. The outer situation of your life, whatever happens there is the surface of the lake. Sometimes calm, sometimes windy and rough, according to the cycles and seasons. Deep down, however, the lake is always undisturbed. You are the whole lake, not just the surface, and you are in touch with your own depth, which remains absolutely still.

This peace is invaluable; it tempers our emotions and provides space for us to grow. Martin Israel, in ‘The Pain That Heals’ observed that: 14

Peace is not a state of perpetual immobility or inertia in which nothing more need ever happen. It is a relationship of intimate communion with God, and it manifests itself outwardly in harmonious activity in whatever situation the person finds himself.

Thus, this internal stillness leads to an inner peace which will pervade everything that you do in life. Acquiring this important characteristic starts your step out onto the road of spiritual development. This, Brian Weiss, an American psychiatrist whose research includes , past life regression, future-life progression and survival of the human soul after death, expressed it as: 15

...it is so important to prepare not only for the rest of our lives but for all our lives to come - for immortality.

The American Rosicrucian Lonnie C. Edwards has advised many through his books and lectures that: 16

One of the purposes of universal soul, that special extension of God that is within, is to evolve the soul personality.

…and, to achieve this, there are many routes which each of us can take – but we must take one of them. You may well ask whether you should belong to a particular religion in order

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:06:59 15.0 Spiritual Development - Introduction Page 5 of 20 to start or continue this journey. The answer, of course, is emphatically no. Again from the same book by Brian Weiss: 17

The important question regarding spirituality is not which God you follow, but are you true to your soul?

Practically, this means that we ought to be true to our own, personal, Philosophy of Life. It is against this that we judge our activities and which we adjust and tune according to our interpretation of our experiences. Perhaps it is also against this belief system that you can judge your spiritual progress. In the introduction to Madame Guyon’s ‘Spiritual Torrents’, the American house church 18 advocate Gene Edwards stated that he believed this to be the case: 19

Please remember, when you are all tied up in little knots because you have in some terrible way failed to live up to some self-established standard, you are obviously not making spiritual progress. And when you discern that you are making progress and get puffed up, legalistic and start adjusting everyone else, you are still not making spiritual progress.

Another way of judging your progress may be through looking at the range of qualities which constitute what is meant by ‘love’. Ask yourself whether you have really exhibited the qualities of, for example, kindness, humility, compassion, and patience in your actions yesterday or last week. The reason for this is that these are the qualities which spiritual development forges. Although this applies to all these characteristics, Rudolf Steiner homed in on just one which he suggested was vital for progress: 20

The heights of the Spirit can only be reached by passing through the portals of humility.

As well as these qualities, it is also our approach to life that is vital. Be positive and look towards that which is good and bright not that which is base and dark. This was the underlying attitude of the anchoress Julian of Norwich which was described by Michael Mclean, a one time rector of Parmentergate, Norwich, in the introduction to the book ‘Julian - Woman of our Day’: 21

The main thrust of her [Julian's] writing may, as has been said, 'start from the sun, not the clouds'...

Irrespective of the qualities which you have and your approach to life, it is important that you are true to yourself. Whatever dogma or whatever religion you feel happy with, do follow it; but it is not absolutely necessary in your spiritual journey. You have free will and therefore the ability and the right to exercise choice. This is a gift from your God to you – use it wisely. The New Age writer Diana Cooper also believed that free will is important: 22

While you have free choice, your soul is longing for you to choose the path of greatest spiritual growth.

Mencius, an itinerant Chinese philosopher and sage, is recorded by Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh as incredulous as to why everyone does not nurture their potential for goodness: 23

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Mencius found this all the more puzzling given his belief that every human being is born with a natural capacity for goodness. He wrote: ‘The goodness of human nature is like water tending to flow downward. Just as there is no water that does not flow downward, there are no humans who do not have goodness.’

Your soul is your eternal essence; it is on an immortal journey and each life you lead enhances, or otherwise, its progress, which is effected through the choices that you make. The first major choice for most of us is to pursue a spiritual pathway. The hospital chaplain Joseph Sharp, based on his study of the lives and teachings of many spiritually realised people found that: 24

...essentially each teacher espoused the same thing: within each of us the eternal self awaits awakening – in other words, the light is within me and you, too.

Of course many people live very honourable lives without becoming remotely aware of any spiritual imperatives. However, if they recognised the spiritual framework within which we live, their lives would have been even better. Pamela young, a retired social worker from the North-West of England, perceived this necessity and wrote: 25

We are all spiritual pilgrims on an evolutionary journey of awakening.

...and, as my friend and healer Peter Matthews said, we all need to realise that: 26

...progress of the soul is through developing spirituality...

We choose whether to take this initial step – to opt for a spiritual life. It is not just once in a lifetime selection. We all have many occasions in our lives to choose to take this pathway; it could be earlier or later. Nevertheless it is our choice. The journalist and trance medium who channelled the teachings of Silver Birch, Maurice Barbanell, was aware that our choices in life are vitally important to the usefulness of our life to our soul: 27

Man makes or mars his own destiny and creates his own heaven or hell. He determines his own spiritual evolution which has nothing whatever to do with nationality, birth, station, wealth or profession. The natural law of cause and effect operates. Man is what he makes himself, by his conduct. Opportunities for the growth of character, which is really spiritual development, come to every individual.

Sometimes, this first stimulus may come to some who are framing their lives within the context of a particular religion. It may be the realisation that what a person does, as opposed to accepting the dogma of their religion, is important. Many commentators on spiritual matters equate religion with spirituality. For example, Sir in his book ‘Man and the Universe’ used the term ‘religion’ where I would have used ‘spirituality’: 28

The atmosphere of religion should be recognised as enveloping and permeating everything...

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This is something that we must be aware of in order to appreciate what is being said. Religion, to my mind, is often a strait-jacket which constrains and limits our development. William Butler Yeats, an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature, had this to say about formal religion: 29

Then my delivered soul herself shall learn A darker knowledge and in hatred turn From every thought of God mankind has had. Thought is a garment and the soul's a bride That cannot in that trash and tinsel hide: Hatred of God may bring the soul to God.

…and in more direct terms, Abbot Christopher Jamison has this to say: 30

So as we begin to consider the many spiritual movements on offer today, we need to understand how people have moved away from religion to spirituality.

This, according to Brian Weiss, is because: 31

You do not need religion to be spiritual...

Taking an Eastern and very logical perspective, according to Swami Vivekananda ‘The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali’ offer the following advice: 32

Why should man build churches in which to worship God? Why not worship Him anywhere? Even if he did not know the reason, man found that the place where people worshipped God became full of good Tanmatras [vibes or energies] . Every day people go there, and the more they go, the holier they get, and the holier that place becomes. If any man who has not much Sattva [spirituality] in him goes there, the place will influence him and arouse his Sattva quality. Here, therefore, is the significance of all temples and holy places, but you must remember that their holiness depends on holy people congregating there. The difficulty with man is that he forgets the original meaning, and puts the cart before the horse. It was men who made these places holy, and then the effect became the cause and made men holy. If the wicked only were to go there, it would become as bad as any other place. It is not the building, but the people that make a church, and that is what we always forget.

We can distil this idea further and conclude that it is the spiritual progress of the individual that is important not the collective organisation of a particular religion. In fact, because few of the major religions can effectively answer the real questions that life poses, most development is achieved outside that context. Indeed, Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall in their book ‘SQ : Spiritual Intelligence, The Ultimate Intelligence’ identified that: 33

...most people seeking some spiritual fulfilment see no relation between their longing and formal religion.

So, if you must, take religion as one step on your journey but don’t be restricted by it. Treat it is as the journalist Malcolm Muggeridge recommended as: 34

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…an experience rather than a conclusion. A way of life rather than an ideology; grasped through the imagination rather than understood through the mind, belonging to the realm of spiritual rather than intellectual perception; reaching quite beyond the dimension of words and ideas .

…and in this way you will get the most benefit out of your religion whilst climbing beyond it to the peaks of spiritual development.

There seems to be an inner drive which impels us all, at some point, to follow a spiritual direction. Something often stirs within us and drives us towards development. What stimulates this awareness I do not know but for many people, and for me in particular, it becomes evident in the middle years of life. Things happen and opportunities present themselves which stimulate internal questions and trigger the search for spirituality. Not all of us are able to appreciate these signals, but when we can we should grasp any consequential opportunities with both hands. They are a boon. In the first of his books ‘Conversations with God’, the spirit communicator who used Neale Donald Walsch as a channel, suggested that we should look at these stimuli with dutiful acceptance: 35

Opportunity, not obligation, is the cornerstone of religion, the basis of all spirituality. So long as you see it the other way round, you will have missed the point.

Missing the point is what many many people seem to achieve. According to Arthur Keith Desmond, Ramesôye, a guide and higher spirit who used William Henry Lilley as a communication channel, informed us that: 36

Unless you have that spirituality, you will create nothing, and when you pass to higher life you will find that you have only done what thousands of others have done; you will have missed the cross-roads.

Spirituality has only two real foci; love of God and love of humanity, and these two directives colour everything that we think, say or do. The trappings and obligations imposed by religions are irrelevant. In a similar way, the status of the individual is no way to judge their spirituality as Michael Newton noted: 37

My classification of soul development is intended to be neither socially nor intellectually elitist. Souls in a high state of advancement are often found in humble circumstances on Earth. By the same token, people in the strata of influence in human society are by no means in a blissful state of soul maturity. Often, just the reverse is true.

It is the opportunity to probe deeper into the spiritual ideas and broaden your search into many associated areas; other religions, science, parapsychology, nature, meditation to name but a few. I mention science about which Carl Sagan, an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, science populariser and science communicator in astronomy and natural sciences had this to say: 38

Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. When we recognise our place in an immensity of light-years and in the passage of ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty and subtlety of life, then that

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soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual.

I’m not sure that Carl had the same view as I about spirituality, but you can feel the deep sense of awe to which he relates. Another area which impacts upon spirituality is that of how we relate to each other in communities. Professor Ursula King, in her book about the ideas of mystic-cum-palaeontologist Teilhard de Chardin, wrote: 39

Thus, spirituality is now seen in a new way as closely related to the development of the world and the dynamics of society.

What doesn’t spirituality touch upon? In my view, in order for me to expand my spirituality, I am allowed to ask any question of any topic. Often an answer will come from science; another may arrive through contemplation; yet another from religious discussion. I must not limit myself. In fact, I must make sure that any current beliefs do not constrain my development. Idries Shah, a teacher in the Sufi tradition, posed the question: 40

What is the greatest barrier to learning?

...and responded:

Preconceptions and concentration upon things which one thinks one wants to learn, but which may not be one's real needs. This causes part of the attention capacity to become locked onto the preconception, assumption or query.

Idries also made the observation that our own ego, because of its dislike of change, can also be part of the problem of limited progress. He understood that this ‘self’: 41

...seeks to protect the existing ways of thought of the person...

So try to counter this and maintain an open and questioning mind. Consider this. If God (whatever that is to you) created the totality of the Cosmic Laws that govern every movement of every atom and every created thing within the Universe, then it is beholden upon me to try to understand them as best I can. It is this which is my spiritual journey; yours may be similar. It affects both the physical and the spiritual; both walk hand in hand whilst we are living our life on earth. I’ll give you two short examples. Firstly, if karma is one of the Cosmic Laws and you are responsible for everything you do and what you sow you will reap, then this will change your life so that you will try to be as ‘good’ as possible. Secondly, if you believe in reincarnation and that you will continue to live your lives on earth until you have surmounted the spiritual mountain, then you will do all you can to spiritually develop. Both of these spiritual drivers will have an impact on your physical life. Thus the spiritual and physical are intertwined as the 20 th century North American born clergyman and academic, Morton Kelsey revealed: 42

It is important to understand that one takes the inner journey in order to enhance this sacramental life, not to replace it.

…and Edna Dean Proctor, in her 1858 book about the sermons of the 19 th century American preacher Henry Ward Beecher, recalled: 43

Dust, by its own nature, can rise only so far above the road; and birds which fly

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higher never have it upon their wings. So the heart that knows how to fly high enough, escapes those little cares and vexations which brood upon the Earth, but cannot rise above it into that purer air.

Thus we can never rise out of the commitments that we have in our physical lives, however, enhancing our spirituality will help to overcome those trials of life. Or put in the terms of the monk Jean Leclercq from the Abbey of St Maurice et St Maur, Clervaux, Luxembourg: 44

...it must be remembered that relationship with the world demands real spirituality as a basis…

So that being effective in our daily lives means that it will be improved by our spiritual development. Don’t get the idea that spirituality is about learning and thinking only; far from it as the Trappist monk Thomas Merton realised: 45

Spiritual life is not mental life. It is not thought alone.

…and as the spiritual author Deepak Chopra echoed: 46

You are a creature who acts, thinks and feels. Spirituality fuses these three into a single reality.

Thus, it is about putting your spirituality into action not in isolation but in concert with and for others. No man is an island and quoting from Thomas Merton’s book of that name: 47

What every man looks for in life is his own salvation and the salvation of the men he lives with. By salvation I mean first of all the full discovery of who he himself really is. Then I mean something of the fulfilment of his own God-given powers, in the love of others and of God. I mean the discovery that he cannot find himself in himself alone, but that he must find himself in and through others.

It is, therefore, service to others which constitutes a great part of our development. Communicating from the Spirit world, The Rev. C. Drayton Thomas’ father said: 48

One cannot progress except by service.

…and using the words of Evelyn Underhill as recorded by Lumsden Barkway: 49

Its [the praying soul's] prayer must overflow the boundaries of selfhood to include the life, the needs of the race; accepting as a corollary of its filial relation with God, a brotherly relation with all other souls however diverse, and at every point replacing 'mine' with 'ours'.

Supporting this notion with words from Red Cloud, the spirit communicator who used as his channel: 50

In my world greatness is not judged by wealth or title, but by greatness of spirit, and a man is known according to his aspect and by the good deeds he has performed whilst in the matter-body.

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So trying to remove the emphasis on self and replacing it with service to humanity, whatever form that takes, is part of the spiritual journey. From another voice in the Spirit World, White Eagle, as communicated through Grace Cooke: 51

The body must be constantly attuned to purer vibrations, by practice of right thinking, by constant worship of the Creator, and by expressing this worship in service to all life. What is right thinking, it may be asked. Perhaps it could be summed up in that one word SERVICE - a desire to work with God, inspired by a Godlike spirit which is LOVE; love to mankind, towards all living creatures; love towards the infinite goodness which pervades all things.

…and from Ursula King’s book ‘Towards a New Mysticism’ comes: 52

It is, in fact, in and through action that the spirit unfolds, and that man's spirituality grows. Spirituality is no longer simply a problem of inwardness as in the past. On the contrary, the problem of human action, together with the choice of the right values and beliefs in which to base such action, is the major problem with the spirit today.

There are many ways of interpreting the word ‘service’. Andrew Harvey, another mystical author, in his excellent book ‘The Direct Path’ offers the following: 53

It has never been more important than now to listen to those divinely inspired voices and to put divine love into action at all levels and in all arenas of reality with all the gifts, passions, and intellectual, spiritual, emotional, and organisational powers at our disposal... What does this mean in practice? It means, I think, the linking together of five different but interdependent forms of service, all of which needs to be pursued and fulfilled together to be fully empowering and effective. These are: the service to the Divine, the service to the self, the service to family and friends, the service to the community, and the service to the world, all sentient beings and the cosmos in which we live.

That covers about everything. In fact love is the umbrella for service; it is service to every creature and everything. Such service is the route to spiritual realisation as John M Templeton in ‘The Humble Approach - Scientists Discover God’ realised: 54

What are the marks of spiritual maturity? Do we put our trust in God or in man? Do we desire more to give than to get? These are marks of a mature soul.

Putting our trust in God, does not mean expecting our Divine Source to do everything for us: we have to play the major part. The 19 th century saint in the Russian Orthodox Church, Theophan the Recluse confirmed the significant part that we must play in our destiny: 55

While you will not achieve anything just by your own labour, God will not give you anything if you do not labour with all your might.

If we can do all that we are able and serve our community, then we will have achieved a great deal. People need people; we are not born to be isolated and insulated; we are born

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This growth seems to escalate as we understand more and as our notions and thoughts become more in line with the Universal Laws. Again from another spirit communicator, White Eagle, comes the information that: 56

The deeper you probe into the spiritual mysteries of life the more important becomes purity of thought and aspiration. But thought itself can be of little power unless animated by the spirit.

…or in more aesthetic terms from Bede Griffiths, who was someone who understood both Western and Eastern traditions: 57

As the human soul opens to the divine mystery, so the divine mystery reveals itself to the soul.

Such mysteries and even small revelations don’t come quickly or easily. You have to work at your spirituality and be very patient. Iulia de Beausobre realised that this was the case as the spirituality developed for the Russian mystic Serafim of Sarov: 58

Life's inscrutable secrets were slowly shedding their veils.

Such ‘veils’ have to be recognised to be shed. For this to happen we must adopt a very questioning approach to all our so-called truths. Nothing should be considered as being the ultimate truth. Joseph Sharp suggested that, now and again, we ought to take another look at everything that we believe: 59

True spirituality is a continual movement away from the certainty of ‘This is the Answer’ and toward a larger, more inclusive attitude of questioning.

This ‘questioning’ seems to be more difficult for those well educated people who give more weight to their existing knowledge. According to Kathleen Pond, the 16 th century Spanish mystic Alonso de Orozco recognised that: 60

...those who have received less teaching from men of genius attain to more of these secrets we are discussing than wise and very learned famous men.

I am not advocating a minimal education, only that everyone takes a humble approach to their knowledge and recognises the need to question it. We should never be content but search for greater breadth and depth in all we know and believe. Peter Toon, understood that spirituality: 61

...can be described as 'reaching for the Ideal' and 'aiming for the Goal'.

...and in Theophan’s terms: 62

Perfection, barely perceptible, comes after much toil and after many years, not from the beginning and during the very first days.

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I do not believe, as did White Eagle, that we can ever attain perfection in this life: 63

A Master is never disturbed or in a hurry. We find no disorder in his surroundings having become master of himself he naturally has control over the world about him, and so never suffers ill-health, never has a headache, or a cold or any ailment of that nature. You will say that we should not expect any one of you to reach this standard. No, dear ones, none of you are Masters, but this is the ideal towards which you strive.

In strictest terms, we will never attain perfection – we’ll have to leave that to God. In fact, the Indian statesman and philosopher Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan knew that: 64

Perfection is unthinkable. It is given to us to strive after perfection and actualise it at best in fragments. We have to rest in the idea of perpetual effort. But this view ignores the solidarity between man and nature, values and reality. It cannot be a question of perpetual travelling. We should also arrive. It cannot be interminable singing; there should also be such a thing as completion in a song. There must come a time when all individuals will become sons of God and be received into the glory of immortality.

Of course, all this change in our focus goes alongside our learning more and more through what happens to us as we develop; as we live our lives as best we can. This earthly life has been given to us so that we can learn from life’s experiences. The medium Irene Bays was given the following information from the Spirit World: 65

But the spirit within is eternal life and is ongoing, taking with it the lessons that are learned upon each visit to the Earth plane. .. It is the spirit within the temple that is of prime importance and it is the way you learn your lessons that enables the spirit to progress.

In support of this, Brian Weiss indicated that: 66

...being spiritual means to be more compassionate, caring, and kind. It means reaching out to people with a loving heart without expecting anything in return. It means acknowledging something greater than oneself, a force that exists in an unknown realm that we must strive to discover. It means understanding that there are higher lessons to be learned and, after we have learned them, knowing that there are higher lessons still. The capacity for spirituality is in each of us, and we must tap into it.

Thus, part of our life is to learn lessons from situations presented to us. These can be difficult, and it appears that the more spiritual you become so the lessons become more difficult. Put into a ‘service’ context, Agnes Sanford recalled that: 67

The parable of the talents teaches us that we are to give according to our ability. As we grow in understanding and in faith our ability should increase continuously. Therefore the measure and quality of our self-giving should increase.

I suppose this is obvious when we look at the lives of the ancient mystics and saints – they all seem to give so much that they had a difficult passage through life. Silver Birch stressed

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:06:59 15.0 Spiritual Development - Introduction Page 14 of 20 this point when he said: 68

The prizes of the spirit are not easy to be won, otherwise they would not be worth winning.

…and from Abu, another discarnate spirit, when talking about one’s progressing soul: 69

You will fall by the way, you will stumble, you will make mistakes, but that your spirit is aware that the jewel should be clean so far as is possible of your earth existence: more than that you cannot do.

Lessons in life are part and parcel of spiritual development. As a consequence, of such an event in his life, Stephen O'Brien wrote: 70

...I realised that I was learning another of life's hard lessons.

Because of this, many people do not follow the spiritual pathway. It is a narrow way, trod by few. This metaphor was used not only in the New Testament but by Abbot Christopher Jamison: 71

Yes indeed, virtue is a narrow door, but the space beyond that door is infinite - the infinite space of real sanctuary.

Perhaps because of this we are unable, at any one instant, to assess our spiritual progress; there does not appear to be a particular measure for it. In Paul Miller’s ‘Cavalcade of the Spirit’ he looked at the life and spirituality of and came to the conclusion that all the time Stainton: 72

...was making progress in the supremely difficult art of self-development, though he was not always aware of it. .. The prizes of spiritual growth are not gained easily.

One way of assessing the progress that we have made is to look back at where we were, spiritually, a couple of years ago. This measurement tool was suggested, we are told, by ’s paternal grandmother, Mary, who used to say: 73

...Don't look at how far you have to go. Look at how far you've already come.

My mentor of many years, David Perry, used to liken our spiritual journey to passing down a passage with the walls having something akin to an electric fence along them. In this way as we tended to veer away from the central path and touched the wall we received a small shock to put us back on track. Laurie Worger used a different set of images to convey the same idea: 74

...we might visualise ourselves as climbing a great mountain by a twisting, shrub and cactus-lines pathway. When we stray from the centre, we run into the prickles which in turn prevent us losing our way.

Can you remember any prickles that you have had? I certainly can, and they come in many different forms. To help us along this often difficult path we can use the guidance of mystical writers down the ages, the guidance of our spirit friends and our earthly colleagues

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:06:59 15.0 Spiritual Development - Introduction Page 15 of 20 who are following a similar pathway. But remember that whilst others may show you the way, you will always tread a unique path; don’t try to follow in another’s footsteps; forge you own way to your goal, or as Père De Caussade stated: 75

All souls cannot hope to be the same or to reach the same state ...

In his treatise ‘Night’, Elie Wiesel wrote about his experience with his father in the Nazi German concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald in 1944–1945. This is a paragraph from the book:

There are a thousand and one gates leading into the orchard of mystical truth. Every human being has his own gate. We must never make the mistake of wanting to enter the orchard by any gate but our own. To do this is dangerous for the one who enters and also for those who are already there.

And in a similar vein is the poem ‘Roads to God’ by American poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox:

All roads that lead to God are good; What matters it, your faith or mine Both centre at the goal divine Of Love's eternal brotherhood. The kindly life in house or street; The life of prayer, the mystic rite; The student's search for truth and light These paths at one great function meet. What matters that one found his Christ In rising sun or burning fire, If faith within him did not tire His longing for the truth sufficed. A thousand creeds have come and gone; But what is that to you or me? Creeds are but branches of a tree- The root of love lives on and on. Though branch by branch proves withered wood The root is warm with precious wine: Then keep your faith and leave me mine; All roads that lead to God are good

So each of us will take a different path; take a different journey; meet different hurdles. This was recognised as far back as when The Gospel of the Essenes was written, for in it is recorded: 76

As the Holy Law doth reveal a different face To each of the Children of Light, Yet is unchanged in its essence.

We are all striving for a similar goal even though what each of us does may seem very different. Thomas A Kempis, too, in the later years of the 15 th century, had the same view although he couched it in his own terms: 77

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All cannot have one practice; One penance is for one, one for another, And even different times have different penances.

...and whilst, for both you and me, the goal of our overall eternal journey is the same, our ‘this lifetime’ objectives will be very different indeed. Irrespective of what we have to learn and how we do so will be very different, the speed of progress will be slow; so much so that it tests the patience of most of us. As Theophan the Recluse noted, probably from his own experience: 78

Nothing will happen all of a sudden; everything will come about in its own time.

The implication of this, perhaps, is that as we get older then we have had more potential to change for the better. The Reverend Ben Patterson accepted that: 79

Spiritual maturity doesn’t necessarily come with age, but it rarely comes without it.

In addition to this, we are all following different paths and we are all developing at different rates; some quickly, some not so. Michael Newton, from his regression studies recognised that: 80

Souls develop at different rates while displaying a variety of talents along the way.

However it happens and when, in your life, the awareness strikes you, it becomes your responsibility to follow a spiritual route. Naturally we cannot expect to get to the end of the road in one or even a handful of lives; it takes time but we should never be daunted by the enormity of our task. Look to the past and see how far you have travelled; look to the future and glimpse the goal, as the spirit communicating through John Scott quoted in the start of a chapter on the ‘Hereafter’: 81

Thou art not yet at Jerusalem, the end of thy journey, though by some small flashes of light which shine through the chinks of the city walls, thou will be able to see it long before thou comest to it.

…and I suspect that from humanity’s perspective we have not really travelled very far along the spiritual road. At least, according to the Catholic theologian and Jesuit, Ladislaus Boros, Teilhard de Chardin believed this to be true: 82

Biologically and in spirit man is only at the beginning of his development.

However, as individuals we have to realise that event will follow event and from each we can learn something. The effects are cumulative, in that for us to learn from the lesson tomorrow, we have to have learnt from today’s lesson; you cannot learn about calculus until you understand algebra. Realising this Joseph Sharp quite rightly stated that: 83

The Way is a process.

So our spiritual development does not emerge from a set of disjointed events, but is an ongoing process. It is an exciting process which, once we are awakened to it, infiltrates everything we think, say and do. It is not surprising that more people seem to be putting

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:06:59 15.0 Spiritual Development - Introduction Page 17 of 20 their toe into the spiritual waters. This was confirmed by the renowned Christian mystic Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows who believed, compared to a few hundred years ago, more and more people are starting out on their spiritual journey: 84

In this modern age with more educated and thinking people, spiritual mastery will become the option of greater numbers and will no longer be the accomplishment of just a few. When this occurs the ancient prophesy that, "God will live upon earth," will be fulfilled.

There are many books which may help to stimulate further examination of spirituality, many of which I have already referred to. One that immediately springs to mind was written by the medium Horace Leaf and is entitled ‘What Is’ 85 . Although this does focus mainly on psychic skills, it does provide a reasonable basis for further reading.

You and I are two of the august group of people who have taken the spiritual plunge. So, at all times, we must align our thoughts with those of Thomas A Kempis and: 86

Be watchful in God's service and be diligent, And often muse on what the life is you have chosen, And why you left the world. Was it not to live to God, And to be a spiritual man.

And, as recalled by Sherwood Wirt, from ‘Letters of Spiritual Counsel by Francois de la Mothe Fenelon’ we recognise that our lives are not just dependent upon: 87

…doing of no evil; to it must be added the doing of good.

Take whatever life throws at you and always, yes, always, smile and take on board the advice of the American medium who insisted that: 88

…a sense of humour is as essential to our lives as spirituality.

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1 Don Cupitt, Taking Leave of God, SCM Press, 2001. 8 How Real Should God Be? (Pg 107) 2 Peter Toon, Meditating as a Christian, Collins, 1991. Part One: What it is. 3 Spirituality... (Pg 37) 3 Downloaded March 2014 from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self 4 William Houff, Infinity in Your Hand, Skinner House Books, 1994. Introduction, (Pg xiii) 5 William Houff, Infinity in Your Hand, Skinner House Books, 1994. Three 'Practical Rules', (Pg 130) 6 Colin Fry, Life Before Death, Rider & Co, 2008. 6. Searching: the quest for spirituality, (Pg 110) 7 Colin Fry, Life Before Death, Rider & Co, 2008. 6. Searching: the quest for spirituality, (Pg 123) 8 Arthur Keith Desmond, The Gift of Healing - The Story of Lilley the Healer, Psychic Press, 1944. Book II: In the Present. Chapter Five: The Gospel According to Divinity, (Pg 46) 9 Arthur Keith Desmond, The Gift of Healing - The Story of Lilley the Healer, Psychic Press, 1944. Book II: In the Present. Chapter Seventeen: Teachings of Dr. Latari, (Pg 135) 10 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 2: The point of departure, (Pg 17) 11 Alan Young, Cosmic Healing, DeVorss & Co, 1988. 6 Saint Germain – Love, (Pg 83) 12 Brenda Blanch, Heaven a Dance - An Evelyn Underhill Anthology, Triangle, 1992. The Spiritual Life, (Pg 12) 13 Eckhart Tolle, Practising the Power of NOW, Hodder Mobius, 2002. Eight: Acceptance of the Now, (Pg 103 / 104) 14 Martin Israel, The Pain That Heals, Hodder & Stoughton, 1981. Chapter 9: Strength in Weakness, (Pg 98) 15 Brian Leslie Weiss, Same Soul, Many Bodies, Piatkus, 2006. Chapter 14 - Gary: The Future, (Pg 214) 16 Lonnie C. Edwards M.D., Spiritual Laws That Govern Humanity and the Universe, Rosicrucian Order, AMORC, 2015 - Kindle version. Chapter 1: Commitment to the Soul 17 Brian Leslie Weiss, Same Soul, Many Bodies, Piatkus, 2006. Chapter 12 - David: Spirituality, (Pg 181) 18 A house church or home church is a label used to describe a group of Christians who regularly gather for worship in private homes. The group may be part of a larger Christian body, such as a parish, but some have been independent groups that see the house church as the primary form of Christian community. 19 Madame Guyon, Spiritual Torrents, Christian Books, 1984. Introduction [by Gene Edwards], (Pg XIII) 20 Rudolf Steiner, The Way of Initiation, Theosophical Publishing Society, 1912. The Way of Initiation: II - How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds, (Pg 74) 21 Robert Llewelyn (ed), Julian - Woman of our Day, Darton Longman and Todd, 1986. Introduction by Michael McLean, (Pg 8) 22 Diana Cooper, A Little Light on the Spiritual Laws, Hodder & Stoughton, 2000. Chapter One: As above, so below, (Pg 5) 23 Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh, The Path, Viking, 2016. 4: On Decisions: Mencius and the Capricious World, (Pg 67) 24 Joseph Sharp, Living Our Dying - A Way to the Sacred in Everyday Life, Rider & Co, 1996. Part II: Inviting Dying into Everyday Life – Chapter 4: The Self that Doesn’t Die, (Pg 73) 25 Pamela Young, Hope Street, Coronet, 2011. Introduction, (Pg 2) 26 Peter Matthews, and Reincarnation, Con-Psy Publications, 1997. Chapter 1 - An Overview, (Pg 7) 27 Maurice Barbanell, This is Spiritualism, The Spiritual Truth Press, 2001. Chapter 21 - The Implications, (Pg 209 / 210) 28 Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S., Man and the Universe, Methuen & Co, 1912. Section I - Science and Faith: Chapter III - Religion, Science, and Miracle: VI. Miracle and Religion, (Pg 64) 29 Extract from Supernatural Songs, v. by William Butler Yeats 30 Christopher Jamison, Finding Sanctuary, Phoenix, 2007. PART TWO: STEP 5 – Community, (Pg 139) 31 Brian Leslie Weiss, Same Soul, Many Bodies, Piatkus, 2006. Chapter 12 - David: Spirituality, (Pg 181) 32 Swami Vivekananda, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Watkins Publishing, 2007. Chapter II - Concentration: Its Practise, (Pg 95 / 96) 33 Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall, SQ : Spiritual Intelligence, The Ultimate Intelligence, Bloomsbury, 2001. Chapter 1: Introducing SQ, (Pg 8) 34 Malcolm Muggeridge, Something Beautiful for God, Collins, 1973. A Door of Utterence, (Pg 127) 35 Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations with God - Book 1 An uncommon dialogue, Hodder & Stoughton, 1997. Chapter 8, (Pg 137) 36 Arthur Keith Desmond, The Gift of Healing - The Story of Lilley the Healer, Psychic Press, 1944. Book II: In the Present. Chapter Eighteen: The Ramesôye Speaks, (Pg 141) 37 Michael Newton, Journey of Souls, Llewellyn Publications, 2009. Chapter Seven: Placement, (Pg 105) 38 Carl Edward Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, Ballantine Books, New York, 1997. Chapter 2 : Science and Hope, (Pg 29)

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39 Ursula King, Towards a New Mysticism, Collins, 1980. Epilogue: Contemporary Spirituality at the Crossroads, (Pg 231) 40 Idries Shah, The Commanding Self, Octagon Press, 1994. Section V: Frozen Attention, (Pg 166) 41 Idries Shah, The Commanding Self, Octagon Press, 1994. Section III: Opening Another Door, (Pg 116) 42 Morton T Kelsey, The Other Side of Silence, SPCK, 1985. Part Four: The Use of Images in Meditation - 15. A Check List for the Venture Inward, (Pg 195) 43 Edna Dean Proctor, Life Thoughts gathered from the extemporaneous discourses of Henry Ward Beecher’, Ward, Lock and Tyler, 1858. (Pg 94) 44 Jean Leclercq, Contemplative Life, Cistercian Publications, 1978. Separation from the world, (Pg 40) 45 Thomas Merton, Thoughts In Solitude, Burns & Oates, 1993. Part One: Aspects of the Spiritual Life: III, (Pg 29) 46 Deepak Chopra, The Book of Secrets, Rider & Co, 2004. Introduction - Opening the Book of Secrets, (Pg 3) 47 Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island, Burns & Oates, 1997. Prologue, (Pg xiv) 48 The Rev. C. Drayton Thomas, Beyond Life's Sunset, Psychic Press, Undated. Chapter XI: Religion in the Spirit World, (Pg 85) 49 Lumsden Barkway, An Anthology of the Love of God (from the writings of Evelyn Underhill), Mowbray, 1953. IV The Spiritual Life: III Prayer, (b) Communion: Fellowship with God and Man (Abba), (Pg 146) 50 Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud Speaks, Tudor Press, 1992. Chapter Eight: Life in the Astral World, (Pg 44) 51 Grace Cooke, The New Mediumship, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1994. V. Preparation For Mediumship, (Pg 64) 52 Ursula King, Towards a New Mysticism, Collins, 1980. II Eastern and Western Religions in a Converging World. 8: Religion and Evolution, (Pg 195 / 196) 53 Andrew Harvey, The Direct Path, Rider & Co, 2000. Four: The Passion to Serve, (Pg 272) 54 John M Templeton, The Humble Approach - Scientists Discover God, Collins, 1981. X. Earth as a School, (Pg 95) 55 St. Theophan the Recluse, The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to it, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1995. 48 How to Attain Undistracted Prayer, (Pg 210) 56 Walking with the Angels - A Path of Service, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1998. Part One - 1. Introduction to Part One: the Angelic Qualities, (Pg 16) 57 Bede Griffiths, A New Vision of Reality, Fount, 1992. 10 The Experience of God in the Old and New Testament, (Pg 204) 58 Iulia de Beausobre, Flame in the Snow - A Russian Legend, Fount, 1979. Part One: Godward Bound - The Place, (Pg 76) 59 Joseph Sharp, Living Our Dying - A Way to the Sacred in Everyday Life, Rider & Co, 1996. Part II: Inviting Dying into Everyday Life – Chapter 3: Taking Another Look, (Pg 60) 60 Kathleen Pond(ed), The Spirit of the Spanish Mystics, Burns & Oates,1958. Alonso de Orozco - What Contemplation is and the Things which Favour it, (Pg 54) 61 Peter Toon, Meditating as a Christian, Collins, 1991. Part One: What it is. 3 Spirituality .. (Pg 38) 62 St. Theophan the Recluse, The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to it, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1995. 39 How the Enemy Tries to Lead One Astray, (Pg 177 / 178) 63 White Eagle, Spiritual Unfoldment 1, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1994. I: A Simple Approach – A healthy Mind in a healthy body, (Pg 20) 64 Radhakrishnan, An Idealist View of Life, Unwin, 1980. Chapter VII : Human Personality and its Destiny - 11. What is salvation, (Pg 245) 65 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part Two: Chapter IX - The Pathway to Perfection, (Pg 211) 66 Brian Leslie Weiss, Same Soul, Many Bodies, Piatkus, 2006. Chapter 12 - David: Spirituality, (Pg 180 / 181) 67 Agnes Sanford, The Healing Light, Arthur James, 1985. Chapter IX: Doctors, Being the Lord's Instrument for the Healing of the Sick, (Pg 106) 68 Anne Dooley, Guidance from Silver Birch, Spiritualist Press, 1966. Chapter Two: Who Are You? (Pg 21) 69 W. F. Rickard, Abu Talks, Regency Press, 1992. Chapter 6 - The control of the mind, (Pg 36) 70 Stephen O'Brien, Visions of Another World, The Aquarian Press, 1989. 13 Poltergeist, (Pg 165) 71 Christopher Jamison, Finding Sanctuary, Phoenix, 2007. PART ONE Everyday Life - How did I get this busy? (Pg 28) 72 Paul Miller, Cavalcade of the Spirit, Volume I, The Psychic Book Club, 1943. The Moses of Spiritualism, (Pg 63)

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73 John Edward, Crossing Over - The Stories Behind the Stories, Jodere Group Inc, 2001. Chapter 1: Great Expectations - A Psychic on Ladies' Lingerie, (Pg 5) 74 Laurie Worger, My Treasures For You, The Percival Book Company, 1965. Chapter 3: Our God-directed Lives, (Pg 39) 75 Père De Caussade, The Sacrament of the Present Moment, Fount, 1987. 5: Perfect Faith – Fulfilment and Enjoyment of God’s Purpose, (Pg 45) 76 Edmond Bordeaux Szekely, The Gospel of the Essenes, C W Daniel Co, 1976. Lost Scrolls of the Essene Brotherhood: The Moon, (Pg 200) 77 Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Elliot Stock, 1891. The First Book - Warnings, useful for a spiritual life. Chapter XIX(II) 78 St. Theophan the Recluse, The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to it, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1995. 46 General Rules for Staying on the True Path, (Pg 203) 79 Ben Patterson, Waiting, Intervarsity Press, 1989. Chapter Ten: Faith’s Ultimate Test, (Pg 162) 80 Michael Newton, Destiny of Souls: New Case Studies of Life Between Lives, Llewellyn Publications, 2005. 8: The Advancing Soul, (Pg 321) 81 John Scott, I Lent a Hand to a Ghost, Psychic Press, 1950. Hereafter, (Pg 123) 82 Ladislaus Boros, Open Spirit, Search Press, 1974. Teilhard and Unity, (Pg 192) 83 Joseph Sharp, Living Our Dying - A Way to the Sacred in Everyday Life, Rider & Co, 1996. Part IV: Living Our Dying – Chapter 10: Intimacy with All Things, (Pg 213) 84 Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows, Pathway of the Immortal, International Publications Inc, 1980. Chapter III: The Cosmic Law of Karma, (Pg 48 / 49) 85 Horace Leaf, What Mediumship Is. Spiritualist Press, 1955 86 Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Elliot Stock, 1891. The First Book - Warnings, useful for a spiritual life. Chapter XXV 87 Sherwood Eliot Wirt, Exploring the Spiritual Life, Lion Books, 1985. 5 - From Letters of Spiritual Counsel by Francois de la Mothe Fenelon, (Pg 70) 88 Sylvia Browne, The Other Side and Back, Piatkus, 2000. A Note to My Readers, (Pg 5)

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15.1: Spiritual Development - Stimulus

What was your stimulus to follow a spiritual development pathway? Was it, like St. Paul’s, a ‘Road to Damascus event’ or did it creep upon you gradually? The view I take is like that of St Augustine, as expressed by Malcolm Muggeridge: 1

He naturally thought, as did Saint Paul, that this conversion happened at a particular moment, but actually it was the result of a long process which had begun even before he was aware of it.

This was confirmed by the English theologian J K Elliot who suggested that: 2

The actual conversion of Paul to Christianity may well have taken place less dramatically over a long period of contemplation in Damascus.

The process by which development is stimulated, says the American New Testament scholar, theologian and author Marcus J. Borg, can be gradual or sudden. Some people seem more open to experiences of the Spirit, whether because of genetic disposition, personality type, or other reasons. Sometimes experiences of grief or despair can trigger investigation. He went on to explain: 3

Sometimes it comes 'out of the blue' through a spontaneous religious experience or a dramatic conversion experience. Sometimes it seems primarily to be the result of aging. There is nothing about aging that guarantees such a transformation (there are old people with hard hearts and bitter hearts), but aging, if not interfered with, does seem to have a softening effect. It is not coincidental that 'wisdom' (meaning wisdom about living, not knowledge) is often associated with 'the elders' (though, again, one can be an old fool). And sometimes it is the result of participation in the religious practices of tradition.

Whether it is external nudgings from the spirit world or internal stimuli from one’s own soul, I am certain that they exist far before we are consciously aware of them. It is the slow drip, drip, drip of awareness that one day we become conscious of. This is the way it happened to me, which with hindsight, started probably in my teenage years and was not recognised by me until about 40 years later. Such attrition was touched on in ‘The Secret Oral Teachings in Tibetan Buddhist Sects’ which recorded that: 4

On the direct road, this understanding is attained without any apparent preparation. The climber has not hesitated to lean over the abyss on which the path [of spiritual development] borders, he has not hesitated sometimes to descend into them so as to inspect the depths, he has known how to climb up out of them, and then, suddenly, one day as a result of something apparently without any importance: the colour of a flower, the form of the branch of a tree, a cloud, a bird's song, the yapping of a jackal, the howling of a distant wolf or even a simple pebble against which he struck his foot in passing. And there arises a vision in his mind ... Transcendent insight is born.

For some, it is the awakening of their psychic skills which point them towards spiritual development. The English medium and spiritual healer exemplified some of

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:07:30 15.1 Spiritual Development - Stimulus Page 2 of 27 these ‘feelings’ and explained: 5

When, through practice, you have absolute faith in your abilities, you will find yourself developing unique feelings of your own. You may feel the hairs on the back of your neck - a negative response. If you have an uncomfortable feeling and somehow feel 'itchy', don't make any decisions at this time but leave them until you've had time to think things through clearly. These are examples that others have experienced, but they may give you some idea of what to expect. However, it is quite easy to work out what type of reaction you are experiencing. A joyous, happy feeling is extremely positive. An uncomfortable feeling in any form, is negative, while a 'fidgety' feeling requires further investigation. Keep notes about your reactions so that you can refer back to them later.

Another psychic Heidi Sawyer recorded an extended list of the potential sensations and events which many point to an awakening. These include: 6

coincidences occurring in your life, seeing things out of the corner of your eye, feeling a 'breeze' or a presence, strong fascination for psychic or spiritual knowledge, receiving 'messages' in dreams from friends or relatives who have died, dreaming of events before they happen, seeing those who are no longer alive, hearing things repeated over and over in your mind, people wanting to tell you their life history and things they have rarely told others, even if they do not know you very well, 'knowing' people well when you have only met them recently, strong feelings regarding the health of others which you later find out were correct, sensitivity to noise, sensitivity to the moods of others, sudden and strong desires to clean up your health and eating habits, fascination with angels or fairies, being inexplicably drawn to the colours lilac, pink or white, rubbing your forehead often and wanting to get hair away from your face. Strange pulling sensation across the forehead, wanting to 'save' others and the planet.

...and I’m sure that there are many more situations or events which awaken spirituality. Whether we respond to such promptings is solely up to us - and it is there for every one, as the medium Robert Brown realised: 7

...progression is open to all...

Another way of describing this unveiling comes from the mystic writer Evelyn Underhill. She used the analogy of a Swiss train journey to convey her understanding: 8

When the traveller enters Switzerland, and draws up the blind - perhaps somewhere near Berne - in the early morning, he may see on the far horizon a line of snow. To his tired eyes it does not look very much: a sign perhaps, but a sign that is very far away. Yet somehow, that white line calms, refreshes and exhilarates, for it proves

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that he is getting there; that he is, after all, living in a world which is not all tenement dwellings, factories and potato fields, not entirely subdued to the requirements of the pumping station and electric grid. The majesty of the eternal snow is really there. He glimpses the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. What we call "religious experience" is rather like the pulling up of that blind.

Think about and be thankful that your ‘blind has been lifted’. Many commentators describe this event as being directed towards God irrespective of the stimulus. In the book ‘The Elements of the Spiritual Life: A study in Ascetical Theology’, the once Cathedral, F. P. Harton, makes the point that: 9

This attention is not intellectual, but spiritual, not a tension of the mind, but a quiet holding of oneself to God. The theological meaning of the term 'recollection' is just that: in ordinary language recollection means 'remembering', and the ordinary dictionaries give no other definition, but in theology it signifies primarily the gathering together of the soul and its turning inward towards God; it is thus synonymous with 'introversion' in its theological, as distinct from its psychological sense.

There are some differences of opinion as to what the prime driver is. Some believe that it is inherent within us; others feel that it is from an external God. Hugh Martin captured this dilemma when he used the thoughts of St Augustine: 10

Pelagius said that men had the power to choose between good and evil. God's help is needed, but there must first be an unaided act of the human will in order to accept the divine grace. Augustine maintained that grace was needed in order to accept grace. .. Pelagius said that the initiative was taken by the human will; Augustine said it was taken by the divine will.

Another supporter of the ‘pull of God’ can be found within the teachings of Don Miguel Ruiz. He believed that: 11

Around the world, all cultures have the same knowledge. All human beings have the same information inside. It might be phrased in different words, but the knowledge is exactly the same. The Mastery of Awareness is so extensive that it demands commitment of time and practice to remember the silent knowledge we each have within us. The call is to recollect all of the knowledge and to be what we really are so that we can use our inner power. We aspire to become One with God.

...and the Benedictine monk Dom Aelred Graham, in concert with theologians, declared that our soul is so constituted that: 12

...of its nature it desires union with God.

This was expanded by Billy Graham who used text from Galatians 5:22, 23 to make the point: 13

Do you long to produce the fruit of the spirit, which is “love, joy, peace, long- suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance”?

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Whatever is the driver, it appears that there is an inner calling which stimulates the soul to spiritually develop. The , Chan, who looked after James Legget once he had arrived in the Spirit World after being killed in WWI, made the comment that: 14

Although it may be unconscious, the calling to all souls is to come higher.

Whatever it is, there is something that stirs us towards a more spiritual life or at least for us to recognise the need to adjust the balance between the material and spiritual. Therefore we must, as the newspaperman Sherwood Eliot Wirt believed, we should: 15

But open the window, and draw the curtain, and the Sun of righteousness will enliven your darkness.

More often it is not a conscious act that reveals to us that there is something more, but a feeling, a sensation, some sort of spiritual sensitivity that bubbles up. Teilhard de Chardin, in his book ‘Le Milieu Divin’ put it as: 16

On some given day a man suddenly becomes conscious that he is alive to a particular perception of the divine spread everywhere about him. ... All he knows is that a new spirit has crossed his life.

…and from the American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson: 17

At a moment in our history the mind's eye opens and we become aware of spiritual facts, of rights, of duties, of thoughts, - a thousand faces of one essence.

If we reach out to our God in whatever way is suited to our temperament then perhaps we will have started on our eternal pathway. In the book ‘Types of Modern Theology’ we are given an insight into the beliefs of the German theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher which included the fact that: 18

If we first grasp the eternal, in due time we shall discern the Eternal One. If we awaken to the divine, our opened eyes will presently behold God.

I’m not sure that it is so clear cut as that, but it is certain that our spiritual evolution has started. Peter Ouspensky, a Russian philosopher, wrote about the spirituality of the mystic George Gurdjieff who said that: 19

Evolution can be necessary only to man himself when he realises his position, realises the possibility of changing this position, realises that he has powers that he does not use, riches that he does not see.

Realising that there is ‘more to life’ is the start. In essence, it is recognition that there is more to know about life, and possibly death, itself and the Laws governing it and us. Again, many people refer to this as wanting to know more about God or that we must open ourselves to Him. As Père Jean Pierre Caussade de la Compagnie de Jésus understood: 20

…an earnest desire is all that is necessary to obtain this inestimable blessing.

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The triggers to spiritual awareness are many and varied. As people get older their minds often turn away from material aspects to spiritual matters. This was the case for the British Christian missionary Norman Grubb who admitted that: 21

I don't know how I came to make writing on these lines the pursuit of my latter years - but it has been. Moving on in earlier years from seeking and finding the answer to my personal problems, it seemed as if my mind awakened to the need of finding and understanding the answer to "the riddle of the universe", at least in terms of our human participation in it.

A stimulus indeed which at first glance is not spiritual but the chain of questions and answers will naturally lead to a spiritual conclusion. Taking this ‘age’ situation further, many start, in their later life, to think about death and what happens, if anything, at the close of each life. Certainly this ought to be the case for those who have not already experienced this ‘pull’ of spirituality. Perhaps as they get older and closer to their own death, there may be a yearning to try to understand what happens at this momentous transition. Joseph Sharp, a man terminally diagnosed with AIDS, believed that this certainly was the case: 22

Many of us are coming to realise that if we are going to work sincerely on ourselves spiritually in this life, we must also work on our fears and issues regarding death and dying. ... I believe that living our dying is nothing less than a journey into the sacred, here and now. Some of us come to our spiritual quest first, realising along the way that we must embrace dying. And some come to dying first, realising along the way that we must embrace our spiritual journey. But this is merely the appearance of things in time. At its core, ‘living our dying’ and ‘living our search for the sacred’ are one journey, one experience.

William Law, that 17 th Century Northamptonshire mystic, believed that if this sort of question arose then there is no alternative but to investigate further: 23

If a man had five fixed years to live, he could not possibly think at all, without intending to make the best use of them all. When he saw his stay so short in this world, he must needs think that this was not a world for him; and when he saw how near he was to another world that was eternal, he must surely think it very necessary to be very diligent in preparing himself for it.

It may be that friends, neighbours, or colleagues open the door to your awareness. Irene Bays was the channel for the following message from the Spirit World: 24

People must be given the realisation that within themselves lies the key to the truth, to the love that must be sent forth, to the compassion, to the understandings, to the knowledge that you just do not finish and return to dust.

Everyone should understand that we are spirit here and now; we are a spark of God and as such we should follow the advice of the spirit known as Abu who said that we have an: 25

...opportunity here and now of learning of his spirit origin and his spirit being and, if he will but do that and endeavour to open ever so little his spiritual eyes whilst still in the flesh, he will have done his baby learning before he shall pass over and

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he will save himself much bewilderment and sometimes much distress by learning ... of the circumstances following upon earthly death...

Making people aware of the continuity of life after death is one of the tenets of Spiritualism. Certainly, attending services could awaken something deep within. William Roache, a Spiritualist himself, wrote that messages given by mediums at Spiritualist Church Services could be: 26

…proof of life in other realms, and receiving them should be the gateway to finding out more about these realms and about ourselves.

An example, although a bit extreme, can be seen in the awaking of the American medium John Edward. He recalls: 27

I think back to that reading [by a medium] and consider her [the medium] more like the first 'gardener' of my uncultivated psychic soil. She planted the seeds, and grow they did - my interest was like a weed spreading out of control.

It is also possible that reading the Scriptures with a spiritual focus could stimulate more investigation. The venerable Basil Wilberforce, the Anglican priest and author, believed that the spiritual picture painted by the parable of Dives and Lazarus: 28

...is intended to stimulate thought, and to clear the mind from illusions, and to teach the supreme lesson of the continuity of character after physical death...

I know of many people who have been stimulated to learn more about life and death subsequent to coming into contact with those who communicate with departed spirits. The impact of linking closely with the Spirit World can be also seen in the lives of those who have Near Death Experiences (NDEs). This was touched on by Peter & Elizabeth Fenwick in their book ‘The Truth in the Light’: 29

The common ground between cultures and between individuals is that the NDE seems to be an 'awakening' experience, often arousing a sense of spirituality and a stimulus for personal development.

This is certainly true for those books that I have read about such lives – it invariably triggers spiritual development. This is because, based on his personal experience of such an event, the neurosurgeon Dr. Eben Alexander stressed that: 30

The news that NDEs bring is life-transforming.

And life-changing it is! Through many different routes does Man come to recognise the survival of the personality after physical death. Arthur Keith Desmond, in his book about the healing activities of William Lilley, commented that: 31

Day by day, however, that glorious message [of man’s survival after death] reaches more and more, as more and more of God’s children are inspired to find their own proofs of Man’s immortality. It changes their outlook. It makes them better men and better women, nobler, purer, sweeter, more tolerant, and above all more

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understanding, because now they understand all! They are spiritually awake! They are alive!

Another potential trigger which may open the door to spirituality is nature itself. When we look at the beauty of what is around us, the delicacy of the construction of petals, leaves and all aspects of our flora and fauna we cannot help but be stirred into looking further at what the universe holds for us and its origin. Albert Einstein made the point when he remarked: 32

The more I study the universe, the more I believe in a Higher Power.

And much more tangible is the effect that the death of a close relative or friend has on us and the questions that it raises about continuity of life and the hereafter. John Edward, the American psychic and TV personality, remarked that: 33

Often, it's the death of someone close that motivates a person to explore this subject.

The vastness of Eternity, too, could be a trigger to awareness. Again, William Law in his book ‘A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life’ compared the extent of man’s life to eternity: 34

What a trifle therefore must the years of a man's age appear, when they are forced to be set against eternity, when there shall be nothing but eternity to compare them with!

This could well start the thinking process and prompt serious investigation of spiritual matters. So could notions of personal responsibility and the laws of cause and effect which Eastern religions have at their core, whereas it is not so widespread in the West. Of this, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, a philosopher and second President of India wrote: 35

In our relations with human failures, belief in Karma inclines us to take a sympathetic attitude and develop reverence before the mystery of misfortune. The more understanding we are, the less do we pride ourselves on our superiority. Faith in Karma induces in us the mood of true justice or charity which is the essence of spirituality. We realise how infinitely helpless and frail human beings are.

This realisation could set us off on the spiritual pathway, as could thoughts about reincarnation. On this topic Joel Whitton has this to say: 36

But all the eloquence and evidence in the world won't make the idea [of reincarnation] any more palatable to the individual who chooses to believe otherwise. Acceptance of rebirth goes hand in hand with exploration of our true spiritual natures, and scant encouragement exists for such scrutiny of the self in modern society.

True! The journey into the spiritual unknown is a very personal affair. No one can do it for you.

Another potential spark to the spiritual path is the realisation that the world in which we

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:07:30 15.1 Spiritual Development - Stimulus Page 8 of 27 live is lacking in so many aspects; lacking in humility, kindness, generosity, compassion and, of course, love in its widest sense. Questions such as ‘What is life about?’ or ‘Is this all there is to existence?’ and ‘Could life be better for us all?’ come to mind. Deepak Chopra observed that: 37

When your heart grows sick of violence and divisiveness in the world, starting over is the only choice. You stop looking at the reflections and turn to the source.

Deepak suggests here that we turn to God which is in line with the ideas of Thomas A Kempis: 38

If you but turn your thoughts to what you are when you are by yourself, You will not care what men say of you. Man looks upon the face, God on the heart.

As you well know by now, I understand that our Creator manifests as the Cosmic Laws which govern our universe and therefore what we must do is to try to discover what they are, how they impact upon each of us, and then live according to them. A start to realising the impact of the Cosmic Laws is through recognising the existence of the Spirit World from where the teaching spirit White Eagle said that: 39

People who believe in angels are content neither to let material life dictate to them, nor to follow only evidence of the narrow physical senses.

Even Bede Griffiths, from his Indian ashram, recognised that many are seeking spiritual understanding of and from the world of Spirit. However, he does add a very important caveat: 40

All over the world today people are discovering this realm of psychic experience. There needs to be a warning here that entering the subtle realm has its own particular dangers. Every advance is accompanied by dangers which have to be faced, and at this level there is still both good and evil.

True! It is not all plain sailing; we have to be careful that we and others are not duped by mischievous and untoward discarnates. Nevertheless, even being aware that life after death is a possibility will lead us to pursue further knowledge, evidence and experience of this new world. It is interesting to be aware that Harry Emerson, who wrote a book, entitled ‘Listen My Son‘ which attempts to convince his son of the hereafter, documented a formula which described the degree of strength that such an awareness brings. He believed that: 41

Faith + Knowledge - Doubt = Courage.

Converting this expression into words, it says that by increasing your knowledge and your trust in Spirit, will tend to eliminate any doubt you have of the life to come and thereby provide the strength and courage to live your life according to your Philosophy of Life and the Cosmic Laws.

An automatic corollary to this is that there are beings in the next life and, as many mystics tell us, one of the aspects of their existence is to help humanity as best it can within the

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:07:30 15.1 Spiritual Development - Stimulus Page 9 of 27 confines of the Natural Laws of life. Irene Bays, acting as a channel for spirit communication, recorded what one spirit said to her: 42

We have endeavoured to encourage you, to stimulate your interest, to awaken the latent powers within you. To stir memories of different distant experiences within your life.

…and this is in order to trigger further interest, investigation and experience. However, before any Spirit can provide help, they have to be invited to do so, as Martin Israel realised Spirit has to be: 43

…invited to come in...

What Martin actually wrote is that:

He [God] has to be invited to come in...

Again I reiterate that I do not believe that God has any direct impact upon what we think, say or do; it is through his agents that spiritual stimuli are given. Do remember, however, that not only are we a ‘spark of God’ but also are those in the spirit World who help us. This is probably why we consider that the help we get is from God – indirectly. This was emphasised by Red Cloud, a spirit entity who used Estelle Roberts as a medium. He rhetorically asked the question: 44

Do you honestly believe that any man or woman can be in supreme contact with God?

…and he answered this question himself by saying:

No man can state that he is in direct contact with God because God is a Whole, not a being. The expressions of the Law in the highest stages of evolution are inexpressible in matter…

Bear this in mind, therefore, when I use extracts from authors and feel that any communication from ‘Spirit’ is from God alone – it is really from other members of the Spirit World. You will forgive me, therefore, for using the word Spirit within which I group discarnate spirits and which other people may interpret as God.

Teilhard de Chardin also believed that Spirit awakens our awareness: 45

But in the end the initiative, the awakening, always comes from Him [Spirit]…

Teilhard also describes, in broad terms how this happens: 46

By means of all created things, without exception, the divine assails us, penetrates us and moulds us.

From the book ‘Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East’ Margaret Smith provided us with a description from Bayazid [Abu Yazid] who said of himself: 47

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At the beginning I was mistaken in four aspects. I concerned myself to remember God, to know Him, to love Him, and to seek Him, and when I had come to the end, I saw that He had remembered me before I remembered Him, and that His knowledge of me had preceded my knowledge of Him, His love towards me had existed before my love to Him, and He had sought me before I sought Him.

Even just opening the mind to the possibility of the existence of the One, the Divine Source of all as the Creator of our Universe will lead to progress on our spiritual pathway, as Evelyn Underhill realised: 48

The moment in which we become aware of the creative action of God and are therefore able to respond or resist, is the moment in which our conscious spiritual life begins.

Or in the words of John Chrysostom: 49

God waits for our hearts to open to His grace; he waits for an opportunity to reveal to each of us His truth. Then, when we are ready, He ensures that we hear...

A similar theme was articulated by the philosopher and mystic Ralph Waldo Trine in his book ‘In Tune with the Infinite’: 50

When one ... opens himself to this Spirit of Infinite Wisdom, he then enters upon the road to the true education, and mysteries that before were closed to him.

God is within us and recognised as the ‘spark in the soul’. Each sentient being, each creature, each created entity has a little bit of our Creator within. It is possible, then, that this essence also could, like a magnet, draw us to Spirit, to spirituality. Red Cloud, through Estelle Roberts, noticed that: 51

Today you find that man is swept by a wave of consciousness, a vibration which is penetrating the earthly world, giving men and women a great desire to understand spiritual truths.

Thomas Merton, that 20 th Century mystic and Trappist monk, also felt that we are being drawn towards the Godhead: 52

Self-realisation in this true religious sense is less than awareness of ourselves than an awareness of the God to whom we are drawn...

Confirming this, Laurie Worger, a 20 th century Spiritualist made the comment that: 53

...we can see ... the way in which the individual soul, despite all setbacks, strives continually upwards because of the deep ingrained longing to rejoin that which it has left.

Perhaps realising the faults and inconsistencies that we have could cause us to consider why we are like this and what we can do about it. Martin Israel believed that from this could follow a spiritual investigation. 54

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It is the awareness of our faults that illuminates the path to perfection.

Morton Kelsey also recognised that our failings could be our own stimulus: 55

When we really look at our actions and reactions to others we may realise how often they are unconscious and unsatisfactory, and this can be the first step toward an inward venture.

Another way of describing this was provided through the mediumship of Dion Fortune. A highly developed spirit used the idea that evil (that is something that isn’t right in what we think, say or do or observe) maybe the trigger to improvement: 56

You will always get your push-off from evil. Every advance to a higher plane is a reaction to evil. If there were no evil, there would be no point in improvement, therefore there would be no growth, no evolution.

Often we cannot put our finger on what is stimulating us to spiritual development. Stephen J Connor understood that: 57

Many people today are hungering for the sacred in their lives.

What it really is, many are unaware of. It is a feeling, an inspiration, a twitch of our sixth sense; it is something indefinable. Silver Birch informed us that it is deep within us: 58

It is not what affects the body which is so important but what touches the soul.

This great teaching spirit has also expressed a similar notion in a different way. He highlighted that he and other higher spirits: 59

...are concerned that the power of the spirit, of God - use your own words but I call it the Great Spirit - shall make a lodgement in your world wherever it can. That is the purpose behind everything that we do. .. Why? So that it can touch souls and bring them to life.

Evelyn Underhill in her book ‘The Essentials of Mysticism’ tried to describe what it was like for those people who are thus affected: 60

For then something enters human experience from beyond the range of sensible perception and intellectual analysis, requiring from us the acknowledgement that we, though immersed in the temporal, do live and have our being within the mysterious precincts of an eternal world, supra-sensible indeed but not wholly unknowable.

…and in another book, ‘The Mystery of Sacrifice’ she added in the Introduction: 61

...and bit by bit, in various ways and degrees, we discover in ourselves a certain capacity for Eternity - and more than this, a deep thirst for the Unchanging, a need for God.

A thirst is a good way of representing it. This internal drive has to be quenched by us

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:07:30 15.1 Spiritual Development - Stimulus Page 12 of 27 through learning and experience. I have talked about Spirit as representing both entities from the Spirit World and, for some, their God. Another significant element in this equation is the spirit known as Jesus the Nazarene. I consider that it is possible for that now discarnate spirit to help and support some people on the earth plane. He is a spirit different only in quality from all those others within the Spirit world who too could act as a guide and inspirer. In this I do not condone the idea that Jesus equates to God; he does not, although what a fantastic exemplar, master, mystic, and prophet he was 2000 years ago.

Some Christians concentrate on their links with Jesus the Nazarene rather than on the amorphous concept of God. Simone Weil was such a person and indicated that we cannot switch on and off our link with Spirit; it must be continuous: 62

If we agree to his [Jesus] entry, he enters; directly we cease to want him, he is gone. We cannot bind our will today for tomorrow, we cannot make a pact with him that tomorrow he will be within us, even in spite of ourselves. Our consent to his presence is the same as his presence. Consent is an act, it can only be actual, that is to say in the present. We have not been given a will which can be applied to the future.

At the start of our awareness, we will still have much apprehension and wariness as to what is going to happen and how can we eliminate all the other conceptual difficulties that we have. Don’t worry about it. Timothy Keller reassured us that: 63

Don't make the mistake of thinking that you have to banish all misgivings in order to meet God.

As you know, the most difficult thing to do on a journey into the unknown is to start, to take the first step towards change. And change is what you will get as you develop your spirituality. It will change every aspect of your life. It will change your perception of the world, your relationships with others, the way you go about your work, and most of all it will increase your happiness, peace, humility and general attitude to everything. In one simple sentence, William Roache captured this: 64

Awareness is the key to everything and that means we should always be ready to change.

…and from Rick Warren, an American evangelical Christian pastor and author: 65

Your first step in spiritual growth is to start changing the way you think. Change always starts first in your mind. The way you think determines the way you feel, and the way you feel influences the way you act.

…and from ‘The House of the Soul’ yet another book by Evelyn Underhill: 66

Those who ... change their angle of vision; see the world and all things in it from His point of view. A tremendous change from our ordinary way of seeing and thinking takes place then.

No matter what religion you profess, as you walk your own spiritual path, your ideas of most aspects of that religion will need to be adjusted. The start of this change will generally

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:07:30 15.1 Spiritual Development - Stimulus Page 13 of 27 be around your notion of God. Of this, the spirit communicator to Neale Donald Walsch said: 67

You must be fearless enough to drop what you think you know about God. You must be so fearless that you can dare to enter into your own experience of God.

…and the early Christian mystic and writer Gregory of Nyssa, in his 'Commentary on the Song of Songs' emphasised God's unknowability: 68

Our initial withdrawal from wrong and erroneous ideas of God is a transition from darkness to light. Next comes a closer awareness of hidden things, and by this the soul is guided through sense phenomena to the world of the invisible. And this awareness is a kind of cloud which overshadows all appearances, and slowly guides and accustoms the soul to look towards what is hidden. Next the soul makes progress through all these stages and goes on higher, and as she leaves below all that human nature can attain, she enters within the secret chamber of divine knowledge and there she is cut off on all sides by the divine darkness. Now she leaves outside all that can be grasped by sense or by reason, and the only thing left for her contemplation is the invisible and the incomprehensible. And here God is.

The impact is far reaching. Of the 14 th century German theologian, philosopher and mystic, Meister Eckhart, Oliver Davies wrote: 69

Eckhart wishes us to understand that if the birth of God in us stands for a changed state of being, then it is also and fundamentally a changed state of knowing.

This is fundamental. Look at the changes that happened to the lives of some of the ancient mystics such as • Francis of Assisi, the founder of the Franciscan Order. Son of a wealthy cloth merchant. In 1208 he turned from a life of pleasure to poverty and the complete observance of the teaching of Jesus the Nazarene • Joan of Arc, born to a peasant family in north-east France. She received visions and heard voices of Saint Michael, Saint Margaret and Saint Catherine instructing her to support the recovery France from English domination. • Benedict of Nursia, the founder of Western Christian monasticism, and a rule-giver for cenobitic monks. His purpose may be gleaned from his Rule, namely that "Christ ... may bring us all together to life eternal. • William Blake who was a magnificent mystic, artist and poet who pled passionately for the life of the spirit and foresaw the blight that materialism would usher in. • Ignatius of Loyla was a Spanish knight from a Basque noble family, hermit, priest since 1537, and theologian, who founded the Society of Jesus. • Abbot Anthony who was one of the Desert Fathers born Heracleus, in Egypt and died at Mount Colzim of natural causes. Sold all possessions & at age 35 he moved to the desert to live alone. • John of the Cross born Juan de Yepes Alvarez, was a major figure of the Catholic Reformation, a Spanish mystic, and Carmelite friar and priest, born at Fontiveros, a small village near Ávila. • Jalal-ud-Din Rumi, born in Balkh, Khorasan (now in Afghanistan), was a 13 th century Persian poet, jurist, theologian, and mystic. It was his meeting with the dervish Shams-e Tabrizi on 15 November 1244 that completely changed his life.

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From an accomplished teacher and jurist, Rumi was transformed into an ascetic and mystic.

…and of course, all of the Apostles. Their lives were turned on their head, and it all started with a very simple level of awareness which you are now displaying. Using the works of Evelyn Underhill again: 70

…this change of angle affects the whole character, not only or indeed specially the intellectual outlook but the ethical outlook too.

Using our reason we can come to terms with the changes which will naturally and imperceptivity happen to us. During his tenure as superior of the Portsmouth Priory in Rhode Island, the Benedictine monk Dom Aelred Graham made the point that: 71

Intelligent awareness is an indispensable condition of spiritual growth.

We must put our heads in the right gear. We must progress as best we can and at a speed appropriate to our ability to change. In very stark terms the unconventional 17 th century Jesuit priest Baltasar Gracián tried to convey the wisdom of continuous investigation: 72

Fools are lost by not thinking ... The wise weigh everything: they delve into things that are especially deep or doubtful, and sometimes reflect that there is more than what occurs to them. They make reflection reach further than apprehension.

We must all delve as best we can and with the resources which are available to us. Even though some of these may be within a particular religion, we don’t have to be hide-bound by it nor necessarily free from it as the English medium Colin Fry noticed: 73

...religion is sometimes, but not always, the road to spirituality.

It can happen to anyone, anywhere, at any time, and in any context. The 19 th century French priest Abbé Henri de Tourville when talking of his own times wrote: 74

Most people are like sheep and follow, without much satisfaction to themselves, the lines of past tradition. A very small minority emerges, with great hesitation and amidst endless discussion to be faced by troublesome and pressing contradictions. It is however of that minority that you must be, when God has put you there by interior vocation and natural aptitude.

Reflecting on this unaware majority, the evangelist Billy Graham wrote: 75

No man is more pathetic than he who is in great need and is not aware of it.

...and he went on to tell us that: 76

The first step to God is a realisation of your spiritual poverty.

If that is the case then perhaps some may believe that a religion will provide the necessary door. So it may be that the first step of your spiritual journey is to attend services of a particular religion. You will be led, although you may not realise it, to the one which is

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:07:30 15.1 Spiritual Development - Stimulus Page 15 of 27 most appropriate for you, or as Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows wrote about the person who is searching for a start: 77

Since some churches deal in the path of devotion, others with universality, and yet others with the mind, he will be drawn through the Law of Attraction to the one which meets his current evolutionary state.

You would expect the Christian mystical write Evelyn Underhill to consider that the best place to find awareness is within the ambit of Christian religion, on which she wrote: 78

It is true that the deep-seated human tendency to God may best be understood as the highest form of that out going instinctive craving of the psyche for more life and love which, on whatever level it be experienced, is always one. But some external stimulus seems to be needed, if this deep tendency is to be brought up into consciousness; and some education, if it is to be fully expressed. This stimulus and this education, in normal cases, are given by tradition; that is to say, by religious belief and practice.

Andrew Harvey, at one stage, spent a lot of time with his guru, known to him as Mother Meera. Although he later rejected the guru culture (see his excellent book ‘The Direct Path’), he did say of her: 79

You have come to give the light to all people, so all can awaken in whatever way they choose, in whatever situation or society or religious discipline they find themselves.

We are where we are! The traditions, of all types which we encounter can provide that light which illuminates our spiritual pathway. Through involvement with others of like mind we can see evidence of spirituality as Joseph Sharp noted: 80

Our spiritual traditions offer us teachers and fellow students who exemplify the process of awakening in action.

The opposite of a religion based stimulus also applies. That is, some of us need to step back from our religious traditions in order to be freed from the dogma and creed that constrain us. It may only be then that we can start to question and seek answers for those questions that are important to us and our spiritual journey. In the Confessions of St. Augustine, he states that: 81

No doubt then, that a free curiosity has more force in our learning these things, than a frightful enforcement

And it is this enforcement that is often seen as a problem of many religions; particularly the Abrahamic ones of Christianity, Islam and Judaism. The strong words from Silver Birch seem to reinforce this: 82

We have helped to free many from the prison-house of creed and dogma which has afflicted your world for so many years, shaming reason with foolish stupidities.

…and from the wisdom of White Eagle as documented by Colum Hayward: 83

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The concept of a 'vital' belief is indeed alien to his [White Eagle] teaching: everyone is on the road to salvation, he would say, simply by the growing realisation of the light within their heart and not by their adopting particular beliefs.

Put another way, we have to develop our own philosophy and not have it imposed by others or as the American author, counsellor, and lecturer on Christianity John Eldredge wrote: 84

Without a deep and burning desire of our own, we will be ruled by the desires of others.

This awareness, for many, is one which is seemingly tangential to their lives; something out of the ordinary of which the Russian philosopher Peter Ouspensky said: 85

I had come to the conclusion a long time ago that there was no escape from the labyrinth of contradictions in which we live except by an entirely new road, unlike anything hitherto known or used by us. But where this new or forgotten road began I was unable to say.

In many respects, how a person becomes aware of the need to travel this new road, that is to spiritually develop, is unimportant. What is vital, and our own individual responsibility, is, once we do realise the necessity of this development, to start the process as soon as possible. This route is open to everyone and each of us must follow it. This could be in this life or any one of our following incarnations. The only way to halt the wheel of life (continuing to reincarnate) is to make sure that we learn all the lessons that we need to learn and this is only possible if we can understand all our Life’s Objectives. These are revealed and understood only as we understand our spiritual nature and ‘get in touch’ with our inner ‘self’. Take the explosive advice of the Persian Sufi Jalal-ud-Din Rumi, as documented by James Redfield, Michael Murphy, and Silvia Timbers in ‘God and the Evolving Universe’: 86

There is a force within that gives you life – Seek That. In your body there lies a priceless jewel – Seek That. Oh, wandering Sufi, If you are in search of the greatest treasure, Don't look outside, Look within and seek That.

Thus, once aware, we can advance; in fact, eventually awareness comes to everyone, as Irene Bays was instructed: 87

...for all must have awareness eventually.

William Roache, too, understood this to be a feature of existence: 88

Every soul has to find reality at some time. The task can be delayed, but it cannot be averted forever.

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Or, in more theological terms from Martin Israel: 89

God's chosen ones cannot escape their vocation.

As soon as we open our eyes to Spirit then we will start to progress. Red Cloud, speaking through Estelle Roberts told us that: 90

Directly man focuses his mind upon divine law, automatically, even after the death of the material body, he advances.

At what time of one’s life this occurs is up to us. The more ‘advanced’ we are, whatever that means, the earlier we may start this spiritual journey. To demonstrate this Edna Dean Proctor, back in the late 1850’s, recorded a rather nice metaphor used by Henry Ward Beecher: 91

The aster has not wasted spring and summer because it has not blossomed. It has been all the time preparing for what is to follow, and in autumn it is the glory of the field, and only the frost lays it low. So there are many people who must live forty or fifty years, and have the crude sap of their natural dispositions changed and sweetened before the blossoming time can come; but their life has not been wasted.

This analogy has also been used by others. One of whom is Jack Joseph: 92

Remember always, each flower grows in its own way and its own season.

Perhaps we, unknowingly, have been preparing ourselves for our own blossoming time. All the reading, all the knowledge, all the experiences that you have received in this life have brought you to where you are now. All the years of living has created the character that you are, and now is your time. Using the terms offered by Evelyn Underhill the same idea has been conveyed: 93

The touch of God upon the soul, which is the prevenient cause of all worship, is received by us as we are: creatures of sense and spirit, at various stages of enlightenment and growth.

Continuing with the theme of a growing plant, it is necessary if we are to start to grow that we face the sun. We have to orientate ourselves to the right aspect, as Ralph Waldo Trine wrote: 94

But unless one set his face in the right direction and make the start, he will not reach it [one's goal]

The natural consequence of responding to this stirring of our spirituality is that we become much more sensitive or as St. Simeon the New Theologian revealed in the ‘Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart’: 95

It is impossible for a man, who seeks with all his soul, not to find Him [God] and be enriched by His gifts .

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…and as the gifts are personal so are the stimuli. I have given a few examples of what these stimuli may be, but for each of us it will be different. Not only that, but we should try not to be over influenced or distracted by others. This was explained to Sophy Burnham as: 96

My teacher once gave me the metaphor of the search for God being like a great wheel, the spokes of which all converge on the centre; each spoke is a separate religion tying us to God. But we must choose one path only, for if we spend our time dodging a few feet down one spoke, and then, discouraged, turning back to race around the perimeter of the rim before plunging down another route, we shall die before we ever reach the centre of the wheel.

Our journey is personal; no one else can do it for us. In fact, once we realise that the spiritual aspect of our life is lacking, then it is up to us to bridge that gap; we have to discover the lessons we need to learn and the experiences to live. Self-discovery is the message from Michael Newton, based on all his years researching past life regression: 97

...self discovery is always the best teaching tool.

…and the road is not an easy one; there is no silver bullet. We have to get where we need to be by our own effort. This agrees with Aldous Huxley, who, in his book ‘The Perennial Philosophy’, wrote: 98

For there is no spiritual patent medicine, no pleasant and infallible panacea for souls suffering from separateness and the deprivation of God.

So that, from the information given to Julie Soskin, our awareness and development: 99

…needs to happen through individual choice or it cannot happen at all.

That is, spiritual development cannot be forced upon anyone or any spirit. It must be free choice as Henry Thomas Hamblin argued: 100

But man, being a free agent, cannot be forced or overruled, he must come to the Truth in his own way, and of his own free will.

…thus emphasising Father Andrew’s advice: 101

Each one of us must come to God very simply and quite alone.

Solitude! This seems to be one aspect of enhancing our awareness. When we sit alone and in a quiet spot we seem to be able to get closer to our spiritual nature and to Spirit. The more frequently you do this, the more your actions will change, as Teilhard de Chardin believed: 102

The more nobly a man wills and acts, the more avid he becomes for great and sublime aims to purpose. He will no longer be content with family, country and the remunerative aspect of his work. He will want wider organisations to create, new paths to blaze, causes to uphold, truths to discover, an ideal to cherish and defend. So, gradually, the worker no longer belongs to himself. Little by little the great

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breath of the universe has insinuated itself into him through the fissure of his humble but faithful action, has broadened him, raised him up, borne him on.

Very few of us will take our spirituality as far as Teilhard de Chardin did; not all of us are modern-day mystics. However, we will certainly improve both spiritually and materially. Most people, however, have not been fortunate enough to be in a situation where their spiritual nature has been aroused; most spend their precious time coping with the material world. The 105th Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby in his 2016 book ‘Dethroning Mammon’ compared the situation 2000 years ago with that of today: 103

Jesus did not go around Galilee righting each and every wrong that he came across. He was not a Harry Potter figure. The reality was very different. For most people who met Jesus, life went on. They might remember an extraordinary event, such as 5000 people being fed miraculously with food to spare, or a blind man seeing, but they did not perceive differently as a result. The preoccupations of daily life and need prevented them from changing their vision.

Nevertheless, awareness seems to be captivating more and more people and as your awareness expands so will the contact with others with a similar objective. Michael Newton has observed this phenomenon: 104

...I have seen an increase in the number of people who are seeking a new spiritual awareness that is individual and unique to them without intermediaries who wish to impose their will on what they deem is spiritual.

However, there will be others who either through ignorance or malevolence, will try to distract you from your pathway. In the fictional story ‘The Rabbi's Tale - Letters from Gamaliel’, Graham Jeffery offered this advice: 105

Jesus, by the way, means saviour. A common enough name here. Though it is always easier to name your child 'Saviour' than actual to bring him up as one! Ah well. That's how it is. Other people call us all the names in the world. God just calls us.

There are very few people who devote all their thoughts, words and deeds to their spiritual life and abandon all that is associated with the physical. I am not one of those dedicated mystics. Perhaps you aren’t either. Therefore, for us who try to develop a spiritual nature, we must accept that we still have responsibilities that we must maintain in the material life. Hence we must strike a balance, which, over time, will hopefully lean more and more towards the spiritual. Again using words from Evelyn Underhill’s book ‘The Mystery of Sacrifice’: 106

Not as to whether he [the spiritual searcher] is good enough, for this question is not worth asking; but as to whether he is willing to take trouble enough, whether his face is set towards Eternity, and whether the demands and interests of the Eternal are given priority over the demands and interests of self-will.

This must be in conjunction with and not a replacement for our material life. John Edward, the American TV medium wrote: 107

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We can't get caught up with the spiritual world and forget to pay attention to the physical...

This is no bad thing; being amongst those who consider material things the most important, make it just that bit more difficult for us to hang onto our spiritual pathway and direction. Thus our enlightenment starts within the maelstrom of the material world. In the 9 th century Abu Yazid Bistami, a Persian Sufi, realised, according to Margaret Smith, that: 108

…the upward way must be trodden on the human level to begin with.

Once we start to slacken our grip on the material and we realise the immortality of our soul then we can, to some extent, understand the words of Swami Paramananda: 109

When the clear vision of the distinction between the mortal body and the immortal Soul dawns in the heart, then all craving for physical pleasure or material possession drops away; and one can say, let the body be burned to ashes that the Soul may attain its freedom; for death is nothing more than the casting-off of a worn-out garment.

Even before this stage of our awareness, we realise that at each step along the way there will be decisions to be made, choices to be made as to whether the spiritual or the physical paths should be selected. The Biblical Job, as documented by Francis Coutts, had the same problem: 110

...the burden laid upon him [Job] was to decide whether he would consent to be blessed by the apparent representatives of God upon earth, or whether he would wrestle with God until He blessed him.

How many people are ready for this? There are millions who are not ready. Returning to the simile of using the sun as a representation of the potential impact of Spirit on our lives, many people continuously block it out as Joel Goldsmith observed: 111

If you like, you can pull down the shades and never see the sun, and never feel it, but that is because of your action, not God's. As far as God is concerned, the sunshine is always there.

Catherine of Genoa was similarly impressed with the notion of the sun: 112

It is as with a covered object, the object cannot respond to the rays of the sun, not because the sun ceases to shine - for it shines without intermission - but because the covering intervenes. Let the covering be destroyed, and again the object will be exposed to the sun, and will answer to the rays which beat against it in proportion as the work of destruction advances.

A similar natural metaphor was used by Henry Ward Beecher: 113

There is dew in one flower and not in another, because one opens its cup and takes it in, while the other closes itself, and the drops run off. God rains his goodness and mercy as widespread as the dew, and if we lack them, it is because we will not open our hearts to receive them.

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The notion of the sun continuously beating down conveys the idea that part of us, the spark of the soul, is being drawn towards spirituality. Few people recognise this and take the first spiritual step – but whether it is recognised or not does not mean that it does not exist, Brenda Blanch said: 114

So the reality of God, the living atmosphere of the spirit, maintains its unalterable pressure; whether we acknowledge it or not.

Andrew Harvey in ‘The Way of Passion’ recalled that Rumi, the Sufi, mystic and poet tried to convey the materialistic view that men have when he wrote: 115

How long will we fill our pockets Like children with dirt and stones? Let the world go. Holding it We never know ourselves, never are airborne.

Where to be airborne is to develop spiritually and recognise the correct balance of material and spiritual in our lives so that we can overcome the gravity of it all. According to Bede Griffiths the Katha Upanishad says: 116

‘Abiding in the midst of ignorance, thinking themselves wise and learned, fools go aimlessly hither and thither, like blind led by the blind. What lies beyond this life never shines for those who are childish or careless or deluded by wealth. "This is the only world", they say - "there is no other"; and so they go from death to death.'

That is, they are not able to break the Wheel of Life. What really happens, of course, is that as such people get older they start to think about their life and what they have achieved. This may bring them to conclude, as Julie Soskin believed: 117

There will be a lot of confusion for many people as they begin to realise that their lives are totally without foundation and without any point.

This realisation tends to come later rather than earlier in life. As we move past our mid- point in life, the fundamental cosmic questions raise their head and perhaps, then, we start to think of more about the objectives of our lives. The religious activist William Houff recognised this and wrote that: 118

...the real urge toward self-discovery in the spiritual sense doesn't usually commence until middle age.

No matter what point in our life that we start to consider spiritual matters, we should not judge those who are not taking the spiritual high road, it may not be their time – they may have a lot of other experiences to get under their belt before they can advance. William Roache had this in mind when he wrote: 119

Although the purpose of life is the unfolding of the spirit, we only become aware of this when we are ready.

Put another way, everyone will follow the spiritual pathway eventually – in the religious

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:07:30 15.1 Spiritual Development - Stimulus Page 22 of 27 terms of the 14 th century mystic and pupil of Meister Eckhart, John Tauler: 120

For the Lord our God hideth Himself from those who are full of care about the creatures, and grieving over the loss of earthly things and creatures; but as soon as man turns from the creatures to find God, God reveals Himself unto the soul.

This same principle was the subject of another Rumi poem: 121

I lost my world, my fame, my mind - The Sun appeared, and all the shadows ran. I ran after them, but vanished as I ran - Light ran after me and hunted me down.

Often awareness comes too late – we will have missed the opportunities for progress maybe years before. However, the good thing is that if we need to have a particular experience then opportunities to do so will continue to occur. Sometimes these situations occur again and again within the same lifetime. If however we still miss it, then perhaps we will need to revisit the earth to ‘try again’ as Irene Bays was informed: 122

A knowledge which many many thousands do not have or do not accept. It is their belief that when once the heart stops beating that it is the end of all things, but indeed it is just the beginning of retracing ones steps. In some cases to go through another life upon the earth plane with the exact same intention, but this time with the knowledge that the task must be completed if there is to be further progression.

So, be aware of Spirit and search for the answers you need, for the truths about living on the earth and beyond. Look to the exemplars, the seers and prophets of the past and don’t automatically close your mind to any possibility irrespective of its source. Of this, the British career military officer and psychic researcher, Roy Dixon-Smith noticed: 123

The progress of the psychical investigator is rather like that of Bunyan's pilgrim, and he soon finds out that there is very much more in ancient 'superstition' than meets the modern supercilious eye.

Finally, your progress along the spiritual highway is dependent solely upon you and upon what you think, say and do. Red Cloud, speaking through Estelle Roberts, said that: 124

...you can have all the prayers said for you for hours and hours and hours, but it won't help you one whit in my [spirit] world unless you help yourselves.

At some stage, when you are ready, you will have accumulated sufficient knowledge to allow you to decide to take the plunge; to start your own spiritual development in earnest. Don’t prevaricate. You don’t have to wait until you have all the answers; start now as Peter Meadows suggested: 125

You may be thinking 'I'll jump when I know more.' But how much more will be enough. If I'd waited to gain a degree in computer engineering I'd never have splashed out on a PC and transformed the way my life operates. I still have many unanswered questions in the IT department. But I know what I need to know - and have the daily experience of learning even more.

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Peter also remarked that some, whose initial stimulus is dramatic, may rush towards the opening door of spiritual development, whilst others may take a much more gradual approach: 126

...but it's up to you whether you come in turning cartwheels or with a dignified stride.

Another similar description of post-stimulus activity was given by Arthur Keith Desmond who described an awakened soul as being like: 127

...a supercharged motor: it vibrates with life. It understands. It makes allowances. It sees the light where was darkness. It loves, not hates. Aids, not retards. Accepts, not rejects. Attracts, not repels. Endures, not chafes. Inspires, not chills.

Finally a plea from the American medium Laura Lynne Jackson, who, in the last couple of paragraphs of her book ‘The Light Between Us’, made the following points: 128

We all have psychic experiences in our lives that connect us to one another and to those we love on the Other Side. Not just once in a while, but all the time. My wish is that we realise and celebrate the gift we have inside us, and that we come to understand how opening our minds and hearts to it can fundamentally transform our lives. There won’t be any bolts of lightning or claps of thunder. All that will happen is that we’ll start to look at our lives differently. But that tiny shift can change your life. It can change the world. It can rattle the universe. And the light between us all will shine even brighter.

However you recognise it, it is beholden to you to take the first step, and as Baltasar Gracián wrote in one of his aphorisms, the sooner you do this the better: 129

There is only one good way to see the light: as soon as possible.

So, be aware and walk confidently on your spiritual journey.

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1 Malcolm Muggeridge, A Third Testament, The Plough Publishing House, 2002. About St Augustine … (Pg 6) 2 J K Elliot, Questioning Christian Origins, SCM Press, 1982. 8 Who was St Paul? (Pg 134) 3 Marcus J. Borg, The God We Never Knew, HarperSanFrancisco, 1997. Part III: Chapter 5:Opening to God - The Hearth of Spirituality, (Pg 115) 4 Alexandra David-Néel, The Secret Oral Teachings in Tibetan Buddhist Sects, City Lights Books, 1981. Chapter VI, (Pg 97 / 98) 5 Betty Shine, The Infinite Mind, Harper Collins, 2000. Chapter 25: Clairvoyance and Intuition, (Pg 167) 6 Heidi Sawyer, Why My Mother Didn't Want Me To Be Psychic, Hay House, 2008. Chapter 1: The Opening - Beginning of Natural Psychic Skills: Stage One Opening - Common Signs, (Pg 2 / 3) 7 Robert Brown, We Are Eternal, Hodder & Stoughton, 2004. Part Two: Chapter 7 - Life after Life, (Pg 141) 8 Evelyn Underhill, The School of Charity, Longmans, Green and Co, 1934. Part III - Chapter IX - The World to Come, (Pg 111) 9 F P Harton, The Elements of the Spiritual Life: A study in Ascetical Theology, SPCK, 1950. Part IV - Chapter XX Recollection, (Pg 276 / 277) 10 Hugh Martin, Great Christian Books, SCM Press, 1945. The Confessions of St Augustine, (Pg 28) 11 Mary Carroll Nelson, Beyond Fear - The Teachings of Don Miguel Ruiz on Freedom and Joy, Rider & Co, 2003. Chapter Three: Silent Knowledge and Elements of Toltec Wisdom, (Pg 44) 12 Dom Aelred Graham, Christian Thought in Action, The Catholic Book Club, 1958. Chapter Five: Self- Fulfilment, (Pg 83) 13 Billy Graham, The Secret of Happiness, Educational Book Exhibits, 1974. Chapter V: Happiness through Hunger and Thirst, (Pg 55) 14 Stephen Turoff, Seven Steps to Eternity, Clairview, 2002. Chapter 3, (Pg 64) 15 Sherwood Eliot Wirt, Exploring the Spiritual Life, Lion Books, 1985. 14 - From The Rules and Exercises of Holy Living by Jeremy Taylor, (Pg 198) 16 Teilhard de Chardin, Le Milieu Divin, Fontana, 1966. The Divine Milieu, (Pg 128 / 129) 17 Ralph Waldo Emerson, Natural History of Intellect, Solar Press, 1995. I. Natural History of Intellect - I. Powers and Laws of Thought, (Pg 37 / 38) 18 Hugh Ross Mackintosh, Types of Modern Theology, Nisbet, 1949. II: The Theology of Feeling (A), Schleiermacher’s Interpretation of Religion – Chapter 4: The Idea of God in the ‘Addresses’, (Pg 53) 19 Ouspensky P D, In Search of the Miraculous, Harcourt Inc, 2001. Chapter 3: (Pg 58) 20 Richard Whitwell, J.P. de Caussade - A Spiritual Study, The Instant Publishers, undated. Chapter XII - His Love Victorious, (Pg 58) 21 Norman Grubb, The Spontaneous You, Lutterworth Press, 1966. Foreword, (Pg 7) 22 Joseph Sharp, Living Our Dying - A Way to the Sacred in Everyday Life, Rider & Co, 1996. Part I: Waking Up To Our Dying – Chapter 1: Honest Beginnings, (Pg 21) 23 William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life - extracts, Mowbray, 1981. Man's eternal destiny, (Pg 28) 24 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part Three: Chapter XII -Thought (Thought Patterns), (Pg 363) 25 W. F. Rickard, Abu Talks, Regency Press, 1992.Chapter 30 - The Process known as Rescue Work, (Pg 129/130) 26 William Roache, Soul on the Street, Hay House, 2007. Part II: Army Dreaming. 5: Cricket and Fireworks, (Pg 85) 27 John Edward, After Life - Answers from the Other Side, Princess Books, 2004. Chapter Seven: Teachers, (Pg 129) 28 Ven. Basil Wilberforce, D.D, The Secret of the Quiet Mind, Elliot Stock, 1916. Dives and Lazarus, which? (Pg 42) 29 Peter Fenwick & Elizabeth Fenwick, The Truth in the Light, BCA, 1995. 11 Looking for a Pattern, (Pg 168) 30 Dr Eben Alexander, Proof of Heaven, Piatkus, 2014. Chapter 31: Three Camps, (Pg 141) 31 Arthur Keith Desmond, The Gift of Healing - The Story of Lilley the Healer, Psychic Press, 1944. Book I: Yesterdays. Chapter One: Birth of a Mission, (Pg 18 / 19) 32 John Edward, After Life - Answers from the Other Side, Princess Books, 2004. Preceding the Acknowledgments is a quotation by Albert Einstein 33 John Edward, After Life - Answers from the Other Side, Princess Books, 2004. Introduction, (Pg xix) 34 William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life - extracts, Mowbray, 1981. Man's eternal destiny, (Pg 32)

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35 Radhakrishnan, An Idealist View of Life, Unwin, 1980. Chapter VII : Human Personality and its Destiny - 5. Karma and freedom, (Pg 222) 36 Joel Whitton, Life Between Life, Grafton Books, 1986. Chapter 5 - The Shuttle of Rebirth: Our Journey So Far ... (Pg 86 / 87) 37 Deepak Chopra, The Book of Secrets, Rider & Co, 2004. Secret #3 - Four Paths Lead to Unity, (Pg 44) 38 Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Elliot Stock, 1891. Book II - Warnings to draw us to the Inward Life. Chapter VI(II) 39 Walking with the Angels - A Path of Service, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1998. Foreward, (Pg 8) 40 Bede Griffiths, A New Vision of Reality, Fount, 1992. 2 The New Psychology and the Evolution of Consciousness, (Pg 49) 41 Harry Emerson, Listen My Son, The Psychic Book Club, 1945. Chapter Twenty: News from the Spirit World, (Pg 107) 42 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part Three: Chapter XIV - Wisdoms form Within (Inner Knowledge), (Pg 379) 43 Martin Israel, The Pearl of Great Price, SPCK, 1988. 6 - The Way of Awareness, (Pg 51) 44 Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud Speaks, Tudor Press, 1992. Chapter Nineteen: Questions and Answers, (Pg 91) 45 Teilhard de Chardin, Le Milieu Divin, Fontana, 1966. The Divine Milieu, (Pg 131 / 132) 46 Teilhard de Chardin, Le Milieu Divin, Fontana, 1966. The Divine Milieu, (Pg 112) 47 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 2: Chapter X - Some Early Sufi Mystics, (Pg 237 / 238) 48 Brenda Blanch, Heaven a Dance - An Evelyn Underhill Anthology, Triangle, 1992. The Spiritual Life, (Pg 15) 49 John Chrysostom - The Golden Voice of Protest, Arthur James, 1996. (Pg 63) 50 Ralph Waldo Trine, In Tune with the Infinite, G Bell & Sons, 1931. Chapter VI - Wisdom and interior Illumination, (Pg 104) 51 Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud Speaks, Tudor Press, 1992. Chapter Twelve: Spiritualism versus Orthodox Christianity. (Pg 58) 52 Thomas Merton, The New Man, Burns & Oates, 1985. Spirit in Bondage, (Pg 86) 53 Laurie Worger, My Treasures For You, The Percival Book Company, 1965. Chapter 3: Our God-directed Lives, (Pg 35 / 36) 54 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 9: The inner life, (Pg 67) 55 Morton T Kelsey, The Other Side of Silence, SPCK, 1985. Part Two: The Basic Climate for Meditation - 8. A Word of Warning and Encouragement, (Pg 71) 56 Dion Fortune, The Cosmic Doctrine, Helios Book Service, 1966. Chapter II: The Forces of (Negative) Evil, (Pg 14) 57 Stephen J Connor, Everything as Divine, Paulist Press, 1996. Introduction, (Pg 1) 58 Anne Dooley, Guidance from Silver Birch, Spiritualist Press, 1966. Chapter Twelve: Postscript, (Pg 115) 59 Stella Storm, Philosophy of Silver Birch, The Spiritual Truth Press, 1998. Chapter Twelve: Outside the Circle, (Pg 117) 60 Evelyn Underhill, The Essentials of Mysticism, Oneworld, 1999. The Philosophy of Contemplation, (Pg 119) 61 Evelyn Underhill, The Mystery of Sacrifice, Longmans, Green and Co, 1948. Introduction, (Pg ix) 62 Simone Weil, Waiting on God, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1952. Essays: Concerning the 'Our Father', (Pg 148 / 149) 63 Timothy Keller, The Reason for God, Hodder & Stoughton, 2009. EPILOGUE: Where do we go from here? (Pg 234) 64 William Roache, Soul on the Street, Hay House, 2007. Part III: On The Street. 10: Thinking Things Through, (Pg 161) 65 Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, Zondervan, 2002. How we Grow, (Pg 182) 66 Evelyn Underhill, The House of the Soul, Methuen & Co, 1929. Chapter V, (Pg 70) 67 Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations with God - Book 3 An uncommon dialogue, Hodder & Stoughton, 1999. Chapter 1, (Pg 6) 68 Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Jewish & Christian Mysticism - An Introduction, Continuum, 1994. Part II The Christian Tradition - 6 Early Christian Mysticism: Augustine of Hippo and Gregory of Nyssa, (Pg 99 / 100) 69 Oliver Davies, Meister Eckhart - Selected Writings, Penguin Books, 1994. Introduction - The Birth of God in the Soul, (Pg xxviii) 70 Evelyn Underhill, The Essentials of Mysticism, Oneworld, 1999. The Essentials of Mysticism, (Pg 20 / 21) 71 Dom Aelred Graham, Christian Thought in Action, The Catholic Book Club, 1958. Chapter Two: The Difficulty of Being Oneself, (Pg 38)

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72 Baltasar Gracián, The Art of Worldly Wisdom - A pocket Oracle, Mandarin, 1995. Aphorism 35: (Pg 20) 73 Colin Fry, Life Before Death, Rider & Co, 2008. 6. Searching: the quest for spirituality, (Pg 114) 74 Abbé Henri de Tourville, Letters of Direction, Mowbray, 1939. III - Our Own Day, (Pg 23) 75 Billy Graham, The Secret of Happiness, Educational Book Exhibits, 1974. Chapter II: Happiness through Poverty, (Pg 9) 76 Billy Graham, The Secret of Happiness, Educational Book Exhibits, 1974. Chapter II: Happiness through Poverty, (Pg 10) 77 Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows, Pathway of the Immortal, International Publications Inc, 1980. Chapter II: Evolution of the Human World, (Pg 33) 78 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter III Psychology and the life of the Spirit: (I) The Analysis of Mind, (Pg 80) 79 Andrew Harvey, Hidden Journey, Rider & Co, 1994. DOLPHIN CHILD – EIGHT, (Pg 184) 80 Joseph Sharp, Living Our Dying - A Way to the Sacred in Everyday Life, Rider & Co, 1996. Part IV: Living Our Dying – Chapter 9: Activism, (Pg 196) 81 The Confessions of S. Augustine, Seeley & Co, 1909. Book the First, (XIV) 82 A W Austen, Teachings of Silver Birch, Psychic Press, 1993. Silver Birch's Own Story, (Pg 19) 83 Colum Hayward, Eyes of the Spirit, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1987. Chapter One - The teacher and his channel, (Pg 33) 84 John Eldredge, The Journey of Desire - Searching for the Life We've Only Dreamed Of, Thomas Nelson, 2001. Chapter Four: Disowned Desire - Drifting Without Desire, (Pg 62) 85 Ouspensky P D, In Search of the Miraculous, Harcourt Inc, 2001. Chapter 1: (Pg 3) 86 James Redfield, Michael Murphy, Silvia Timbers, God and the Evolving Universe, Bantam Press, 2002. Part One - Awakening; 2: A History of Human Awakening: Islam, (Pg 48) 87 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part One: Chapter I - The Plan, (Pg 18) 88 William Roache, Soul on the Street, Hay House, 2007. Part III: On The Street. 11: Settling Down, (Pg 181) 89 Martin Israel, The Pearl of Great Price, SPCK, 1988. 5 - The Hollow Image, (Pg 41) 90 Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud Speaks, Tudor Press, 1992. Chapter Eighteen: Reincarnation and the Second Death, (Pg 87) 91 Edna Dean Proctor, Life Thoughts gathered from the extemporaneous discourses of Henry Ward Beecher’, Ward, Lock and Tyler, 1858. (Pg 135/136) 92 Jack Joseph, The Omano Oracle, Medicine Bear Publishing, 1997. Part I - The Oracles, (Pg 37) 93 Evelyn Underhill, Worship, Nisbet, 1946. Part I; Chapter IX - The Principles of Personal Worship, (Pg 170) 94 Ralph Waldo Trine, In Tune with the Infinite, G Bell & Sons, 1931. Chapter XII - Realisation of the Highest Riches, Pg 213) 95 Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, Faber & Faber, 1992. Part One: St. Simeon The New Theologian - On Faith .. (Pg 152) 96 Sophy Burnham, The Ecstatic Journey, Ballantine Books, New York, 1997. Chapter 12 - The Second Journey, (Pg 271) 97 Michael Newton, Life Between Lives, Llewellyn Publications, 2005. Part Five: Life Between Lives - Primary Soulmates, (Pg 130) 98 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter XXV: Spiritual Exercises, (Pg 279) 99 Julie Soskin, Transformation, College of Psychic Studies, 1995. Chapter 3 - The Responsibility of Knowledge, (Pg 25) 100 Henry Thomas Hamblin, The Book of Daily Readings, The Rally, 1944. July 7, (Pg 105 / 106) 101 Father Andrew SDC, In the Silence, A.R.Mowbray, 1951. Introduction, (Pg 5) 102 Teilhard de Chardin, Le Milieu Divin, Fontana, 1966. Part One: The Divinisation of our Activities, (Pg 72) 103 Justin Welby, Dethroning Mammon, Bloomsbury, 2016. Chapter 1: What we see we value, (Pg 24) 104 Michael Newton, Life Between Lives, Llewellyn Publications, 2005. Part One: The Initial Inquiry - Addressing client belief Systems, (Pg 5) 105 Graham Jeffery, The Rabbi's Tale - Letters from Gamaliel, Palm Tree, 1989. Letter One, (Pg 12) 106 Evelyn Underhill, The Mystery of Sacrifice, Longmans, Green and Co, 1948. Chapter I - The Preparation, (Pg 5) 107 John Edward, After Life - Answers from the Other Side, Princess Books, 2004. Chapter One: Living on This Side, (Pg 21) 108 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 2: Chapter X - Some Early Sufi Mystics, (Pg 238) 109 Swami Paramananda, The Upanishads, Grange Books, 2004. Isa - Upanishad – XVII, (Pg 25)

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110 Francis Coutts, The Heresy of Job, John Lane, 1907. Preface 111 Joel S Goldsmith, The Contemplative Life, L N Fowler & Co, 1963. Chapter THREE - Beginning the Contemplative Life, (Pg 46) 112 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part TWO:The Mystic Way: Chapter III - The Purification of the Self, (Pg 202) 113 Edna Dean Proctor, Life Thoughts gathered from the extemporaneous discourses of Henry Ward Beecher’, Ward, Lock and Tyler, 1858. (Pg 184) 114 Brenda Blanch, Heaven a Dance - An Evelyn Underhill Anthology, Triangle, 1992. The Spiritual Life, (Pg 29) 115 Andrew Harvey, The Way of Passion, Souvenir Press, 2002. Chapter 1 - Journey to Love, (Pg 8) 116 Bede Griffiths, Return to the Centre, Collins, Fount Paperbacks, 1978. 9. The Ultimate Truth, (Pg 69 / 70) 117 Julie Soskin, Transformation, College of Psychic Studies, 1995. Chapter 9 - The Soul Mind, (Pg 73) 118 William Houff, Infinity in Your Hand, Skinner House Books, 1994. Chapter 7: Suffering the Pitfalls - No pain, no gain. No shortcuts either! (Pg 73) 119 William Roache, Soul on the Street, Hay House, 2007. Part II: Army Dreaming. 4: Training to Kill, (Pg 54) 120 Susanna Winkworth, The History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler with 25 of his Sermons, H.R.Allenson, 1906. Sermon for Thursday in Easter Week, (Pg 308 / 309) 121 Andrew Harvey, The Way of Passion, Souvenir Press, 2002. Chapter 1 - Journey to Love, (Pg 8) 122 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part Two: Chapter I - The Search for Spirituality (Spiritual Progression), (Pg 151) 123 Roy Dixon-Smith, New Light on Survival, Rider & Co, 1952. Part Two: Chapter XVI: The Danger of Dabbling with Psychic Forces, (Pg 315) 124 Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud Speaks, Tudor Press, 1992. Chapter Fifteen: Where is Spiritualism Leading You? (Pg 73) 125 Peter Meadows, Joseph Steinberg and Donna Vann, Beyond Belief? Word Publishing, 1999. Chapter 12: Believe it or Not, (Pg 137) 126 Peter Meadows, Joseph Steinberg and Donna Vann, Beyond Belief? Word Publishing, 1999. Chapter 12: Believe it or Not, (Pg 138) 127 Arthur Keith Desmond, The Gift of Healing - The Story of Lilley the Healer, Psychic Press, 1944. Book II: In the Present. Chapter Thirteen: Absent Healing – And Some “Miracles”, (Pg 110) 128 Laura Lynne Jackson, The Light Between Us, Arrow Books, 2016. Part Three: 33 The Light at the End, (Pg 258) 129 Baltasar Gracián, The Art of Worldly Wisdom - A pocket Oracle, Mandarin, 1995. Aphorism 268: (Pg 151)

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15.2: Spiritual Development – How?

How can you and I develop spiritually?

Before I even open this door a little, you must recognise the fact that the whole of your life, from the time you started to think about spiritual matters, will change. It is not only your spiritual aspects which will alter but the way you deal with your material environment. Are you ready for it? There are a few questions to which you may like answers before you pack your spiritual bags and head for your lifelong goal.

Can anyone set foot on the spiritual road? Of course, eventually everyone will need to start this journey, whether in this life or another. Abu, advising us from the Spirit World remarked: 1

The process of spiritual advancement is freely open to the ploughman or the charlady as to the scientist or the noble; it is not a matter of erudition.

That is all very well, but do we all have to follow the same process? Not at all! Because, as you and everyone else is unique, then the mechanisms which you can use which will enhance your spirituality, will also be unique. Francis de Sales, a one time Bishop of Geneva and accomplished preacher, realised that and wrote in his ‘Introduction to the Devout Life’: 2

Devotion ought to be practised differently by the gentleman, by the artisan, by the servant, by the prince, by the widow, by the daughter, by the wife...

...and once we start this spiritual journey, as the Russian saint Theophan the Recluse observed, we need to adapt any methods to our own requirements: 3

When you begin to work on yourself, you will see that all outward direction and instructions are only guidelines.

This means that once we have determined our spiritual goal, then we need to make sure that we establish the means to reach it. That is to tailor whatever advice we are given to our own particular situation. Aelred Graham, a Benedictine monk from Ampleforth Abbey in Northern England, explained this as: 4

The 'end', which paradoxically should hold first place in our minds, is what determines the means.

The problem is that firstly we have to realise that we have a spiritual goal and then get to grips with what that really means. Time is not on our side. The ‘three-score years and ten’ is very little time in which to discover and complete this life’s spiritual journey. The Italian poet Dante Alighieri felt that time was always snipping at our heels, and in his ‘Divine Comedy’ wrote: 5

Truly thou art a cloak that quickly shortens, So that unless we piece thee day by day Time goeth round about thee with his sheers!

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And, in fact, the 20 th Century author, teacher, spiritual healer, and mystic Joel Goldsmith realised that: 6

...we do not seem to have sufficient time or sufficient interest to take the time for the development of spiritual consciousness.

So it is not just time we are lacking but determination and interest. As the theologian Sherwood Wirt implored: 7

No, no, we must bestir ourselves, and actuate those powers which we have already received.

The seeds of development are already within us! We must recognise this and get ourselves moving, be determined and don’t be put off by material events. Continuing with this gardening analogy, John Chrysostom wrote: 8

We are the trees which God has planted in His garden. He is not concerned at how sturdy and beautiful we are, at how tall we grow or at how smooth our skin is. As trees in His garden He is concerned only that we bear fruit. And the fruit which he wants us to bear is spiritual…

The degree of growth is up to us. We are our own gardeners; we tend our bodies and our spirits; they are our responsibility. Hence how we develop is commensurate with how much effort we are prepared to put into it. Henry Thomas Hamblin, who gave up his successful business life to write a number of spiritual books, expressed a same view in ‘The Life of the Spirit’: 9

No one, of course, can manufacture his own spiritual body. Like Eternal Life itself, it is the gift of God, but the spiritual body grows and develops only to the extent that we cultivate our spiritual character.

Teilhard de Chardin, in ‘Le Milieu Divin’, tried to stimulate us all to put in as much effort as we can muster into our spiritual direction: 10

...the vast movement and agitation of human life opens up a road which leads somewhere, and that that road climbs upward. Life has a term: therefore it imposes a particular direction, orientation, in fact, towards the highest possible spiritualisation by means of the greatest possible effort.

Go for it! Take the spiritual bull by the horns; take the first step and learn to develop those characteristics which support your journey. It is not an easy one and is not for the faint- hearted. Whilst your path will be different and unique to you, it will be similar to those which many, many saintly souls have trodden before you. And, as the prolific Christian author Morton Kelsey appreciated: 11

It is reassuring to read the lives of the saints and see how often they spoke of being imperfect. In spiritual things one is always a beginner, and the more advanced one becomes, the more such a one admits the distance to the goal.

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Or, in more modern terms from the pen of the 20 th century Anglican Graham Jeffery: 12

Do you notice how 'promised lands' get further off the more you travel to them?

Don’t let this put you off; keep at it for eventually you will reach your goal as Sherwood ‘Woody’ Wirt believed: 13

Every state has its commencement, its progress, and its consummation, and it is an unhappy error to stop in the beginning. There is no art that does not have its own progress. At first we labour with toil, but at the end we reap the fruit of our industry.

Our spirit friends have also told us that the spiritual pathway is not all plain sailing. Silver Birch, who gave us his teachings through the trance mediumship of Maurice Barbanell, said: 14

We would be failing in our purpose if we were to declare that the task of spiritual attainment is easy...

But don’t let all this apparent negativity deter you. Brother Watchman Nee, a Church leader and Christian teacher who worked in China during the first half of the 20th century, tempered this slightly and wrote: 15

Actually spiritual life is neither so complicated nor so easy as people usually imagine.

This, in part, is because we are allowed to make idiots of ourselves; to take the wrong path. It is all grist to the mill; we can learn from all our digressions. White Eagle, in terms of your spiritual development, commented that: 16

…mistakes do not matter.

Later in this chapter, I will give you a very brief idea of how I developed my spirituality, for the sake of an example, but now I’ll try to provide you with what a whole range of saints, mystics and ‘ordinary’ people believe we could do to help us along our spiritual pathway. It is then, from that total selection, that you can determine where your spiritual direction lies and what should be your next steps.

Many people associate spirituality with God, Allah, Yahweh, reaching Nirvana, or whatever they believe to be the Prime Driver, the Divine Source, the One, the Creator for them. It is often about having an intimate relationship with the Deity. Mokichi Okada, a Japanese poet, artist, mystic, and visionary, understood that a very close personal intimacy with the Divine was necessary: 17

It is very difficult for all of us to travel the long distance between an initial, superficial acceptance of God's being and a deep personal relationship with Him

Others such as Abul Ala Maududi and Micah D. Greenstein hold similar views from the perspectives of Islam and Judaism respectively:

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In Islam, spiritual development is synonymous with nearness to Allah. 18

Jewish spirituality is an approach to life in which we strive to become aware of God's presence and purpose in everything. 19

…and from Teilhard de Chardin, a French philosopher and Jesuit priest: 20

Thus understood, the purity of beings is measured by the degree of the attraction that draws them towards the divine centre, or, what comes to the same thing, by their proximity to the centre.

This closeness to God can, apparently, be measured by our love for the Creator. This is typical of the passionate mystical approach as shown by the 16 th century Spanish Carmelite nun and mystic Teresa of Avila: 21

Those who really love God love all good, seek all good, help forward all good, praise all good, and invariably join forces with good men and help and defend them. They love only truth and things worthy of love. Do you think it possible that anyone who really and truly loves God can love vanities, riches, worldly pleasures or humours? Can he engage in strife or feel envy? No; for his only desire is to please the Beloved.

Another more recent mystic, Evelyn Underhill believes that we should all be grounded in God; that is to say that we should continuously be in touch with the Divine Source. In her inimitable poetic style, she says: 22

All gardeners know the importance of good root development before we force the leaves and flowers. So our life in God should be deeply rooted and grounded before we presume to expect to produce flowers and fruits…

Other mystics believe that God is the driver of our spirituality and we have to become willing recipients. One such mystic was Saint John of the Cross, who, writing in the 16 th century, believed that three steps were necessary: 23

By these three things it is signified that any soul that will ascend this mount in order to make of itself an altar whereon it may offer to God the sacrifice of pure love and praise and pure reverence, must, before ascending to the summit of the mount, have done these three things aforementioned perfectly. First, it must cast away all strange gods -- namely, all strange affections and attachments; secondly, it must purify itself of the remnants which the desires aforementioned have left in the soul, by means of the dark night of sense whereof we are speaking, habitually denying them and repenting itself of them; and thirdly, in order to reach the summit of this high mount, it must have changed its garments, which, through its observance of the first two things, God will change for it, from old to new, by giving it a new understanding of God in God,

And Meister Eckhart, who, according to Oliver Davies, about 200 years earlier than St John of the Cross, preached that we should: 24

Let God work in you, acknowledge that it is His work, and do not be concerned as

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to whether he achieves this by means of nature or beyond nature. Both nature and grace are His. What is it to you which means He best uses or what He performs in you or in someone else? … Just let Him act and be at peace.

I do have some difficulty in assimilating all this direct contact with God with my personal belief system. I cannot imagine what the ineffable Creator is like and to degrade Itself to the level of a personal relationship with a mere human does not do justice to the Cosmic Creator. However, what I can accommodate is that we should be very grateful for what we are, what we have been given, for the gifts we possess, and for being given the opportunity to spiritually develop. Although some commentators, such as John M Templeton call this worship: 25

For each of us to grow in spirituality, we should be humble in worshiping God.

…I would call it gratitude; love is gratitude. That brings me to the well-used word ‘love’. This is a collective term for a whole host of other characteristics as I have already elsewhere explained. Nevertheless, the word is used extensively and a good example of the overarching and embracing nature of the word comes from Isaac of Nineveh, a Seventh century bishop and theologian, who was recorded in the ‘Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart’ as saying: 26

The fruit of the Holy Spirit comes to maturity when a man acquires perfect love.

I suppose this means that we can only achieve our goal (whatever we determine this to be) once we become perfect … some time to go then! Don’t let this remark degrade the appreciation that I have for love. It is vital to our spiritual development, but we have to unpack the term and start to understand what it means. Evelyn Underhill also recognised that love underpinned every spiritual activity. However, she also linked this to prayer: 27

If then we admit this formula, " ever seeking and finding the Eternal" which is of course another rendering of Ruysbroeck's "aiming at God " as the prime character of a spiritual life, the secret of human transcendence; what are the agents by which it is done? Here, men and women of all times and all religions, who have achieved this fullness of life, agree in their answer: and by this answer we are at once taken away from dry philosophic conceptions and introduced into the very heart of human experience. It is done, they say, on man's part by Love and Prayer: and these, properly understood in their inexhaustible richness, joy, pain, dedication and noble simplicity, cover the whole field of the spiritual life.

I’ll come onto prayer in a little while when I discuss the importance of contemplation in the context of spiritual development. However, in the same book ‘The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today’ Evelyn Underhill also stressed the importance of being ‘good’: 28

We must be good before we can do good; be real before we can accomplish real things.

I realise that ‘goodness’ and what it stands for, changes from decade to decade and from one social environment to the next. Nevertheless, as it is intentions that are important, then

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:07:54 15.2 Spiritual Development – How? Page 6 of 33 provided we are doing that which we believe to be good then we will enhance our spirituality – even though in centuries to come what we thought was good may be deprecated. Another advocate for us to pursue ‘goodness’ is Emile Cammaerts: 29

Given the love of God, there is no limit to man's fruitful activity in his search for Truth and Beauty. Goodness should not have come last in the trinity, it should have come first, like faith. For it is not the consequence of man's spiritual development; it is its essential condition.

If we equate being honourable with goodness then the words from the ancient book ‘Unto Thee I Grant’ are also applicable: 30

Glory, like a shadow, flieth him who pursueth it; but it followeth at the heels of him who would fly from it: if thou courtest it without merit, thou shalt never attain unto it; if thou deservest it, though thou hidest thyself, it will never forsake thee. Pursue that which is honourable, do that which is right, and the applause of thine own conscience will be more joy to thee than the shouts of millions who know not that thou deservest them.

We should not think that this is the only important trait for spiritual development. Others include sensitivity; sensitivity to other people’s feelings as White Eagle stressed: 31

It is through the growth of feeling that the individual develops a soul.

…and let us not forget peace - Quoting Albertus Magnus: 32

If, therefore, thou desirest a safe stair and short path to arrive at the end of true bliss, then, with an intent mind, earnest desire and aspire after continual cleanness of heart and purity of mind. Add to this a constant calm and tranquillity of senses, and a recollecting of the affections of the heart, continually fixing them above.

I suppose I could extract all those characteristics essential for spiritual growth and find quotations for each. That would be counter-productive, as every positive aspect of every potential trait is important. However, there are a few other avenues which I need to explore further. For example, one of the most fundamental and important aspects of your life, is the service to others. This is the primary vehicle with which you can demonstrate your spirituality and it is one of life’s main objectives. I devote a whole section to our ‘Path of Service’, so in this chapter I will let this single remark from the academic Ursula King suffice: 33

It is, in fact, in and through action that the spirit unfolds, and that man's spirituality grows. Spirituality is no longer simply a problem of inwardness as in the past. On the contrary, the problem of human action, together with the choice of the right values and beliefs in which to base such action, is the major problem with the spirit today.

…and take note of what Andrew Harvey says: 34

...in spiritual practice, it is often the simplest things that are the most effective.

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A smile in the right place, a gentle helping hand never go amiss.

Another potential stimulus is through appreciation of nature and all wonderful flora and fauna which surround us. In fact, I include in this genre all those fantastic things that man himself has created using the gifts given and acquired, and inspiration provided. On top of this, think about our position in the Universe and the enormity of it. We live on a small planet, revolving around an insignificant sun and light from our solar system combines with another 300 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy to which we belong, and this is only one of about 200 billion galaxies in the known universe. And we, as an individual, are only one in a current world population of 7 billion. Wow! This has been much more neatly captured by the brilliant 17 th century French mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher Blaise Pascal, who, according to Malcolm Muggeridge wrote: 35

Know then, proud man, what a paradox you are to yourself. Humble yourself, impotent reason. Be silent, dull witted nature, and learn from your Master your true condition, which you do not understand. Listen to God! See the Earth as a point compared with the vast circles it describes. Stand amazed that this circle itself is only a tiny point in relation to the course traced by the stars revolving in the firmament; that the whole visible world is no more that an imperceptible speck in the ample bosom of nature.

We should, thus, stand in awe at the magnitude of the scope of our Cosmic Creator. In the past, religions have tried to explain natural events and phenomena. In the early days religions were the only source of knowledge about the Cosmos and all the events that happened therein. Some of the Universal ideas they portray have not stood the test of time and yet religions still try to convince us of ‘facts’ which fly in the face of scientific discovery. I have no problem with you belonging to a particular religion and accepting a set of religious beliefs provided that you are allowed to extend your discussion and understanding beyond the boundaries of its particular dogmas and creed. In this way you can take some of the beliefs from your base religion and enhance them in order to get a broader spiritual base. , an American medium, said about development of spirituality and religious environments: 36

...if you are the only one in your area seriously interested in psychic development, attend the church of your choice regularly - even if you do not share all the views of the presiding clergyman. The religious atmosphere in itself has spiritual potency, and regular exposure to it is protective.

Even buildings seem to retain the sense of all those that have worshipped in them and as such provide a calming influence on anyone who enters that space. Do remember that the opposite is also true, so choose your church, mosque, synagogue or temple with care.

Irrespective of this, to start this extensive exploration is, in part, to read the histories and writings of the saints and mystics who have trod this path before us. This was the initial route of John Edward, the North American medium: 37

I started out at the library with a few books. I was reading anything I could get my hands on that was written about parapsychology or metaphysics.

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There is a vast array of books on spiritual matters. You will need to be selective. The book which started me on this road was Arthur David Waley’s translation of the Tao Te Ching entitled ‘The Way and its Power’, and others which I have read at least twice include ‘Mysticism’ by Evelyn Underhill, ‘Spirit Teachings’ from William Stainton Moses, all the books which provide the knowledge conveyed from the spirit Silver Birch, Raynor Carey Johnson’s ‘Nurslings of Immortality’ and the books written by Michael Newton and other regression experts. One book that I have recently found interesting is ‘New Light on Survival’ by Roy Dixon-Smith. On the inside of the dust wrapper is written: 38

Mr Dixon-Smith's intensely personal story forms the first part of the book. The remainder of it is devoted to his explorations of all the relevant branches of modern science in his endeavour to reconcile its accepted laws with what are called psychical phenomena. He shows lucidly and convincingly how the latest scientific conceptions support rather than discount the possibility of such phenomena, and how the Laws of Nature known to us can govern and unify both. The layman will find the scientific data readily understandable. In fact the reader will be astounded by the authority and facility displayed by Mr Dixon-Smith in discussing such subjects as physics, the etheric-counterpart of physical matter, atomic research, physical and ultra-physical biology, and psychology. Although the author makes no deliberate attempt to convert the reader, the theories and hypotheses deduced from his scientific data brilliantly reinforce the case for spiritualism. This work will engage the attention of all serious enquirers.

Another avenue to potentially explore is that of telepathy. We have been told from many sources that life in the Spirit World revolves around thought; for communication in particular. This mechanism, which is beyond our normal five senses, is known as telepathy. The medium Horace Leaf explains that here on earth: 39

One of the reasons why telepathy has not been more generally recognised is because it is difficult to produce unless one makes special efforts to train the facility. This was shown by Dr. Rhine's results. His students became, as a rule, more expert with practice. This places this sense in the same category as our ordinary senses, which also become less reliable if we do not exercise them and more reliable if we do.

This is true of every ability; we have to use it, or lose it. This is particularly true of all the psychic skills. Don’t be afraid of developing psychic skills; they come with the territory. From her many years experience, the psychic teacher Heidi Sawyer gave us a view of what she believed the general view of psychic skill was: 40

Society on the whole is still afraid of the idea of psychic skills and ability, still sceptical of the idea that we have a deeper part of our nature and understanding, and often individuals with such abilities are shunned.

Heidi also went on to indicate that in order to develop your psychic gifts: 41

....meditation must be pursued as a discipline.

This is true and more and more people are using this technique not to develop any abilities but to try to take the stress out of their lives. That aside, over the last decades there has

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:07:54 15.2 Spiritual Development – How? Page 9 of 33 been a softening of the approach to psychic development. However, we must still recognise that there is a significant difference between spiritual and psychic development. People need to learn that just developing psychic skills for their own sake is not the long term objective. If was can use them as part of our general spiritual development then they will do us all a power of good.

As you can see from the types of books I have mentioned, many are focused on trying to understand spiritual and psychic phenomena and interrelating these with life as we live it.

Most of the books that I have or that I have read were purchased in shops selling second- hand books. I believe that I have been led to those that I need to read at that particular time – this is a variation on the theme ‘when the student is ready, a teacher will emerge’. The best way, that I have found, to read a book is firstly to read each one as you would normally do and in so doing, in pencil, highlight those passages which you feel need thinking deeply about. Once you have finished the book, return to those pencilled passages and think about them contemplatively. This, in part, is my interpretation of what White Eagle recommends: 42

As soon as people awaken and consciously tread the spiritual path, their desire is to know more and more. The soul becomes greedy, avid for knowledge, but this must be curbed. There must be self-discipline and development of tranquillity of soul. Tranquillity of soul is of utmost importance because only in its tranquil moments is the soul receptive to the ministry of angels.

‘Festina Lente’ as my Latin master used to say – ‘Hurry slowly’. Take your time to learn a point thoroughly, contemplate in silence thereby forming the basis for your next piece of understanding. During contemplation we are opening ourselves to inspiration from Spirit and thereby getting their thoughts on the passage we are thinking about. This leads us to rapid expansion of our knowledge base – more on this a little later.

There are books to which you may be led, which may not seem particularly spiritual. Don’t dismiss them out of hand. For example, I have encountered some very deep remarks in one or two of Terry Pratchett’s discworld novels – you will find some of these quotations dotted about in various chapters of this book. Nevertheless, don’t read everything that you can get your hands on; be critical and use Thomas Merton’s rule: 43

"use what helps you and avoid what gets in your way."

In this way we will be able to implement the advice in Chapter 53 of the Tao Te Ching: 44

He who has the least scrap of sense, once he has got started on the great highway [towards Tao, the spiritual goal] has nothing to fear so long as he avoids turnings. For the great highways are safe and easy. But men love by-paths.

There is another caveat, however. Knowledge on its own is not too important, but used to improve our understanding of our experiences and service to others it becomes vital. Peter Spink recognised this difficulty and wrote: 45

Such reading quickly becomes counter-productive and leads to the self-deception which confuses 'I know' with 'I know about'. To learn about discernment is not to

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discern. To acknowledge that inherent within my humanity are unused and undeveloped faculties is not to develop or to use them

…and Swami Paramananda writing about the Katha Upanishad observed that: 46

We may imagine that by much study we can find our God; but merely hearing about a thing and gaining an intellectual comprehension of it does not mean attaining true knowledge of it. Knowledge only comes through direct perception, and direct perception of God is possible for those alone who are pure in heart and spiritually awakened.

Evelyn Underhill, in her famous book ‘Mysticism’, also saw the need to implement this balance of knowing and experiencing: 47

The Traveller, says the Sufi Aziz bin Mahommed Nafasi, in whose book, "The Remotest Aim," the pilgrimage-symbolism is developed in great detail, is the Perceptive or Intuitive Sense of Man. The goal to which he journeys is Knowledge of God. This mysterious traveller towards the only country of the soul may be known of other men by his detachment, charity, humility, and patience. These primary virtues, however - belonging to ethical rather than to spiritual life - are not enough to bring his quest to a successful termination. They make him, say the Sufis, 'perfect in knowledge of his goal but deficient in the power of reaching it.' Though he has fraternal love for his fellow-pilgrims, detachment from wayside allurements, untiring perseverance on the road, he is still encumbered and weakened by unnecessary luggage. The second stage of his journey, therefore, is initiated like that of Christian by a casting off of his burden: a total self-renouncement, the attainment of a Franciscan poverty of spirit whereby he becomes 'Perfectly Free.' Having got rid of all impediments to the spiritual quest, he must now acquire or develop in their stead the characteristic mystical qualities, or Three Aids of the Pilgrim; which are called in this system Attraction, Devotion, and Elevation. Attraction is consciousness of the mutual desire existing between man's spirit and the Divine Spirit: of the link of love which knits up reality and draws all things to their home in God. This is the universal law on which all mysticism is based. It is St. Augustine's "Thou hast made us for Thyself and our hearts can find no rest except in Thee." This 'natural magnetism,' then, once he is aware of it, will draw the pilgrim irresistibly along the road from the Many to the One. His second aid, Devotion, says the 'Remotest Aim' in a phrase of great depth and beauty, is 'the prosecution of the journey to God and in God.' It embraces, in fact, the whole contemplative life. It is the next degree of spiritual consciousness after the blind yielding to the attraction of the Real, and the setting in order of man's relation to his source. The Traveller's journey to God is complete when he attains knowledge of Him - 'Illumination,' in the language of European mystics. The point at which this is reached is called the Tavern or resting-place upon the road, where he is fed with the Divine Mysteries. There are also 'Wine Shops' upon the way, where the weary pilgrim is cheered and refreshed by a draught of the wine of Divine Love. Only when the journey to God is completed begins the 'Journey in God' - that which the Christian mystics call the Unitive Way - and this, since it is the essence of Eternal Life, can have no end. Elevation, the pilgrim's third aid, is the exalted or ecstatic form of consciousness peculiar to the contemplative, and which allows the traveller

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a glimpse of the spiritual city towards which he goes.

This is taking the spiritual way beyond what most of us will achieve; very few will reach as far as many of the ancient mystics. In another of her books, ‘The School of Charity’ written many years after, she indicated that: 48

For that mysterious life ... is fed through two channels. Along one channel a certain limited knowledge of God and the things of God enters the mind; and asks of us that honest and humble thought about the mysteries of faith which is the raw material of meditation. Along the other channel God Himself comes secretly into the heart, and wakes up that desire and that sense of need which are the cause of prayer.

Note here that I would interpret her last sentence as meaning that intuition and inspiration can be ours if we move closer to Spirit. In that way we can strike the balance between knowledge and spirituality. Let me return to less academic and mystical writings. Timothy Keller, in the introduction to his book’ The Reason for God’ said that: 49

… faith-journeys are never simply intellectual exercises.

…and from Sherwood Wirt a very simple but powerful principle: 50

Learn therefore to look less to men and more to God.

But be careful not to go too far along either path. I think that Baron Von Hugel went just a little too far when he, according to P. Franklin Chambers, suggested: 51

Drop brain, open wide the soul, nourish the heart, purify, strengthen the will: with this, you are sure to grow; without this, you are certain to shrink.

Linked to this concentration on the inner self or the soul is the view that this essence of us already contains everything that we need to know; we just have to discover it. I don’t think that this is completely true although certainly there are aspects which we have learned in previous lives which may be useful to discover. This point was made by the spirit of Diana, Princess of Wales in communication with the writer Hazel Courteney: 52

Everyone has every aspect of the whole within them, good and bad, light and dark, all knowledge is inside you. All you have to do is to connect to it, either through meditation or by doing good deeds. ... and the more you all tap into the sleeping giant that lies dormant within you all, the more you will be able to achieve.

So this will reveal the current state of our soul. However, what we have to do, and this is the reason for this earthly life, is to learn those lessons necessary to further develop our soul. We should never be content with where we are spiritually, and this involves change; change to all our aspects of life. In particular we have to create the right balance between our worldly responsibilities and our spiritual progress. A. M. Allchin, a priest and theologian, in his treatise ‘Julian of Norwich and the Continuity of Tradition’ advised us that: 53

...we have to learn how to look constantly beyond the world.

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This implies that as well as the balance between knowledge and spirituality, there is also the balance of the material life to the spiritual. We have to live in the physical and therefore keeping our feet on the ground is important for us; we must take our life’s objectives and responsibilities in the material context as importantly as those in the spiritual. One affects the other. The more we spiritually develop the more impact there will be on our material lives. From Colum Hayward’s book, based on his understanding of the teachings of White Eagle, comes the quite severe advice that: 54

…for every step that we take on the spiritual path, it is necessary to take two at the physical.

If you believe that there is a Spirit World and that there are guides and helpers for each one of us, then developing a link with Spirit, as some would say, with God, is one major facet of our spiritual journey. We all have a psychic ability within us, as Drayton Thomas (a Wesleyan minister and one of the lead investigators for the Society of Psychical Research in the study of the mediumship of with whom he had more than 500 sittings.) told us: 55

Each one of us is endowed with faculties which, if patiently developed, would provide us with some measure of direct communication with the next world.

…but for most of us, this faculty is limited. On this the medium Sylvia Browne noted: 56

Not everyone can be a psychic, but everyone has psychic instincts. It's the difference between being a concert pianist and simply being able to play the piano.

Awareness of this was given to us from the Spirit World in the form of the spirit Abu, who informed us that: 57

You may be limited so far as that which you name psychic power is concerned, but the power of the Spirit is within each one - the power to heal, the power to recharge another, the power to bring sight to the inly blind. Therefore take heart for the future!

At the head of the Chapter on meditation in Sue Minns’ book ‘Soulwork - Foundations for Spiritual Growth’ I read the following two lines of a Taoist poem which seems to typify the real consequences of spiritual; development: 58

Close your eyes and you will see clearly Cease to Listen and you will hear the Truth.

If we can, somehow, develop this sixth sense then another door of awareness opens. This will also allow our friends in the Spirit World to help us in the best way possible – by intuitive communication. Roy Dixon-Smith in his book ‘New Light on Survival’ believed that through this process we can supplement our reading through contemplative assessment of what we have read: 59

Psychical knowledge through research and deduction is a much more powerful aid to religion than blind faith in time-dishonoured fallacies through the negation of reason. We are meant to know, and every possible help and encouragement is

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offered to us by our good astral friends during our investigation.

It has often been said that this inspirational link is a connection directly with The Holy Spirit or Grace, as F.P. Harton believed: 60

...whatever progress one may have made in the spiritual life is the work of grace rather than one's own efforts.

Irrespective of what you believe to be the direct source, the link with Spirit has been essential in the development of all the arts, theology, philosophy and the life of humankind in general. Without such inspiration we would be far behind, both materially and spiritually, than we are now. On this, Arthur Ford, another medium from the USA, not only stressed the importance but also the pit falls of development of our psychic abilities: 61

Everything really worthwhile had its origin in psychic phenomena - all the arts, most of the sciences, most of the philosophies, all the religions. Practitioners of these higher arts have always had to deal with malignant forces. Indeed, spiritual evolution may most simply be described as the conflict between good and evil. "Know Thyself" was the motto of the Delphic Oracle.

These bear-pits of psychic (as opposed to spiritual) development can lead us into blind alleys and, according to Christopher Jamison: 62

Instead of saving us from the treadmill, we find that much modern spirituality is in fact part of it.

Most mediums are aware of these psychic cul-de-sacs. One such person, Julie Soskin understood from her experience, that: 63

...many people are discovering their intuitive state, their natural psychic faculties. The danger of this discovery, depending on the individual, is that they can go off at a tangent assuming it means something else.

The temptation is to start to develop psychic abilities rather than being content with ‘just’ linking with Spirit for spiritual developmental purposes. For some, it could lead into very dangerous waters. Distractions are aplenty. The use of hallucinatory drugs can be considered in this category. Subsequent to use of hashish, Jostein Saether wrote: 64

This taught me to understand how easily people who are searching for the spirit can be led down blind alleys by this and other even stronger drugs.

So beware; development of your psychic faculties does not equate to spiritual development. The Jewish born Anglican priest Martin Israel captured this when he wrote: 65

Courses aimed at self-development along an allegedly spiritual path may cultivate certain psychic faculties, and indeed enhance a person's power over others, but there is no spirituality involved in this. Anything that boosts the personality separates the individual from the greater community of mankind. Anything that leads to the unveiling of the true self, or soul, diminishes the claims of the personality and brings the person into fuller communion with the process of life.

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Expanding these thoughts, Andrew Harvey, in his discussion about spiritual development and enlightenment, recognised that they: 66

…can endow you with extraordinary occult powers that can tempt you to mimic the Divine before others and to perform what others in lesser states of evolution will call 'miracles' but which are really displays of natural spiritual force. These occult powers are well known to include clairvoyance, telepathy, the ability to read others' minds and transmit thoughts and inner messages and appear in others' dreams, the capacity to emit or manifest divine light, and to change, shift, or in some other way transform objects, and the force to compel others to give you money, sex, or to adore and follow you slavishly.

What cul-de-sacs could we be tempted to investigate? Many Spiritualist Churches offer ‘development’ courses, but most of them are for the development of rostrum mediumship rather than development of our personal links with Spirit. We can be easily enticed and entranced. However we must be wary and stick to what is necessary in our life. Henry Thomas Hamblin realised the superfluity of many psychic practices: 67

All complicated, wonderful, esoteric, psychic, occult and secret practices can be put to one side. They are not only unnecessary, but they may lead out of the true Path.

Of course, all these gifts pale into insignificance the greater our spirituality expands. Referring to Martin Israel again: 68

The closer one is to the divine source the less important do psychic gifts become.

One aspect of increased spirituality is the increase in our sensitivity; that is sensitivity to spirit and to the characteristics of other people – Silver Birch indicates that this is not always a blessing. He said: 69

I will tell you another Law. There is nothing you can have in the world of matter without you pay the price. The price of mediumship is increased sensitiveness.

Here mediumship covers the general link to spirit as well as full-blown clairvoyance, etc. Of course, once we have this ability then it may always be there and it cannot be lost even though we could close our faculties to it. Walter Hilton, in the latter part of 14 th Century England wrote: 70

For that is the genuinely contemplative life. It begins here on earth with that experience of love and the spiritual knowing of God which comes through the opening of the spiritual eye. It will never be lost nor taken away, but will be fulfilled in other ways in the bliss of Heaven.

As you develop your spiritual awareness, not only will you have clear links with Spirit but your spiritual experiences will increase. Those more mystical feelings which come with proximity of Spirit are wonderful to experience – and we are all capable of encountering them. But we have to work at it – they do not come without concentration, dedication, devotion and discipline. From ‘The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today’ Evelyn Underhill explained: 71

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The many people who complain that they have no such personal religious experience, that the spiritual world is shut to them, are usually found to have expected this experience to be given to them without any deliberate and sustained effort on their own part. They have lived from childhood to maturity at the little window of consciousness and have never given themselves the opportunity of setting up correspondences with any other world than that of sense. Yet all normal men and women possess, at least in a rudimentary form, some intuition of the transcendental; shown in their power of experiencing beauty or love.

And it is a slow process – nothing happens quickly when dealing with spiritual matters. The medium and healer Stephen O'Brien informed us that spirituality: 72

…has to be developed over a period of years. It has to be channelled correctly and watched carefully like a growing plant or delicate child. It has to be fed time and patience, and if it is undertaken, then it should be done so in a serious and responsible manner.

There are no quick fixes but it is worth it in the end, as White Eagle said: 73

In the process of your development you discard the veils which shield you from this vast array of spiritual power. Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, the glories that are prepared for the person who reaches heaven. This is your future and this is worth striving for.

We should also not expect too much from the process. Our goal should be to link effectively with Spirit and not to become an internationally renowned medium. This was the gist of Robert Brown’s comments when he wrote: 74

I believe that while everyone can benefit from the discipline and knowledge that can be gained from attending workshops and classes, not everyone can or will become an effective medium. Most of us, for example, can learn to carry a tune, tinkle the ivories, or communicate through the written word, but Pavarotti, Beethoven, or Shakespeare this does not make.

There have been a number of descriptions of the types of gifts that are associated with spiritual development and in particular psychic development. Arthur Ford reminded us that St Paul, a powerful psychic himself, observed: 75

…these abilities in others and listed them. It is scientifically noteworthy, I think, that his enumeration of these gifts has never been added to or subtracted from. Paul's list appears in his first letter to the Corinthians, the twelfth and thirteenth chapters.

John Edward, too, tried to demonstrate to us what the process of development is like. A tutor from his early days told him that he: 76

… can speak this 'other language' - think of it as the language of energy. And like any other language, you had to develop an understanding and command of it. This is exactly what psychic development felt like for me - learning the language of a

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whole new world.

The 19 th century French priest Abbé Henri de Tourville also used the analogy of language to demonstrate that development, after the initial difficulties, does become easier: 77

The concentration which we bring to bear on our interior conduct is like that which we bring to the learning of a new language... Is there not a stage when we are very careful about the details of grammar, and a later stage when we need think of nothing but speaking freely and easily? It is the same with the growth of the spirit.

Because your focus is not on trying to develop a particular psychic talent then whatever gifts are bestowed on you are always the right ones for your spiritual progress. Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows, an established poet and spiritual teacher, gave a list of potential abilities: 78

Among these powers may be healing, prophesy, and the ability to both see and hear in other worlds. However, aptitude for such things does not necessarily indicate great spiritual growth ... Many examples of this are found among twentieth century psychics and spiritualists.

…and Peter Spink also stressed the potential to be healers: 79

...the spiritual path has to do with healing.

…although this, of course, could be to do with healing of oneself. Spiritual development creates tranquillity in all who follow that path and this, in turn, leads to a reduction in the stresses of life and therefore an improvement in one’s general health. To achieve this we have to have a certain dedication which is exemplified by an internal and external discipline. Joel S Goldsmith suggests that: 80

...there is no life that requires greater discipline than does the spiritual life.

Similarly, in her book ‘The House of the Soul’, where she compares the different floors in a house to the levels of soul development, Evelyn Underhill emphasised the importance of discipline: 81

Much discipline, moderation, actual self-denial are involved in wise furnishing [of our spiritual and material house] .

Through discipline we can achieve our goal. There are many distractions which our material lives will throw at us, but we must, for our own sakes, endure them. The Sufi al- Muhasibi said that: 82

He who does not cleanse his soul by self-discipline will not have opened to him the way to the mystic Path.

It is ‘steady as she goes’ on the seas of development. Our rudder must be held firmly and not be deflected by the waves of unruliness. Colum Hayward confirmed this in this book ‘Eyes of the Spirit’: 83

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There is no substitute for steady soul work, spiritual work.

White Eagle, too, suggested a resilient attitude: 84

And how, you ask, are we to walk the spiritual path? We answer: Say little; love much; give all; judge no-one; aspire to all that is pure and good—and keep on keeping on.

In many respects, we can associate discipline with dedication to our chosen path. In fact dedication to ‘service’, as Martin Israel pointed out: 85

...the inner life proceeds by discipline, a discipline by which the soul is dedicated to God for His service, and not for our benefit.

Finally, in this theme of discipline I quote from Irene Bays book ‘Entwining Lives’ in which a communicator from the Spirit World repeats: 86

...we have repeated and repeated and repeated in an endeavour to make you realise the value of discipline…

Zodiac, another communicator from the Spirit World, considered endurance was the key rather than discipline: 87

...according to your holy desire, according to your willingness to endure so the Kingdom of God is opened unto you...

So, through a tenacious approach to our personal development we can progress along our spiritual journey. Each step we take, we seem to have gifts bestowed upon us to help us to achieve the subsequent step. It seems a non-linear mechanism; the more we develop the more abilities we seem to acquire. Using words from Martin Israel again to illustrate this point: 88

As one progresses in the way of the spirit, so the gifts of the Spirit are bestowed on one.

…and even as far back as the 7 th century the Celtic monk St Cuthbert, according to the Venerable Bede, believed that: 89

...whoever has his mind set on virtue shall be greatly endowed with virtues from above.

Of all the gifts that can be given to us, perhaps the greatest is wisdom. Wisdom to know what is best for ourselves and what is best for all those to whom we can provide some sort of service. Through the inspiration of White Eagle, Grace Cooke wrote: 90

The more the higher mind develops, the greater the wisdom which comes into man's ordinary consciousness.

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This can occur only when the higher truths are recognised and understood – as best we can understand them. Such analysis was given intuitively to Beatrice Russell: 91

Man has to grow in consciousness before he can reach the Higher Truths, then Light from above can enter his soul; this Light - the Divinity - is the expression of the Kingdom of God within you, of which Christ spoke.

As part of our spiritual development we could use any one of the major prophets or Masters as a template for our lives; in particular, I would suggest the spiritual aspects of the life of Jesus the Nazarene. There has been a book entitled ‘How to Become Like Christ’ written by the Very Rev Marcus Dods DD who was a Scottish divine, biblical scholar, and a minister of the Free Church of Scotland in which he tells us to keep the teachings of Jesus in our hearts: 92

If you go to some priest or spiritual director, or minister of the Gospel, or friend, and ask what you are to do if you wish to become a holy man, why, even the best of them will almost certainly tell you to read certain books, to spend so much time in prayer and reading your Bible, to go regularly to church, to engage in this and that good work. If you had applied to a spiritual director of the middle ages of this world's history and of the history of Christianity, he would have told you that you must retire from the world altogether in order to become holy. Paul says, "Away with all that nonsense!" We are living in a real world; Christ lived in a real world: Christ did not retire from men. And He says all that you have to do in order to belike Christ is to carry His image with you in your heart.

Easily said: not so easy in practice. However, We can try the best we can and the more we try and succeed then the more you expand and the more will be given to you. Enlightenment begets enlightenment; you will go from strength to strength as you progress and unfold your capabilities. Silver Birch confirmed that: 93

As you achieve growing success, you find that you become the recipient of greater inspiration. The psychic side of your nature unfolds. Then the spiritual aspect develops and there comes flooding into your being the power that belongs to the higher reaches of life.

This influx has an additional effect. As we open our ‘eyes and ears’ to Spirit our spiritual horizon expands to such an extent that we realise how little we really know and understand. Put in the terms of St John of the Cross: 94

Thus the more they [those developing spiritually] do, the less they are satisfied.

Added to all that we gain, our increased spirituality brings an increased spiritual protection for us. This was noticed nearly 2000 years ago and documented in The Gospel of the Essenes: 95

And according as a man inherits truth so will he avoid darkness.

The knowledge that we have and the inspirations that we are given, combine to form a cohort of understanding. It is to this combination that our reasoning is applied and through

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How does a soul grow? Spiritual growth takes place through human reason and divine revelation, through communing with nature and God, and by diligent use of the talents He gives us as well as from learning how to make studied and wise choices.

Do you think, however, that you are able to remember all that you have experienced and understood? If, like me, you have a less than perfect memory, then please create a journal of all that spiritually happens. This has two advantages. Firstly, it allows you, in retrospect, to realise how far you have travelled along your spiritual highway, and secondly, it provides a means to record revelations which only later you come to understand. Morton Kelsey started his discussion on spiritual event record keeping by saying: 97

One of the best ways of starting the inner journey is to begin keeping a journal, and this is more necessary once the journey is under way.

…and he followed this with 4 pages about creating and maintaining a spiritual journal 98 - it is a very basic and practical discourse; you would do well to take his advice.

On this journey of ours there will be many facts and potential truths that we encounter that we cannot verify nor easily accept based on our learning and experiences so far. This is not a problem. You are allowed to park issues if your reason does not permit you to accept them. In my early days of development, this happened often to me, particularly when reading books. It is surprising that on the second reading of a spiritually worthy book, how much more is understand and accepted.

I am now going to stray away from my usual format. I want to present to you those lists of characteristics and activities which other people believe to be important in spiritual development. At the end of these, I will give you my simplistic view of what I have done, to date, on my personal journey.

The lists that I present are in no particular order, and I do not necessarily agree with all that they contain. What is important is that you look at what others are saying and take from their ideas what you believe to be useful and important to you on your pathway.

I will give the author, where applicable, and a few additional details, an endnote reference to the source of their list and then the italicised list itself.

Don Cupitt (1934 - ). He is an English philosopher of religion and scholar of Christian theology. He is an Anglican priest and an emeritus professor of the University of Cambridge, though is better known as a popular writer, broadcaster and commentator. 99

...there are many obviously admirable and beautiful religious attitudes, values practices and so forth which ought not to pass away altogether. Here are some of them: * It is good that one should appraise oneself and one's life with an unconditional religious seriousness that tolerates no concealment or self-deception. * It is good that one should cultivate meditation and contemplative prayer, and especially the inner fortitude and resilience needed to combat evils of all kinds.

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* It is good that one should come to transcend the mean defensive ego and learn absolute disinterestedness and purity of heart. * It is good that that one should commit oneself to existence in religious hope and receptivity to grace. * In spite of all the ugliness and cruelty in the world, it is good that one should at least sometimes experience and express cosmic awe, thanksgiving and love. * It is good that such values as these should not only be cultivated in and for oneself, but that they should shape our attitudes towards other people and be expressed in our social life. That is part at least of what I mean by ' religious values', and I specify them only because people so often refer in passing to religious values without pausing to say what they might be. So I suggest that the six values just described are precious things and if possible ought not to be lost from human life.

Ryuho Okawa (1956 - ) is the founder of the Happy Science religious organization and the Happiness Realization Party in Japan. Ryuho Okawa was born in Tokushima, Japan. The list is a re-gurgitation of Buddha’s teachings. 100

The eightfold Path teaches Right Seeing, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Living, Right Effort, Right Will and Right Meditation. Based thus on a standard of 'rightness', it provides a method of preventing your thoughts and actions from swinging to either extremes, and so helps you find the middle way .

Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963) was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. He elaborated ‘The eightfold path’ in his book ‘The Perennial Philosophy’: 101

As to the means to salvation, these are simultaneously ethical, intellectual and spiritual and have been summed up with admirable clarity and economy in the Buddha's Eightfold Path. Complete deliverance is conditional on the following: first, Right Belief in the all too obvious truth that the cause of pain and evil is craving for separate, ego-centred existence, with its corollary that there can be no deliverance from evil, whether personal or collective, except by getting rid of such craving and the of "I", "me", "mine"; second, Right Will, the will to deliver oneself and others; third, Right speech, directed by compassion and charity towards all sentient beings; fourth, Right Action, with the aim of creating and maintaining peace and good will; fifth, Right Means of Livelihood, or the choice of such professions as are not harmful, in their exercise, to any human being or, if possible, any living creature; sixth, Right Effort towards Self-control; seventh, Right Attention or Recollectedness, to be practiced in all the circumstances of life, so that we may never do evil by mere thoughtlessness, because "we know not what we do"; and, eighth, Right Contemplation, the unitive knowledge of the Ground. To which recollectedness and the ethical self-naughting prescribed in the first six branches of the Path give access.

Rudolf Steiner (1861 –1925) was an Austrian philosopher, social reformer, architect, and esotericist. Steiner gained initial recognition as a literary critic and cultural philosopher. At the beginning of the twentieth century, he founded a spiritual movement, anthroposophy. In his book ‘The Way of Initiation’ he explains in some detail the conditions for discipleship, which I summarise as: 102

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1. The first condition is the directing of the attention to the advancement of bodily and spiritual health 2.The second condition is that one should feel oneself as a link in the general life. 3. ...the third condition ... The student must be able to realise the idea that his thoughts and feelings are as important for the world as his deeds. 4. ...the fourth condition: the idea that the real being of man does not lie in the exterior but in the interior. 5. ...The fifth condition: firmness in the carrying out of any resolution when once it has been made. 6. A sixth condition is the development of a sense of gratitude with regard to everything which relates to man. 7. All the conditions here set forth must be united in a seventh: the regard life continually in the manner demanded by these conditions.

Stephen O'Brien (20 th Century) is a psychic medium born, bred in Swansea, Wales. He has written a number of books relating to communication with the Spirit World. 103

Question to Stephen: 'How should we act towards others in order to advance spiritually?' Answer from Stephen: 'I don't think I can give a precise answer to that, because we all operate at different stages of spiritual development. But, for your consideration, I would suggest: (a) Try to be patient with yourself and others; (b) Try to really understand yourself, and others; (c) Through self-examination, attain peacefulness within, and radiate it; (d) As far as possible, adopt the principle of harmlessness in your lives; (e) Be truly kind and genuinely loving towards all Creation; (f) Exercise moderation in all things; (g) Think positively, and act likewise; (h) Exercise tolerance towards yourself and others; (i) Take responsibility for your thoughts and actions; (j) Recognise that all things are passing, nothing remains in a constant state - life is movement and change; (k) Change what you can, and gracefully accept that which you can't change (l) Love each other, and serve each other with a willing heart.

The Philokalia is "a collection of texts written between the 4th and 15th centuries by spiritual masters" of the Eastern Orthodox hesychast tradition. They were originally written for the guidance and instruction of monks in "the practise of the contemplative life". The collection was compiled in the eighteenth-century by St. Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain and St. Makarios of Corinth. In the ‘Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart’ we are told that: 104

He who struggles inwardly must practise at every moment these four (doings): humility, extreme attention, resistance (to thoughts) and prayer.

Swami Paramananda (1884 - 1940) was one of the early Indian teachers who came to the United States to spread the Vedanta philosophy and religion in America. He was a mystic, a poet and an innovator in spiritual community living. 105

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By cultivating friendliness towards happiness and compassion towards misery, gladness towards virtue and indifference towards vice, the mind becomes pure.

Theologia Germanica is a mystical treatise believed to have been written in the later 14th century by an anonymous author. According to the introduction of the Theologia the author was a priest and a member of the Teutonic Order living in Frankfurt, Germany. The Theologia Germanica survives today in only eight manuscripts, all from the second half of the fifteenth century. Clearly, therefore, it was not widely disseminated before it came to the attention of Martin Luther. 106

Hereby shall we order our outward man, and all that is contrary to these virtues [wisdom, truth, kindness, peace, love, justice, and the like] we must eschew and flee from.

Arthur Ford (1896 - 1971) was an American psychic, spiritual medium, clairaudient, and founder of the Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship. 107

And everyone, whatever his level of psychic insight, must, if he is to realise his true potential as a person, labour to rise from envy, greed, fear, pride, resentment, and the other destructive emotions towards love, understanding, compassion, and the other harmonious emotions - this is spiritual growth.

Lao Tzu was a philosopher of ancient China – probably on or before 6 th Century B.C. - and is a central figure in Taoism. Lao Tzu literally means "Old Master" and is generally considered an honorific. Lao Tzu is revered simply as a wise man in philosophical forms of Taoism, but revered as a god in religious forms of Taoism, much like The Buddha is regarded differently by the religious and philosophical schools of Buddhism. 108

Here are my three treasures. Guard and keep them! The first is pity, the second frugality, the third refusal to be foremost of all things under heaven.

François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon, more commonly known as François Fénelon (1651 - 1715), was a French Roman Catholic archbishop, theologian, poet and writer. 109

That soul which looks where it is going without losing time arguing over every step, or looking back perpetually, possesses true simplicity. Such simplicity is indeed a great treasure. How shall we attain to it? ... The first step, then, is for the soul to put away outward things and look within so as to know its own real interest; so far all is right and natural; thus much is only a wise self-love, which seeks to avoid the intoxication of the world. In the next step the soul must add the contemplation of God, whom it fears, to that of self... The third step is that, ceasing from a restless self-contemplation, the soul begins to dwell upon God instead, and by degrees forgets itself in Him.

Evelyn Underhill (1875 - 1941), an English Anglo-Catholic writer and pacifist, was known for her numerous works on religion and spiritual practice, in particular on Christian mysticism. 110

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...but we now wish to examine more thoroughly into that position and discover its practical applications. Let us then begin by unpacking it, and examining its chief characters one by one. If we do this, we find that it demands of us : (1) Rightful contact with the Particular and Fleeting. That is, a willing acceptance of all this-world tasks, obligations, relations, and joys; in fact, the Active Life of Becoming in its completeness. (2) But also, a certain renunciation of that Particular and Fleeting. A refusal to get everything out of it that we can for ourselves, to be possessive, or attribute to it absolute worth. This involves a sense of detachment or asceticism; of further destiny and obligation for the soul than complete earthly happiness or here-and- now success. (3) And with this ever not merely in hours of devotion to seek and find the Eternal ; penetrating our whole some this-world action through and through with the very spirit of contemplation. (4) Thus deepening and incarnating bringing in, giving body to, and in some sense exhibiting by means of our own growing and changing experience that transcendent Otherness, the fact of the Life of the Spirit in the here-and-now. The full life of the Spirit, then, is once more declared to be active, contemplative, ascetic and apostolic; though nowadays we express these abiding human dispositions in other and less formidable terms. If we translate them as work, prayer, self-discipline and social service they do not look quite so bad. But even so, what a tremendous programme to put before the ordinary human creature, and how difficult it looks when thus arranged!

…and in the same book: 111

The spiritual life is not lived upon the heavenly hearth-rug, within safe distance from the Fire of Love. It demands, indeed, very often things so hard that seen from the hearth-rug they seem to us superhuman: immensely generous compassion, forbearance, forgiveness, gentleness, radiant purity, self-forgetting zeal. It means a complete conquest of life's perennial tendency to lag behind the best possible; willing acceptance of hardship and pain.

St. Theophan the Recluse (1815 – 1894), also known as "Theophan Zatvornik" or "Theophanes the Recluse" is a well-known saint in the Russian Orthodox Church. He was born George Vasilievich Govorov, in the village of Chernavsk. 112

...you may see what exactly is expected of us. It is expected that we 1) acknowledge the presence of the gifts of grace within us; 2) comprehend that the value of the grace for us is so great, that it is more precious than life itself, so that without it life is not even life; 3) desire with all our strength to adapt this grace to ourselves, and adapt ourselves to it, or, to put it another way, desire to imbue our entire nature with it, and become enlightened and sanctified; 4) resolve to achieve this through the matter itself, and then 5) carry this decision into reality, putting everything else aside, or, having removed one's heart from everything, give it over to the full action of Divine grace. When these five acts have taken place within us, then comes the beginning of our internal rebirth, after which, if we continue to act in the same spirit unflaggingly, inner rebirth and illumination will grow quickly or slowly, depending on our

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labour, but most importantly, depending on our forgetfulness of self.

John Chrysostom (347 - 407), born in Antioch into a wealthy and aristocratic family. In 368 renounced his career as an advocate, received baptism and thereafter studied the scriptures. He gave away his wealth and went to live as a hermit in a cave. 113

…the fruit which he wants us to bear is spiritual: peace and love, faith and gentleness, patience and self-control, generosity and loyalty.

Paul of Tarsus (10 to circa 64 AD) was a Hellenistic Jew who called himself the "Apostle to the Gentiles" and was, together with Saint Peter and James the Just, the most notable of early Christian missionaries. 114

The fruit of the Spirit is Love, Joy, Peace, Long-suffering, Gentleness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Meekness, Temperance

These represent some of the personal lists of qualities which some believe to be the requirements of those seeking the spiritual way. There are also some less well known approaches to spiritual development and progress. I have not identified the detail but which you may wish to investigate further.

Jostein Saether (1954 - ) has worked as an artist, an exhibition designer and colour consultant and is now involved in research, seminar and counselling work in the field of spiritual development. 115

The new art of eurythmy 116 is foremost for those who want to make progress in the spirit world. This art is a source out of which a schooling of all three soul powers can always be practised and developed in a manner that accords with the consciousness soul. Eurythmy cannot arise without thinking, feeling and will in the human being's quest for the spirit. Conversely, where eurythmy is worked at, the soul's threefold nature is developed in a way that can bring about genuine contact with the spiritual world, and for this contact to become clairvoyant only a small step is then needed to find a vantage point in the self that enables one to see oneself critically.

Danah Zohar (born 1945) is a writer, and motivational business speaker. She teaches in the Oxford Strategic Leadership Program at Oxford University. She is married to Dr. Ian Marshall is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist. 117

At the beginning of the twentieth century, as psychologists discovered ways and means to measure intelligence, Aristotle’s definition of a man as ‘a rational animal’ developed into an obsession with IQ. In the mid-1990s, Daniel Goleman popularized research into emotional intelligence, EQ, pointing out that EQ is a basic requirement for the appropriate use of IQ. As we near the end of the twentieth century, there is enough collective evidence from psychology, neurology, anthropology and cognitive science to show us that there is a third ‘Q’, ‘SQ’, or Spiritual Intelligence. Unlike IQ, which computers have, and EQ, which exists in higher mammals, SQ is uniquely human and, the authors argue, the most fundamental of the three. It is linked to humanity’s need for meaning, an issue very much at the forefront of

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people’s minds as the century draws to a close. SQ is what we use to develop our longing and capacity for meaning, vision and value. It allows us to dream and to strive. It underlies the things we believe in and the role our beliefs and values play in the actions that we take and the shape we give to our lives. This book goes on to explore the scientific evidence for SQ, shows how to test for SQ and how to improve and develop it.

Shankara Acharya is a title not a name. Moreover there are at any time four Shankara Acharyas - heads of seats of learning in North, South, East and West India. The present Shankara Acharya of the North tells us that the first Shankara lived twenty-five centuries ago (500 B.C.) and some of the verses of the Vivekachudamani are recognisable as his. Subsequent holders of the title have added other verses and comments. The "Shankara" referred to as having been 'born near malabar in Southern India about the year 686 A.D.' is one of the line of successors to the title in the South: 118

Shankara Acharya by writing a series of preparatory works, of catechisms and manuals, made smooth the path of those who would take the first steps on the path of wisdom. The system formed by Shankara within the Brahman order largely continues at the present day. A succession of teachers, each initiated by his predecessor, carry on the spiritual tradition of the great Shankara unbroken. The manuals and catechisms for learners teach, quite plainly and lucidly, the first steps on the path of wisdom; they point out, with clear insistence, the qualities that are necessary to make these first steps fruitful. These treatises of Shankara are an appeal to the reason that has hardly ever been equalled for clearness and simplicity. Their aim is Liberation or Freedom [Skr: moksha] But it is not enough for the mind to follow the lucid sentences of Shankara. "Freedom from the bondage of the world" demands something more. "Sickness is not cured by saying 'Medicine,' but by drinking it; so a man is not set free by the name of the Eternal, but by discerning the Eternal." The teaching must be woven into life and character. Shankara's treatise, "The Crest-jewel of Wisdom," will be divided according to the natural sections of the text, beginning with the first steps on the path and ending with the complete teaching of Shankara's philosophy so far as that teaching can be put into words. The language of the teacher is lucid. Every word is defined and every definition enlarged and repeated But much remains to be done by readers themselves: Thoughts of Shankara are to be taken to heart.

I have deliberately left one out from previous list of steps to spiritual development. In his book ‘The Direct Path’, Andrew Harvey concisely captures what I believe to be the crux of it all: 119

The best way of building such a fence around your evolving divine self is by devoting yourself, as quickly and consistently as possible, to prayer, meditation, the study of spiritual and mystical texts and systems, and the cultivation of compassion, patience, humility, and generosity in all your practical choices in life and all your dealings with others.

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This summarises and captures all that I aspire to; it represents my Philosophy of Life. It encompasses all that I hope to achieve to meet my Life’s Objectives. I’ll put it in my own simple terms, as a list: • Search for the truth in all avenues especially to learn the Cosmic Laws and how they apply to us. In this way we can start to live in their positive shadow. • Balance your Material and Spiritual lives. Each of us has a responsibility to our family and ourselves from which we ought not to shirk. The effort that we spend in looking after this should not be eliminated by our work for Spirit. • Read about and discuss with like minded people spiritual matters to expand your knowledge base. Seek out spiritual based books; borrow them from libraries (church or otherwise), root them out in second-hand book shops. Highlight (faintly in pencil) those items which you feel need further thought, and then subsequently use these ideas in your contemplations. In this way you can start to appreciate the thoughts of others and the experiences that they have had. • Contemplate, and then later meditate, to draw closer to Spirit. Spend time each day in the company of Spirit in order to increase your sensitivity and to learn to recognise their intuitive promptings and imparted knowledge. • Service to others is the key to spirituality. Love, in the broadest sense, everyone. Do as much as you can for your community (from family to humanity) and the people within it. • Try to improve yourself. Look at all your traits and those that you consider negative and try to counter them. For myself, I know that I have to master my natural impatience … • Look at the travails of life in a positive way. Realise that we learn only through the difficult times and we should be thankful for them. • Reflect your beliefs to others. This does not mean that you should preach to all and sundry, but show your natural spirituality to everyone you meet; a smile, an acknowledgement of a kindness, a compassionate action, a kind word all reflect your spirituality. Be a mirror of God. • Try to understand your Life’s Objectives. Look at where you are going spiritually and see if you can confirm that you are on the right spiritual pathway. You don’t have to know the endgame. You just have to know that you are on the right path for the part of the journey that you are now travelling. Of course, this will change … • Accept that as the more spiritually you become, the more difficult the journey will be. This is because your responsibilities increase the more you are aware and the more sensitive you are.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten something important, yet my above list, which represents my potted Philosophy of Life, may serve to help you to construct your own and thereby enhance your spirituality.

But, for what you believe, live it; walk the talk. Through this your spirituality will progress in leaps and bounds.

However, you may ask “How do I know if I’m progressing?”

Some commentators say that we ought not to even try to measure our spirituality. Beth Collier realised that: 120

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It is not for us to invent progress points, like the check points in a car rally...

…and this was echoed by Martin Israel: 121

And then we see, as if by direct divine intervention, that it is not our business to assess spiritual progress or to measure the extent, if any, of our inner cleansing.

Silver Birch told us, in fact, that, from our earthly perspective, spirituality cannot be measured: 122

Have you who possess this knowledge of Spiritualism ever tried to strike a balance? You have something that your world cannot measure. You have the priceless knowledge of the truths of the Great Spirit. You have the realisation that your soul is linked with His great soul. You have the knowledge that you are part of the Great Spirit. You have learned how to respond to the vibrations of the messengers that the Great Spirit sends to watch over you.

Nevertheless, there are some indicators of our progress. Dante, in his Divine Comedy, sensed that simply feeling good was one indicator: 123

And as, by feeling greater delectation, A man in doing good from day to day Becomes aware his virtue is increasing,

The three indicators which Evelyn Underhill believed to be appropriate, she expressed as: 124

If, then, we desire a simple test of the quality of our spiritual life, a consideration of the tranquillity, gentleness and strength with which we deal with the circumstances of our outward life will serve us better than anything that is based on the loftiness of our religious notions, or fervour of our religious feelings. It is a test that can be applied anywhere and at any time. Tranquillity, gentleness and strength, carrying us through the changes of weather, the ups and downs of the route, the varied surface of the road; the inequalities of family life, emotional and professional disappointments, the sudden intervention of bad fortune or bad health, the rising and falling of our religious temperature. This is the threefold imprint of the Spirit on the souls surrendered to His great action.

But the best I have read was given by Dr. Brian Weiss who wrote that being happy: 125

...is the best measure of progress.

You can, of course, look at each of your traits and see if you are improving. By this I do not mean any type of scientific measurement, simply a matter of a quick self-assessment. A more subjective and telling way is to get your partner or best friend to answer questions such as “Do you think that I am more patient nowadays?”

Anyway, Zodiac talking to us from the Spirit World suggested that we should not: 126

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…measure spirituality by lack of temptation, but measure the gift of spiritual release by the multitude of temptations fought and overcome.

Other measures were referenced by Father Andrew: 127

If there is lowliness of heart, if there is hunger for holiness, if we have a definite sin to conquer or virtue to acquire, or if we have a sense of vocation, a feeling that God has some special need of our particular offering of ourselves to Him, all these things are signs of spiritual growth.

Often a feeling of ‘I’m heading in the right direction’ may be sufficient. On this Evelyn Underhill wrote: 128

So, not lofty thoughts of God, remarkable powers of prayer or displays of devotional fervour or difficult virtues, but gentleness, long-suffering, faithfulness, meekness, a good quality of life, will prove I am growing the right way and producing as well as I can the homely fruits for which He asks.

She also was able, through her extensive reading of mystical literature and philosophic discussions, to analyse what may have been said and arrive at three points: 129

By three main ways we tend to realise our limited personal relations with that transcendent Other which we call divine, eternal or real; and these appearing perpetually in the vast literature of religion, might be illustrated from all places and all times. First, there is a profound sense of security; of being safely held in a cosmos of which, despite all contrary appearance, peace is the very heart, and which is not inimical to our true interests. ... But in the second characteristic form of the religious experience, the relationship is felt rather as the intimate and reciprocal communion of a person with a Person; a form of apprehension which is common to the great majority of devout natures. ... Last ... Spirit is felt as an inflowing power, a veritable accession of vitality; energising the self, or the religious group, impelling it to the fullest and most zealous living-out of its existence, giving it fresh joy and vigour, and lifting it to fresh levels of life. ... They must all be taken into account in any attempt to estimate the full character of the spiritual life, and this life can hardly achieve perfection unless all three be present in some measure.

As an aside, part of my spiritual education included being taught how to dowse – not just for water or other tangible material but for spiritual aspects of life. This included being able to assess the spirituality of individuals and places … but that’s another story.

You are now a seeker after knowledge and experience of spirituality. Such a person was, according to Margaret Smith, described by Isaac of Nineveh in his ‘Mystical Treatises’ written in the 7 th Century: 130

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The seeker considers this world as a place of transition for those who enter it. They have entered it as an inn for the night and left it as travellers - without thinking of return…

And it is as if Walter Hilton was talking directly to you from 700 years ago with the following advice: 131

Now you are on the right road and you know what that place to which you must draw near is called. Begin then to go forth on your journey. Your 'going forth' is nothing other then spiritual labour and, also, works of the body where these are needed. You must perform these works with discretion...

Don’t jump at every hurdle. Learn to be patient and use your ability to reason and assess the implications of any action before starting. Use your link with Spirit to help you; to nudge you into the right action.

A further reminder from Evelyn Underhill who, from her own painful experiences, recognised that: 132

Spiritual achievement costs much, though never as much as it is worth. It means at the very least the painful development and persevering, steady exercise of a faculty that most of us have allowed to get slack. It means an inward if not an outward asceticism: a virtual if not an actual mysticism.

We are both only on the lower rungs of this spiritual ladder which extends upwards far beyond our ability to visualise. That being the case, our spirituality is at kindergarten level or, as expressed by Silver Birch: 133

But always remember that the consciousness which you now express is but a very small fragment of the consciousness which one day you will express.

And you do realise, I hope, that once you start you cannot stop for, as Morton Kelsey remarked: 134

The growth available is like an endless spiral staircase. If one stops climbing where is there to go?

Follow your heart; express your love; climb out of materialism to a spiritual future.

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1 W. F. Rickard,, Abu Talks, Regency Press, 1992. Chapter 17 - The 'death' of the soul-body, (Pg 77) 2 Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Burns & Oates, 1948. First Part of the Introduction. Chapter III - That Devotion is suited to all vocations and professions, (Pg 41) 3 St. Theophan the Recluse, The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to it, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1995. 40 Various Causes of Spiritual Cooling, (Pg 181) 4 Dom Aelred Graham, Christian Thought in Action, The Catholic Book Club, 1958. Chapter Four: The Technique of Sound Living, (Pg 63) 5 Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy, Capella, 2008. Paradiso Canto XVI, (Pg 328) 6 Joel S Goldsmith, The Contemplative Life, L N Fowler & Co, 1963. Chapter ONE - Conscious Awareness, (Pg 4) 7 Sherwood Eliot Wirt, Exploring the Spiritual Life, Lion Books, 1985. 4 - From The Life of God in the Soul of Man by Henry Scougal, (Pg 58 / 59) 8 John Chrysostom - The Golden Voice of Protest, Arthur James, 1996. (Pg 53) 9 Henry Thomas Hamblin, The Life of the Spirit, The Science of Thought Press, 1934. Chapter VI - The Inner Life V, (Pg 43) 10 Teilhard de Chardin, Le Milieu Divin, Fontana, 1966. Some General Remarks on Christian Asceticism, (Pg 102) 11 Morton T Kelsey, The Other Side of Silence, SPCK, 1985. Part Four: The Use of Images in Meditation - 12. Silence Mysticism and Religious Experience, (Pg 159) 12 Graham Jeffery, The Rabbi's Tale - Letters from Gamaliel, Palm Tree, 1989. Letter Nine, (Pg 27) 13 Sherwood Eliot Wirt, Exploring the Spiritual Life, Lion Books, 1985. 12 - From A short and Very Easy Method of Prayer by Madame Guyon, (Pg 174) 14 Anne Dooley, Guidance from Silver Birch, Spiritualist Press, 1966. Chapter Two: Who Are You? (Pg 20) 15 Watchman Nee, When is My Spirit Normal?, Ministry of Life, 1927. Chapter 1 - The Dangers of Spiritual Life, (Pg 141) 16 White Eagle on the Intuition and Initiation, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 2004. Part One: What the Intuition is, and is not - V: The Nature of the Intuition, (Pg 53) 17 Mokichi Okada, Johrei - divine light of salvation, Society of Johrei, 1984. Part One: The Road to Salvation: 2 Realisation of Human Hope: Johrei and Awakening, (Pg 68) 18 Abul Ala Maududi, The Spiritual Path of Islam, download from http://www.islam101.com/sociology/spiritualPath.htm 19 Micah D. Greenstein, 10 Ways to Be a Spiritual Person, downloaded from http://www.explorefaith.org/livingspiritually/following_a_sacred_path/jewish_spirituality.php 20 Teilhard de Chardin, Le Milieu Divin, Fontana, 1966. The Divine Milieu, (Pg 133) 21 Teresa of Avila, Way of Perfection, Sheed & Ward, 1984. Chapter XL, (Pg 173) 22 Evelyn Underhill, The School of Charity, Longmans, Green and Co, 1934. Part II - Chapter IV – Incarnate, (Pg 48) 23 The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1947. Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book I. Chapter V, (Pg 32 / 33) 24 Oliver Davies, Meister Eckhart - Selected Writings, Penguin Books, 1994. The talks of instruction - 23 On Inner and Outer Works, (Pg 51) 25 John M Templeton, The Humble Approach - Scientists Discover God, Collins, 1981. VI. Benefits from Humility, (Pg 50) 26 Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, Faber & Faber, 1992. Part One: Callistus and Ignatius of Xanthopoulos - Directions to Hesychasts – 90, (Pg 256 / 257) 27 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter VI The Life of the Spirit in the Individual, (Pg 154) 28 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter II: History and The Life of the Spirit, (Pg 42) 29 Emile Cammaerts, The Flower of Grass, The Cresset Press, 1944. Chapter ii - Truth, Beauty and Goodness, (Pg 47) 30 Unto Thee I Grant, Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, 1966. Book Eleven: Of the Advantages Man may Acquire over his Fellow-creatures. Chapter I- Nobility and Honour, (Pg 85) 31 White Eagle on the Intuition and Initiation, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 2004. Part One: What the Intuition is, and is not - V: The Nature of the Intuition, (Pg 42) 32 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter VI: Mortification, Non-Attachment, Right Livelihood, (Pg 111) 33 Ursula King, Towards a New Mysticism, Collins, 1980. II Eastern and Western Religions in a Converging World. 8: Religion and Evolution, (Pg 195 / 196)

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34 Andrew Harvey, The Direct Path, Rider & Co, 2000. Three: Embodiment and Integration - Diet and Fasting, (Pg 186) 35 Malcolm Muggeridge, A Third Testament, The Plough Publishing House, 2002. Quoting Pascal, 36 Arthur Ford, Unknown but Known, Harper & Row, 1968. Chapter 11 : Developing Latent Psychic Ability, (Pg 157) 37 John Edward, After Life - Answers from the Other Side, Princess Books, 2004. Chapter Seven: Teachers, (Pg 129) 38 Roy Dixon-Smith, New Light on Survival, Rider & Co, 1952. Inside dust wrapper 39 Horace Leaf, What Mediumship Is. Spiritualist Press, 1955. Chapter VI: Telepathy, (Pg 51) 40 Heidi Sawyer, Why My Mother Didn't Want Me To Be Psychic, Hay House, 2008. Chapter 1: The Opening - Beginning of Natural Psychic Skills: Stage Three Opening, (Pg 12) 41 Heidi Sawyer, Why My Mother Didn't Want Me To Be Psychic, Hay House, 2008. Chapter 8: Blocks to Psychic Awareness: The Importance of Meditation, (Pg 100) 42 Walking with the Angels - A Path of Service, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1998. Part One - 2. The Angelic Quality of Dispassion, (Pg 22) 43 Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation, Hollis and Carter, 1949. Chapter 13 - Through a Glass, (Pg 93) 44 Arthur David Waley, The Way and its Power, George, Allen & Unwin, 1936. Tao Te Ching: Chapter LIII, (Pg 207) 45 Peter Spink, Beyond Belief, Judy Piatkus, 1996. 3: The Fully Human Being, (Pg 42) 46 Swami Paramananda, The Upanishads, Grange Books, 2004. Katha - Upanishad - Part Two: XXIII, (Pg 51) 47 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part ONE:The Mystic Fact: Chapter VI - Mysticism and Symbolism, (Pg 130) 48 Evelyn Underhill, The School of Charity, Longmans, Green and Co, 1934. Part I - Chapter I - I believe, (Pg 7) 49 Timothy Keller, The Reason for God, Hodder & Stoughton, 2009. Introduction, (Pg xiii) 50 Sherwood Eliot Wirt, Exploring the Spiritual Life, Lion Books, 1985. 6 - From The Saint's Everlasting Rest by Richard Baxter, (Pg 85) 51 P. Franklin Chambers, Baron Von Hugel: Man of God. An introductory Anthology compiled with a biographical preface, Geoffrey Bles: The Centenary Press, 1946. An Introduction Anthology - Part Two: Philosophical - Some Preliminary mentalities: 2, (Pg 92) 52 Hazel Courteney, Divine Intervention, Cico Books, 2002. Chapter 12: The Long Road Home, (Pg 178) 53 Robert Llewelyn (ed), Julian - Woman of our Day, Darton Longman and Todd, 1986. Julian of Norwich and the Continuity of Tradition by A. M. Allchin, (Pg 35) 54 Colum Hayward, Eyes of the Spirit, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1987. Chapter Two: The experience of working with a spiritual teacher, (Pg 45) 55 The Rev. C. Drayton Thomas, Beyond Life's Sunset, Psychic Press, Undated. Chapter I: Why these Chapters are Written, (Pg 2) 56 Sylvia Browne, The Other Side and Back, Piatkus, 2000. 2 Everyday Magic and Miracles: Discovering and Creating Joy in Your Life, (Pg 67) 57 Gems of Thought, The Greater World Christian Spiritualist Assn, 1989. The Divine Within, (Pg 30) 58 Sue Minns, Soulwork - Foundations for Spiritual Growth, College of Psychic Studies, 2003. Chapter 2: Meditation, (Pg 17) 59 Roy Dixon-Smith, New Light on Survival, Rider & Co, 1952. Part Two: Chapter XI: Physical and Ultra- Physical Biology, (Pg 185) 60 F P Harton, The Elements of the Spiritual Life: A study in Ascetical Theology, SPCK, 1950. Part I - Chapter III Actual Grace, (Pg 22) 61 Arthur Ford, Unknown but Known, Harper & Row, 1968. Chapter 2 : Good and Evil, (Pg 17) 62 Christopher Jamison, Finding Sanctuary, Phoenix, 2007. PART TWO: STEP 5 – Community, (Pg 150) 63 Julie Soskin, Transformation, College of Psychic Studies, 1995. Chapter 11 - The Centre of Equilibrium, (Pg 92) 64 Jostein Saether, Living With Invisible People - A karmic autobiography, Clairview, 2001. 1 Episodes from my present life, (Pg 52) 65 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 3: The vale of enlightenment, (Pg 23) 66 Andrew Harvey, The Direct Path, Rider & Co, 2000. One: The Map - The Map of the Transformation of Consciousness, (Pg 55) 67 Henry Thomas Hamblin, The Life of the Spirit, The Science of Thought Press, 1934. Chapter V - The Inner Life II 68 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 16: Discerning the spiritual path, (Pg 127) 69 A W Austen, Teachings of Silver Birch, Psychic Press, 1993. All is Ruled by Law, (Pg 52)

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70 Walter Hilton, The Stairway of Perfection, Image Books, 1979. Book One: Chapter Forty-Five, (Pg 124) 71 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter IV Psychology and the life of the Spirit: (II) Contemplation and Suggestion, (Pg 92 / 93) 72 Stephen O'Brien, Visions of Another World, The Aquarian Press, 1989. 16 Behind the Scenes, (Pg 201) 73 Walking with the Angels - A Path of Service, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1998. Part One - 5. Time for Stillness and Silence, (Pg 39) 74 Robert Brown, We Are Eternal, Hodder & Stoughton, 2004. Part Two: Chapter 5 - In My Father's House, (Pg 73) 75 Arthur Ford, Unknown but Known, Harper & Row, 1968. Chapter 11 : Developing Latent Psychic Ability, (Pg 150) 76 John Edward, After Life - Answers from the Other Side, Princess Books, 2004. Chapter Seven: Teachers, (Pg 130) 77 Abbé Henri de Tourville, Letters of Direction, Mowbray, 1939. XI – Simplicity, (Pg 65) 78 Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows, Pathway of the Immortal, International Publications Inc, 1980. Chapter VI: Pathway of the Immortal, (Pg 111) 79 Peter Spink, Beyond Belief, Judy Piatkus, 1996. 7: The Mystic and Healing, (Pg 97) 80 Joel S Goldsmith, The Contemplative Life, L N Fowler & Co, 1963. Chapter EIGHT - Contemplation Develops the Beholder, (Pg 121) 81 Evelyn Underhill, The House of the Soul, Methuen & Co, 1929. Chapter III, (Pg 38) 82 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon, Press, 1931. Part 2: Chapter VIII - The rise of Sufism and the Early Ascetic Ideal, (Pg 189) 83 Colum Hayward, Eyes of the Spirit, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1987. Chapter Seven - The Lodge ideals and vision: the sixth principle, (Pg 142) 84 White Eagle, The Quiet Mind, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1984. The Master Soul is Constant: .. is Gentle, Loving , Kind: The Way of the Disciple, (Pg 29) 85 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 9: The inner life, (Pg 68) 86 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part Two: Chapter XV - Energies (The Preparation), (Pg 243) 87 Gems of Thought, The Greater World Christian Spiritualist Assn, 1989. How Creative Power Is Released, (Pg 2) 88 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 13: The psychic faculty and the spiritual path, (Pg 102) 89 J F Webb, The Age of Bede, Penguin Books, 1988. Bede: Life of Cuthbert - Chapter 2, (Pg 45) 90 Grace Cooke, The Jewel in the Lotus, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1973. III - The Creative Imagination, (Pg 28) 91 Beatrice Russell, Beyond the Veils through Meditation, Lincoln Philosophical Research Foundation, 1986. Descent of the Divine Force, (Pg 56) 92 Marcus Dods, How to Become Like Christ, Thos. Whittaker, 1897. Also available on-line through Project Gutenberg,How to Become Like Christ, (Pg 8 / 9) 93 Anne Dooley, Guidance from Silver Birch, Spiritualist Press, 1966. Chapter Ten: What is the Spirit? (Pg 95) 94 St John of the Cross, The Dark Night of the Soul, Thomas Baker, 1924. Book 1 - Chapter II – 6, (Pg 11) 95 Edmond Bordeaux Szekely, The Gospel of the Essenes, C W Daniel Co, 1976. From the Manual of Discipline of the Dead Sea Scrolls, (Pg 77) 96 John M Templeton, The Humble Approach - Scientists Discover God, Collins, 1981. X. Earth as a School, (Pg 94) 97 Morton T Kelsey, The Other Side of Silence, SPCK, 1985. Part Four: The Use of Images in Meditation - 15. A Check List for the Venture Inward, (Pg 197) 98 Morton T Kelsey, The Other Side of Silence, SPCK, 1985. Part Four: The Use of Images in Meditation - 15. A Check List for the Venture Inward (Pg 197 to 201) 99 Don Cupitt, Taking Leave of God, SCM Press, 2001. 6 Doctrine and Disinterestedness, (Pg 89) 100 Ryuho Okawa, The Laws of the Sun, Element, 1996. Chapter Five: The Golden Age - The Path to El Cantare (1) - Life is a Daily Challenge, (Pg 122) 101 Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter XIII: Salvation, Deliverance, Enlightenment, (Pg 202 / 203) 102 Rudolf Steiner, The Way of Initiation, Theosophical Publishing Society, 1912. The Way of Initiation: VIII - The Conditions of Discipleship, (Pg 215 to 237) 103 Stephen O'Brien, Visions of Another World, The Aquarian Press, 1989. 17 Questions and Answers, (Pg 219 / 220)

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104 Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, Faber & Faber, 1992. Part Two: Hesychius of Jerusalem to Theodulus - Texts on Sobriety and Prayer – 20, (Pg 282) 105 Swami Paramananda, The Upanishads, Grange Books, 2004. The Threads of Union (excerpts from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali) - Part One: On Contemplation: 1.33, (Pg 110) 106 Susanna Winkworth, Theologia Germanica, Macmillan & Co, 1874. Chapter VI, (Pg 17) 107 Arthur Ford, Unknown but Known, Harper & Row, 1968. Chapter 1 : On the Shore, (Pg 14) 108 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter VI: Mortification, Non-Attachment, Right Livelihood, (Pg 120) 109 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter VI: Mortification, Non-Attachment, Right Livelihood, (Pg 113 / 114) 110 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter VI The Life of the Spirit in the Individual, (Pg 151 / 152) 111 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter VI The Life of the Spirit in the Individual, (Pg 150) 112 St. Theophan the Recluse, The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to it, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1995. 28 Examples of the Free Resolve to Live According to Grace, (Pg 135) 113 John Chrysostom - The Golden Voice of Protest, Arthur James, 1996. (Pg 53) 114 Evelyn Underhill, The Fruits of the Spirit; Light of Christ; Abba, Longmans, Green and Co, 1957. The Fruits of the Spirit: Part I; I Preparation, (Pg 5) 115 Jostein Saether, Living With Invisible People - A karmic autobiography, Clairview, 2001. 6. Methods and Reflections, (Pg 282) 116 Eurythmy is an expressive movement art originated by Rudolf Steiner in conjunction with Marie von Sivers in the early 20th century. Primarily a performance art, it is also used in education, especially in Waldorf schools, and – as part of anthroposophic medicine – for claimed therapeutic purposes. 117 Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall, SQ : Spiritual Intelligence, The Ultimate Intelligence, Bloomsbury, 2001. Summary introduction 118 Shankara Acharya, The Crest Jewel of Wisdom, John M Watkins, 1964. Introduction, (Pg 5 to 7) 119 Andrew Harvey, The Direct Path, Rider & Co, 2000. One: The Map - The Map of the Transformation of Consciousness, (Pg 51) 120 Beth Collier, Beyond Words, Triangle, 1987. 5 Giving up ourselves, (Pg 52) 121 Martin Israel, The Pearl of Great Price, SPCK, 1988. 5 - The Hollow Image, (Pg 37) 122 A W Austen, Teachings of Silver Birch, Psychic Press, 1993. The Divine Plan, (Pg 37 / 38) 123 Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy, Capella, 2008. Paradiso Canto XVII, (Pg 335) 124 Evelyn Underhill, The Spiritual Life, Mowbray, 1984. Part Three: The Spiritual Life as Co-operation with God, (Pg 94 / 95) 125 Brian Leslie Weiss, Same Soul, Many Bodies, Piatkus, 2006. Chapter 5 - Hugh and Chitra: Compassion, (Pg 85) 126 Gems of Thought, The Greater World Christian Spiritualist Assn, 1989. The Gift Of Retrievement, (Pg 4) 127 Father Andrew SDC, In the Silence, A.R.Mowbray, 1951. Growth in Holiness: I. Our Relationship with God, (Pg 14) 128 Evelyn Underhill, The Fruits of the Spirit; Light of Christ; Abba, Longmans, Green and Co, 1957. The Fruits of the Spirit: Part I; V Meekness and Temperance, (Pg 39) 129 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter I: The Characters of Spiritual Life, (Pg 6 & 7 & 10 & 11) 130 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 1: Chapter V - Early Mysticism in the Middle East, (Pg 98) 131 Walter Hilton, The Stairway of Perfection, Image Books, 1979. Book Two: Chapter Twenty-One, (Pg 241) 132 Evelyn Underhill, Concerning the Inner Life, Oneworld, 1999. Part One- The Heart of Personal Religion, (Pg 33) 133 A W Austen, Teachings of Silver Birch, Psychic Press, 1993. Whence Comes Inspiration? (Pg 203) 134 Morton T Kelsey, The Other Side of Silence, SPCK, 1985. Part Four: The Use of Images in Meditation - 16. Putting Imagination to Work, (Pg 235)

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15.3: Spiritual Development – Help from Spirit

Help is at hand! It is only a breath away; only a spirit away. There are a few who are directly aware of the proximity of our spirit helpers, most of us, like the late Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral, William Inge, know of them through the effects on us and our environment: 1

The Spirit is a power which is hidden in its source, but plainly visible in its effects.

If we look back at our lives we can discover those points when we have been helped and guided. Leslie Weatherhead, an English Christian theologian in the liberal Protestant tradition, gave voice to this in his book ‘The Christian Agnostic’: 2

Reaching various cross-roads in my life I have often been uncertain which way to take, and I have just had to follow what light I had from common sense, good advice and careful thought, and then make a decision and hope for the best. It is only as I look back that I feel there was a "Hand that guided and a Heart that planned".

I think that all of us, by looking back, can see some influence of a guiding hand, and as Pamela Young realised: 3

If we all try to tell our individual and unique stories, this may help us become aware of a unifying principle - a power greater than ourselves - guiding and leading us.

So, there seems to be a sort of logic which when used to analyse the events and activities which have affected us, seem to point to extensive support from Spirit. Evelyn Underhill in her first discourse within the book ‘The Spiritual Life’ wrote: 4

And again, any mature person looking back on their own past life, will be forced to recognise factors in that life, which cannot be attributed to heredity, environment, opportunity, personal initiative or mere chance. The contact which proved decisive, the path unexpectedly opened, the other path closed, the thing we felt compelled to say, the letter we felt compelled to write. It is as if a hidden directive power, personal, living, free, were working through circumstances and often against our intention or desire; pressing us in a certain direction, and moulding us to a certain design. All this, of course, is quite inexplicable from the materialistic standpoint. If it is true, it implies that beneath the surface of life, which generally contents us, there are unsuspected deeps and great spiritual forces which condition and control our small lives

In order to confirm this availability and to avail ourselves of this fantastic support, all we have to do is ask. Asking our guides and helpers empowers them; without a direct request they are helpless. I was reminded, as I read Jacob Boehme’s book ‘The Way to Christ’, that in the New Testament Luke [11:9-13] is recorded Jesus the Nazarene as saying: 5

My Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him for it. Again: Ask, and it

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will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened unto you.

This same Biblical passage was also referred to by Stephen O'Brien, the Welsh born medium and author, who wrote about a conversation he had with Spirit: 6

I was also told 'Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened unto you.' This is as true today as it ever was. And to this they would add: 'Turn away and you may miss unique opportunities for greater happiness, knowledge and enlightenment. The choice is yours.

Similarly from the mystic Henry Thomas Hamblin: 7

He promised that those who seek shall find, and that those who knock shall have the door of understanding opened to them. But it is only to those who are in earnest that these promises come true.

There is one caveat, however. You do have to follow your spiritual pathway, as far as you know it. It is a path of goodness and a journey which you must willingly undertake. The great teacher from the Spirit World, White Eagle, stressed this aspect when, through the mediumship of Grace Cooke, he said: 8

If you pursue the path of truth, if you live earnestly and ask for revelation, it will come.

How this help arrives depends upon a whole raft of conditions. The American, Dannion Brinkley, who was stimulated to spiritually develop after a couple of Near Death Experiences, believed that there are a raft of spiritual beings who: 9

...are always standing by to assist us through any challenge. All we have to do is to ask and they are ready to show up for us with inspiration, motivation, and insight.

This is for all aspects of our life not just spiritual. In their book ‘The Final Frontier’ the husband and wife collators Richard Kent & Val Fotherby documented 25 different people’s NDEs and one of them, an engineering officer from Ireland declared that subsequent to his own experience: 10

...I have experienced God’s help and guidance in all areas of my life.

However, no spirit is allowed to interfere in the life of another and they cannot even help without being asked to; it is one of the Natural Laws of the Universe. To emphasise this, the author Jacky Newcomb asked that we always remember: 11

...angels have to be asked if we want them to guide us.

This is not a new realisation. The Benedictine monk Aelred Graham, tells us that back in the 4 th and 5 th centuries St. Augustine remarked that God: 12

...will not save us without our consent.

Such help from God’s agents may be from your own personal guide, a few of the many

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:08:25 15.3 Spiritual Development – Help from Spirit Page 3 of 29 spirit helpers that you have whether they are ones who have known you in their lives on earth or not. Even though these spirits have a lot of things to do in their own right, as Michael Newton learned: 13

Despite their many activities, these departed souls are still able to reach us if called upon.

Speaking in general terms, the guide and mentor to William Stainton Moses known as Imperator, supported this view of the Spirit World and informed us that Man: 14

...is the recipient of guidance from spirits who have trod the path before him, and who are commissioned to guide him if he will avail himself of their guidance. He has within him a standard of right which will direct him to the truth, if he will allow himself to be guided to keep it and protect it from injury.

Henry Thomas Hamblin believed that accepting such guidance brings untold happiness: 15

No words of mine can ever describe the joy and thankfulness that is in my heart when I consider the wonderful way that I have been led, and guided, and delivered.

To reach this state, we have to initially open the door of Spirit support, but their may be occasions when we may need to ask for help in specific instances. This was implied in one of the aphorisms given to Winifred Graham by her deceased father: 16

What miraculous help children of earth lose, by not asking oftener for guidance in moments of doubt.

What more could we ask for in terms of support for our life? Mind you, it is not quite as easy as it at first appears. One of the significant factors which often throws a spanner into the works is our own free will. This, no spirit can overturn as the medium Irene Bays was informed from the Other Side: 17

...but man has free will and we in spirit do not interfere with free will.

…and to emphasise this, another spirit teacher Zodiac tells us that this Cosmic Law applies throughout all the spheres of spirit as well: 18

...for free-will cannot be interfered with on any plane.

The only realm to which it appears not to apply is our earth plane, where, to quote Robert Burns 18 th Century phrase, ‘man’s inhumanity to man’ applies. One person or one country is often trying to oppress another to minimise their freedom. That aside, our Spirit World supporters can never cross the free will threshold; we must be free to make our own decisions and, of course, bear the consequences.

Some writers attribute any aid that we individually get as coming directly from God. Hans Denck was one such 16 th century theologian who, according to Aldous Huxley, believed that: 19

God forces no one, for love cannot compel, and God's service, therefore, is a thing

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of perfect freedom.

…and the Iranian born activist Reza Aslan also showed that he took a similar point of view: 20

God may know what one is going to do, but that does not mean God forces one to do it.

The main reason for not allowing abuse of our free will has been described by the regression expert Michael Newton: 21

If souls were forced to do what is right for them they would learn nothing...

Or, in medium Grace Cooke’s terms: 22

By and large, no evolved spirit would ever interfere with a person's freewill choice or force him to make drastic changes in his material life. Any wise spirit knows that people are put here in the physical life to learn lessons which are necessary and good for them to learn...

And from John Edward, a modern-day American medium: 23

...those on the Other Side aren't allowed to tell us what to do because we're here to learn specific lessons for our own soul's growth, and they can't interfere with our learning or take on the responsibility for our actions.

Whilst Spirit cannot interfere with our free will, it would seem that we too have to be careful how we exercise it. There is always a balance to be struck between what our physical aspects would like to do and what our spiritual urgings tell us should be done. This often described as a battle between our free will and God’s will. I don’t look at it quite like that. What I have to understand are my Life’s Objectives from both a physical and spiritual perspective. Once I know these (as best I ever can do) then I can combine them with gratitude to my Creator and service to humanity. These, in total, form, from my sole perspective, God’s will. Countering this are the natural human desires. These are a combination of genetic, animal, social, educational, materialistic traits. The battle that we all seem to have is to use our free will to enable the former whilst not being distracted by the latter.

In all of this, the help that we get from our guides and helpers is spiritually based and therefore we will be supported in doing ‘God’s will’. I rather like the way that Evelyn Underhill, an English Anglo-Catholic writer, in her book ‘Abba’ described it: 24

“Thy Will be done" means always being ready for God's sudden No over against our eager and well-meaning Yes:

…and from the 1950s Dean of , Frederic Percy Harton, we gain a definition of the work of Spirit as: 25

…a supernatural and transitory power which God gives us to enlighten the mind and strengthen that will that we may act according to His will.

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The South African born clinician and Anglican priest, Martin Israel, knew that his God is never lacking in the support that is provided: 26

The voice of God never dominates the personality; it stands at the door of consciousness and knocks for admission. If God is consciously admitted to our lives, He does not take them over; on the contrary He shows Himself as an intimate friend. He is constantly available to support us and show us the way to liberation from the bondage of all earthly attachments, but He does not intrude to make His presence felt.

Being helped by spirit, therefore, is not a mechanism for getting our own way – far from it. It is a natural law which allows those who are dearest to us in the world of spirit to help us on our way insofar as they can help us to make the right decisions. It is their desire to strengthen our free will so that the choices we make support our spiritual journey (and incidentally our material lives too). Martin Israel wrote something similar: 27

The courage to be oneself, no longer a mouthpiece of parental conditioning or group loyalty, exceeds the power of description ... It requires the Divine assistance, which comes to a person in his extremity. It is a juxtaposition of the Divine and human wills.

The more we move the fulcrum of the balance towards spirituality and away from materialism then the more help we seem to need, and of course get, from spirit. Brenda Blanch, when writing about Evelyn Underhill, realised that: 28

The difficulty comes when there is a conflict of loyalties, or a choice between two apparent goods. At such points many people feel unaware of any guidance, unable to discern or understand the signals of God; not because the signals are not given, but because the mind is too troubled, clouded and hurried to receive them.

Many years earlier, the 12 th century French Cistercian abbot, St Bernard of Clairvaux expressed it as: 29

Often God's creatures benefit when they are quite unaware of His blessings upon them.

...and as Zodiac understood: 30

There are so few of those cabined in the body who realise that they are 'Spirit', in the sense that they can draw upon Spirit power for all the needs in daily life...

This was confirmed by the teaching spirit Silver Birch who said: 31

You do not realise how, unknown to yourselves, you are all the recipients of inspiration from the world of spirit.

Being unaware, in this way, is not just for the likes of you and I ... but many of the great mediums have had this problem. Paul Miller in ‘Cavalcade of the Spirit’ when analysing the life of William Stainton Moses identified that: 32

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...though it was later proved to him that he was no stranger to spirit influence, albeit he had seldom been conscious of it.

Perhaps this is always the case initially. However, even those of us who are following a spiritual pathway don’t always realise the extent of support that we get from our spirit supporters. Using an extract from 's teachings about 33 and in particular what the higher spirits told him about the spirit influence, the American paranormal promoter Michael E. Tymn reported that: 34

Their influence upon (your thoughts and actions) is greater than you suppose, for it is very often they who direct both.

So please speak to you spirit guides; invite them along on your spiritual journey. It such a shame, as Winifred Graham was told, that most people: 35

...are unaware of being attended by spiritual advisers, who are only too eager to tell them what they desire to know.

This discarnate father of Winifred went on to further explain that those in spirit who help and guide us are often saddened by the ‘deaf’ ears of those on Earth: 36

The mortal state is one of perpetual trouble from birth till you throw off the flesh, and see everything clearly. That is why the world of spirit feels such deep sympathy for those who struggle and strive to make the best of a dangerous journey. We see pitfalls often hidden from the eyes of those who trip and fall. We try to save them, but many are utterly unable to feel our presence, or hear a warning.

So even though we may not realise the ‘hand of spirit’ in the decisions that we make, when looked at with hindsight and collectively, we can get the feeling of some element of divine direction. Margaret Smith informed us that St. Clement, almost 2000 years ago, believed this to be the case: 37

St Clement recognised that the soul possessed a spiritual sense, whereby it was able intuitively to receive the revelation of God.

…and from the pen of Georges Huber, a Swiss journalist who wrote many publications relating to the Catholic Church: 38

...it is not enough for the guardian angel to give a person good inspirations: these inspirations need to be well received.

If we are able to sense or even to listen to our spirit friends, then we could be in the same situation as Teresa of Avila. Kathleen Pond tells us that towards the end of Teresa’s life the spirit of Peter of Alcantara: 39

...several times appeared to her after his death, helping her with his counsel.

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...and to reach this stage in our spiritual development we have to play our part. Certainly, we have to create a situation, a state of mind, which is conducive to listening. The late Robert George Graham inspired his daughter to write: 40

To be really alive and receptive to influences from Heaven, the mind must be kept clean and ventilated, like a spotless room, worthy to be inhabited by angel visitors.

This does not come easily; we have to make the personal effort to arrive at such a state. In another of Robert George Graham’s aphorisms he makes this very point that people are refused help from Spirit because: 41

...they are not trying to help themselves. God likes personal effort and he has given people on earth free will and judgment.

...and Theophan the Recluse recognised that no matter how much help we are given, execution is solely in our hands: 42

There exist such things as instructions and advice from angels, but everything must be done by oneself.

We should not expect any other soul, be they in spirit or on earth, to shoulder the responsibilities which we have been born to bear. Neither should we expect anyone to do things which we are able to do ourselves. These were observations also made by White Eagle: 43

Do not thrust your cares and responsibilities on the Spirit World by asking for direction on matters you should certainly decide upon and handle for yourself.

At the other end of the scale the more we develop the more we seem to rely on our spirit helpers. The 17 th century barefooted French Carmelite monk Brother Lawrence, the epitome of humility, wrote: 44

A soul is the more dependent on Grace, the higher perfection to which it aspires.

In this passage he used the term Grace to represent the Holy Spirit which, in my terms, is synonymous with the collective force of our guides and helpers. And as you move ‘up the grades’ of spirituality then the more your guides and helpers nurture your development, as told to us by the Spanish mystic St John of the Cross: 45

We are to keep in mind that a soul, when seriously converted to the service of God, is, in general, spiritually nursed and caressed, as an infant by its loving mother, who warms it in her bosom, nourishes it with her own sweet milk, feeds it with tender and delicate food, carries it in her arms, and fondles it.

This was also reflected in Barry Oates, David Hopkins and Carole Austin’s book outlining the ‘Philosophy of Spiritualism’. In discussing the fatherhood of God they wrote: 46

As we become more aware of, and more in tune with, our spiritual nature, so do the quality and quantity of guidance increase. This is open for all to receive at the appropriate level, without need of intermediaries and being dependent only upon

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the individual stage of awareness.

So expanding our awareness expands our ability to be an inspiration receptor. Within our life, therefore, whilst still making our way in the material world we have to place an increasing importance of our spirituality. In other words, we have to move the pivot of our lives more towards spiritual and less to material. To make changes which affect this balance we often need help and perhaps reassurance from our friends in Spirit. Jacky Newcomb in her book ‘An Angel held my hand’ noted that spirits: 47

...come to us when we need to change direction or to show us that we are on the right path after all.

However, it is not just this spiritual/physical balance that we have to continuously tend and improve; there is another balance which is also very important. It is the relationship between learnt and experienced knowledge. As you will realise, it is our experiences which affect our progress and the underlying knowledge which helps to make sense of it. Evelyn Underhill captured the thoughts of a number of mystics on this topic: 48

"It became evident to me," says Al Ghazzali of his own search for mystic truth, "that the Sufis are men of intuition and not men of words. I recognized that I had learnt all that can be learnt of Sufism by study, and that the rest could not be learnt by study or by speech." "Let no one suppose," says the Theologia Germanica, "that we may attain to this true light and perfect knowledge . . . by hearsay, or by reading and study, nor yet by high skill and great learning." "It is not enough," says Gerlac Petersen, "to know by estimation merely: but we must know by experience." So Mechthild of Magdeburg says of her revelations, "The writing of this book was seen, heard, and experienced in every limb. . . . I see it with the eyes of my soul, and hear it with the ears of my eternal spirit."

The experience to which they all refer is the experience of linking with spirit often referred to as inspiration or intuition. Through this process we can be guided to truths yet unrealised which in their turn help us to improve our lives. Of this, Irene Bays was told by her spirit communicator: 49

...listen to those things which are told to you in your quiet moments, for your Guides are with each one of you, and as they are Guides so they endeavour to help you. Listen to the words that are spoken, listen to that inner ear, and you will learn and you will progress.

...and this same spirit further added: 50

...gradually you will find that guidance that is given to you, to enable you to have the understanding of the path on which you must tread to complete that which must be completed, will be unfolded before you.

As if to complement this statement, in Winifred Graham’s spirit inspired we are informed that: 51

The windows of the soul should always be open for impressions from the spheres of light, and then you will receive wonderful powers from unseen sources.

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That being the case, then we ought to make sure that we ‘listen’ as best we can to spirit and make sure that we don’t miss anything irrespective of the form in which it comes. Francis de Sales, who became Bishop of Geneva and a Roman Catholic saint, suggested that we: 52

Humble yourself profoundly before God, acknowledging that if you have not made such progress, it has been your own fault, because you have not faithfully, courageously and constantly corresponded with the inspirations, lights and impulses which he has given you in prayer and at other times.

Not only does guidance come in unexpected ways but also at unexpected times. We must discover and realise it. And all this is implemented through our guides and helpers in the Spirit World. They wish for no accolade for this work of love only that we accept the spiritual knowledge and experiences that we get from them and act accordingly. In that way we will progress little by little, as the communicator, Imperator, through William Stainton Moses, told us: 53

If you will further consider the views which we have put forward with respect to inspiration, you will see that we claim for our teaching that it is just one of those rungs in the ladder of progressive knowledge …

The Spanish mystic Francisco de Osuna wrote, inspired thoughts do not come with drum banging and symbols clashing but often in the silence and faintly: 54

According to what we have said, the voice is the divine inspiration which is received in the ear of the soul without any expression of words, but solely with the presence of God which allows itself to be felt. For this (reason) Job [footnote: actually Eliphaz the Themanite, cf Job 12:4] says that secretly and silently he heard the hidden word that was spoken to him and he received the strains and echoes of its faint sound.

No matter how inspiration comes to you, follow the advice of the spiritual teacher and medium Julie Soskin: 55

Your true intuition will be your guide.

Through this process members of the Spirit World will give you all the help in their power to move you along your spiritual journey. Using the supporting words of the spirit informing Irene Bays: 56

But the knowledge that you receive from the teachers from the World of Spirit are not bought with money, and it is those teachings that enable you to open up the door to the treasures that you have. It is the understandings that you have within you which enable you to go forward to do those things that must be done.

…and the Japanese visionary Ryuho Okawa tried to give us some view of how this may happen: 57

How can the spirits guard or guide such people? They cannot guide their every move because that would be to deprive them of their independence of will. All they

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are permitted to do is provide us with inspiration. If we have embraced a dream [our spiritual purpose / goal] , however, the guardian and guiding spirits can consider how we might go about achieving it, and supply us with the inspiration to do it.

There is not, therefore, one size fits all. Every inspiration, every sense of spiritual direction that you get is for you alone. That is why it is important for you to develop the necessary sensitivity to the impressions from spirit. In the initial stages of your journey, you may only get faint feelings but these develop as you progress. The American medium Silvia Browne wrote: 58

What you have always accepted as instincts, or your conscience, or unusually vivid dreams are more likely your Spirit Guide waving a flag.

…which was reflected by the Irish medium Lorna Byrne: 59

When you start to get an instinct that you should do something, that's often your guardian angel communicating with you.

It is this link from your guide to you, from spirit to spirit that is felt as inspired thought. Henry Thomas Hamblin in ‘Divine Adjustment’ also realised this thread of spirit throughout everything: 60

Those who walk in the Light realize that they are spiritual beings, living in a spiritual universe, which is governed by spiritual laws, and that they are upheld by spiritual powers; while all the Divine Forces and the whole resources of a Heavenly Universe are behind them.

What a reservoir of knowledge, power, and love is at our disposal. This is what so many people – from the major prophets to the likes of you and I - have been trying to tell humanity for eons. It is a simple message which Lorna Byrne stated in her first book ‘Angels in my Hair’: 61

...your angels are there to help you, and as you start to acknowledge that they may exist, you will start to feel their touch in your life.

...and this sensation, which I too often experience, lifts the spirit to potentially new heights. The medium Pamela Young in discussing her work wrote: 62

When I feel Spirit around me I get really excited, and nothing appears impossible.

We all have something different to give, particularly in terms of being able to guide or teach others. The Spirit World is no different. Spirits have different skills and hence, when we need particular guidance, those more expert are commissioned to help us. The spirit working through William Stainton Moses told us that particular spirits: 63

...are intellectually trained and prepared to give man extended knowledge and wider views of truth. Advanced spirits influence the thoughts, suggest ideas, furnish means of acquiring knowledge, and of communicating it to mankind. The ways by which spirits so influence men are manifold. They have means that you know not of

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by which events are arranged as to work out the end they have in view.

Thus, knowing that you have the best guidance possible available to you, commensurate, of course, with your ability to understand, should give you the feeling that you should be able to trust in those who are guiding you, or as White Eagle says: 64

Faith and trust in that inner voice will prove to you its constancy and its helpfulness as you tread the path of spiritual development and services.

Believe it! Once you have come to accept the need to spiritually progress and started to climb the spiritual mountain, you will get all the help you need … but not necessarily what you would like, nor in the time frame which we would prefer. Red Cloud, a spirit who used Estelle Roberts as his channel to teach us more about the Spirit World, told us: 65

There is no man in your world who has ever searched after truth from the spheres of light that has not had his desire granted, because it is the fulfilment of the Law that at the right moment of every man's life the master appears to him.

…and this has been corroborated by White Eagle, another teacher from Beyond whose instrument was Grace Cooke: 66

We have many lessons to learn before we shall be ready to see clearly and comprehend the truth about the masters [the elder brethren in the spirit world] . .. He [an elder brethren] will not withhold his presence or his appearance from you when once you have earned the right to see him ... Remember that it is the truth in your heart, the sincerity of your aspirations which will bring these elderly brethren to your side.

The German mystic Meister Eckhart using, as we would expect, the religious terms, informed us that: 67

Sensing his [God's] presence is not in your power but in His, He will show Himself when it suits Him to do so...

...or as Joyce Huggett, a missionary living in Cyprus, put it: 68

God has a marvellous way of bringing people, events and books into our lives just when we need them.

All this, of course, happens when you really need it; it does not necessarily happen when we feel it ought. This only serves to demonstrate the significance that our life has on the overall plan – whatever that is. Thus, when help comes to us, it is not only our needs which are being met but those of the community within which we live. Therefore we should follow the advice of White Eagle knowing that: 69

Everything happens at the right moment, the acceptable time of the Lord. You on earth do not always know what that time is, but if you will follow the guidance of the spirit, waiting patiently for a clear indication for action, then you will be guided aright.

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We have to accept that our loved ones and spirit guides are always supporting and nudging us in the right direction. This is true for everyone although few recognise it. From the beliefs of the Rosicrusian Order Lonnie C. Edwards urged that everyone realise that we: 70

...are watched over, guided, loved, and protected.

The type of guidance that we receive will need to change as our spirituality changes. As a consequence, our spirit helpers will need to change too. I believe that each of us has one primary guide and many sub-guides who contribute particular help according to their expertise and ability. This was recognised by the psychotherapist Sue Minns when she wrote: 71

Our sources of guidance may change during the course of our lives, as we grow and develop spiritually.

It is interesting to note from this that supporting spirits tend to work in teams so that all the right skills are brought to bear to achieve the right result. It is not surprising, therefore, that Paul Miller wrote: 72

Apparently spirits everywhere work in groups...

Michael Newton too, based on his extensive experience, was able to tell us that: 73

Guides assigned to different souls do work together relaying urgent mental messages for each other. People unable to help themselves in critical situations may find counsellors, friends, and even strangers coming to their aid at just the right moment.

The help that these teams of spirits provide is far more efficacious than if one were working alone. However, no matter how well their efforts, it only bears fruit if we are able to accept their nudgings. It is one thing to be advised by our guides and helpers but it is another to have the wit, knowledge and understanding to recognise what is being told to us. Therefore the talents that we possess must support the inspirations that we are given. Jacob Boehme, a mystic living about 300 years after Meister Eckhart, also believed that: 74

The great building of God is manifest in the light of Nature; and therefrom he whom God's light doth illuminate may search out and know all things ... And they are revealed to every one according to his gifts...

Thus echoed South African born mystic Martin Israel: 75

...for everything of God is open and universal according to the person's ability to receive and comprehend.

…and from the English anchoress, Julian of Norwich: 76

...he [God] opens the eye of our understanding and by this we gain sight, sometimes more and sometimes less, according to the ability that God gives us to receive it.

…and more plainly from the communicator who used Stainton Moses as a channel: 77 78

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We cannot teach you what you cannot receive.

Another teacher, Silver Birch, told Maurice Barbanell that: 79

I can share my mind with you but if your mind is not on my level then it will mean nothing to you.

…it is no use to try to convey the principles of differential calculus to someone who has not been taught basic algebra. It appears to be a Cosmic Law that all the conditions have to be right for us to take the next step. Out of interest, Drayton Thomas in his conversation with a discarnate spirit asked whether she had yet seen Jesus Christ. This was her reply: 80

No, not yet; but I have realised Him. I have been conscious of Him, but I have not been in the Presence yet. But we are so sure of Him, so conscious of Him, conscious of Him in everything and through everything we see around us, that we are quite content to wait till we can see Him in His glorious personality ... I have been told that I am going to see Him when I am ready.

So this law applies to everyone whether on earth or living in the Spirit World. It is only when the time is right for the individual that progress can be made; one small step at a time. And for each step it is advisable to seek and accept the help that we are given by our spirit guides and helpers. Or, put in the more ‘religious’ language of the French Jesuit priest Père De Caussade: 81

Why will we always substitute our own action for that of the Divine worker in us to achieve God's perfect plan? What progress there would be if we made it our study not to get in the way of His Action, but rather to abandon ourselves to Him and await his guidance?

This is the right way to do it, but in order to be successful we need to be able to ‘tune in’ to spirit and act according to what we are inspired with. Once we do this, the help we get, again according to Père De Caussade, is very powerful: 82

When the will of God reveals itself to a soul with desire to wholly possess her, if the soul freely gives herself in return she will experience most powerful assistance in all difficulties.

Such support for us is for whatever is needed by us along our chosen pathway. By this I do not mean giving us what we want, but granting to us the confidence and strength to make the right decisions in life; to lead us along the ‘righteous’ road. Thomas A Kempis, in his book ‘The Imitation of Christ’ told us that: 83

You must not stand up for yourself, But rest your hope in God. Do what you can, And God will help you if your will be good.

…and the mystic and palaeontologist Teilhard de Chardin felt that: 84

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With God as our ally we are always certain of saving our souls .

...this ties in with the words of the mystic Henry Thomas Hamblin: 85

...it showed us that, in spite of apparent failure, by maintaining a steadfast mind and by keeping our face turned towards the Light, refusing to be stampeded by failure and sin and falling short of the Divine Ideal, we were winning through. Not by any might of our own, but by the Power of the Spirit.

Relax, make decisions based on what your innermost feelings tell you tempered with reasoned acceptance and try not to impose onto spirit driven inspiration your own perverted will – as the 18 th century visionary reported, the philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was convinced that:: 86

…no one thinks from himself but from others; nor do these from themselves think, but all think from influx out of heaven and heaven from influx originating from the Lord.

As you can appreciate from many of the above quotations, God figures very highly. If I translate this, as you would expect, into guides and helpers as direct influences then the words of Emanuel Swedenborg will ring true: 87

Man is led and taught by the Lord alone through the angelic heaven and from it.

And the spiritual teachings that you will be given are not determined by you but by those in the Spirit World who are able to assess your current needs perfectly. Put another way, Julian of Norwich, one of the greatest English mystics, revealed to us that: 88

If God wants to show you more, he will be your light. You need no light but Him.

But, again, you have to recognise and accept it. Aldous Huxley told us how St. Francois de Sales understood that: 89

Our free will can hinder the course of inspiration, and when the favourable gale of God's grace swells the sails of our soul, it is in our power to refuse consent and thereby hinder the effect of the wind's favour; but when our spirit sails along and makes its voyage prosperously, it is not we who make the gale of inspiration blow for us, nor we who make our sails swell with it, nor we who give motion to the ship of our heart; but we simply receive the gale, consent to its motion and let our ship sail under it, not hindering it by our resistance.

Go with the inspirational flow and ignore the fictional barriers that others erect downstream. One, who was very mindful of this in his early days, was Jacob Boehme: 90

I know very well, and my spirit and mind sheweth me as much, that many will be offended at the simplicity and meanness of the author [Boehme] , for offering to write of such high things; and many will say to themselves he hath no authority to do it, and that he doth very sinfully in it, and runneth clean contrary to God and His will, in presuming, being but a man, to go about to speak and say what God is.

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Now you can appreciate the description used by Evelyn Underhill to summarise the effect of spiritual development: 91

As the spiritual life develops, so this sense of the priority of the Divine action, the total dependence of the derived spirit on the Absolute Spirit, deepens; and God, working with and in His creature, though often secretly and in disguise, is recognised as the only author of all the supernatural actions of the soul.

In simpler terms, Lumsden Barkway, in his anthology of Evelyn Underhill, told us that our life should become a thanksgiving which we honour by accepting that: 92

…we are never to forget that we do not act alone…

Even though much of the guidance that we receive is not recognised, as such, by us, there is a lot we can do if we can sense what Spirit are trying to tell us. This leads to the conclusion that we must try to develop, somehow, sensitivity to Spirit. My personal path to achieve this was to attend a series of ‘Development Classes’ at my local Spiritualist Church. In these learning environments it is possible to become sufficiently sensitive to recognise when Spirit is around you and what they are trying to tell you. Of course, this is also the route whereby Spiritualist Churches train their rostrum mediums. Be careful not to be led down this route unless, of course, it happens to be your spiritual pathway to do so. John Edward, the American medium, is very confident that more and more people will be taking this course of action and thus many, themselves, will be able to communicate directly with Spirit: 93

As this generation becomes more aware of the open lines of communication between our world and the next one, you yourself will become more a part of this process. I think that talking to our loved ones on the Other Side on a daily basis - and without the use of a medium - will become commonplace.

Only time will tell whether this prediction is true or not. In the meantime, you and I must continue to improve our spiritual sensitivity. Of this, Winifred Graham was told by her late father that: 94

Mind impressions are often the easiest way of communicating…

In an interesting book entitled ‘Listen My Son’ Harry Emerson confirmed that: 95

The spiritual part of man is the real part. It is by becoming aware of the psychic part of yourself that you can call on the help of those in the spirit world who devote their lives to this work of helping you, and by opening yourselves out in a psychic sense, you can become receptive instruments for the thoughts they send you.

The discarnate who communicated through Irene Bays expanded this slightly and informed us that: 96

You know, each one of you, how to listen to the voice within. Call it conscience, if you like. Some hear clairaudiently, some just have the knowledge that this is right or that is wrong, but it is all of course part of the knowledge within.

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The more we develop this ability, as Ralph Waldo Trine grasped, the clearer and more precise will be the realisation of what we are being told: 97

In the degree that we open ourselves to the inflowing tide of this immanent and transcendent life, do we make ourselves channels through which the Infinite Intelligence and Power can work … this gives us the inner guiding which we call intuition.

From all this you will appreciate that development of your ability to listen to spirit is experiential; it cannot just be studied; it has to be experienced. That is why you need a good teacher who is experienced in all aspects of spirit communication. Julianus Pomerius, back in the 5 th century, realised this and although his words are directed towards ordained priests, the same applies to those teachers in Spiritualist Churches and similar establishments, who: 98

...should speak what he has learned from divine reading, what God has inspired in him, not what he has invented by the suppositions of his human understanding.

A very pertinent observation on this subject was also made by a canon of Coventry Cathedral Peter Spink: 99

A child when it is learning to walk is not required to learn from adults the theory of walking.

Like breathing, the ability to experience spirit is latent within each of us; we all of us have the capacity to link with those who have passed to the Spirit World. Bede Griffiths, from his knowledge and experience of both Western and Eastern traditions, put is as: 100

Every creature is a capacity for God, a capacity which God alone can fulfil.

Whereas, the priest Terry Tastard said: 101

So it is important that behind the metaphors of hidden grounds of being, of giving birth and of breakthrough there lies his conviction that every person has a built-in capacity for the experience of God’s presence within them.

And referring to John Edward again: 102

It's not uncommon for many people to feel in touch with the spiritual world - whether they get a thought, hear a voice, or smell a whiff of perfume that mom used to wear - most people at one time or another have had psychic experiences.

Be careful with them, however. Linking with the Spirit World will not necessarily connect you with those who have your best interests at heart or who are able to teach you the truths you need. This does not mean that you should not take this developmental step; just do it with caution – this is where an experienced teacher and ‘hands on’ mentor will be able to guide you through the potential pitfalls of spirit communication. All this can be achieved without taking the step towards being a rostrum medium, as John Edward remarked: 103

You don't need to be a medium to work with the Other Side; you just need to be

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open to the vibration and be willing to listen.

This reminds me of a conversation on this subject between White Feather and his channel Geraldine Pengelly: 104

There is also another sign that your development grows in momentum. You [Geraldine] are beginning to talk to me [White Feather] with your inner voice. We hear you without watching the lip movement. This is how we communicate in Spirit...

It is that ‘inner ear’ that hears – call it a knowing, sixth sense if you will. It will vary in intensity, quality and frequency and sometimes may not be there when you expect it. Don’t worry about it – there will be a reason for it. At one stage, in Emmanuel Swedenborg’s contact with the spirit world, communication increased so that he would be able to write the truths about the Spirit World and he relayed, to his acquaintance Robsahm, a vision that he had, in which: 105

He then said that He was the Lord God, the Creator of the world, and the redeemer, and that He had chosen me to explain to men the spiritual sense of the scripture, and that He Himself would explain to me what I should write on this subject .. Afterwards the Lord opened, daily very often, the eyes of my spirit, so that, in the middle of the day, I could see into the other world, and in a state of perfect wakefulness converse with angels and spirits.

Without this intuitive spirit contact it seems, at least according to the 19 th century Scottish evangelist Henry Drummond, that we’ll be very limited in our scope and attainments: 106

It is the imperative of natural law, Fruit-bearing without Christ is not an improbability, but an impossibility.

I too believe that the truths that are uncovered by us through contact with the Spirit World could not be reached without that link. It is through this connection that all is provided, as Silver Birch told us: 107

Once the soul comes into its own it realises its powers. These are part of the mightiest forces in the universe. You begin to make a channel through which help, guidance, inspiration, sustenance and wisdom can reach you from our world.

…and the more your link develops then, as Teilhard de Chardin recognised, the deeper become the truths uncovered: 108

The deeper the level at which one encounters You, Master, the more one realises the universality of your influence.

During your development, the contact that you have with your mentor and any group of like minded people who, perhaps, meditate together, will be the time when you link best of all with spirit. However, don’t be shocked if inspiration comes to you unexpectedly. Geraldine Pengelly wrote: 109

Water is a conductor, you know. When you are taking a bath or under running

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water you are more relaxed and therefore feel Spirit's presence even more.

And Morton Kelsey tells of those occasions when he senses the presence of spirit in his links with other people: 110

...in my own work, it goes best when I am not trying to do it just on my own. I spend a lot of time talking with people. When I am conscious of another wisdom listening through me, I often let words come from my lips that are wiser and hit the mark far more creatively than any of my own ideas. I have learned to try to check with this deeper insight and when I do, the best intuitions come. They are purely given, striking like an arrow with a message hanging from it that passes before the inner eye. Even in public when I am speaking from a prepared talk, I find that if only I can hang loose, often a new idea inserts itself into my outline and I say something unexpected that gets through to people.

This has happened to me on a number of occasions. I remember one specifically when, after a discussion, a colleague came to me and congratulated me on the words I used and the way I conveyed the ideas. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I did not remember what I had said; it seemed that the words came directly from spirit and through me. Maybe, at that particular time I was of the right state of mind and therefore open to spirit influence. To make sure that this generally applied when I gave a talk or a lecture, I never used to use detailed notes. Certainly I would have itemised bullet points which I needed to cover, but the detail would be developed there and then in the talk. I used to do this because the words seemed to flow easily and could, therefore, be spirit inspired. In support of this type of approach, Madame Guyon, a French mystic who was imprisoned from 1695 to 1703 after publishing a book on her beliefs, wrote in ‘Spiritual Torrents’: 111

...what our Lord Jesus Christ said to His disciples, that 'they should not think beforehand of what they should say, but that, when it was time to speak [publicly], He would give them a wisdom which no one should be able to resist,' [Matt. X.19]

John Edward told us that other senses may be involved in recognising some of the links with Spirit: 112

Sometimes the signs our loved ones send us are subtle, like hearing their favourite song on the radio, or getting a whiff of the scent of their perfume, or the smell of their cigarettes in the air.

The ways in which spirits influence us are varied and can be neatly summed using the young mystic Simone Weil’s words: 113

...there would be good reason to think that God was sending you the truth through the pen which I am holding. It is more suitable for some thoughts to come by direct inspiration, it is more suitable for others to be transmitted through some creature. God uses either way, with his friends.

Pamela Young also identified a few other ways in which inspiration may come: 114

I was led by a series of synchronicities - unbelievable coincidences that seemed to have an intelligent relationship with my spiritual needs.

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A book would fall open at a page that would confirm the messages I was receiving or someone would ring and do the same. I would switch on the radio or television and there was an answer to a question I needed. It was as if the universe was an intelligent collaborator in my life.

As you are aware, I am an avid reader and I have had answers to many unspoken questions answered, apparently by chance, when randomly opening a book. Another example would be my discovery of a book in a second-hand book shop which was necessary for me to read at that particular time. Be aware of what is happening around you. Although many people are sufficiently attuned with spirit to get this sort of contact, many are not. For those, perhaps the only way to confirm ideas and communicate is through a respected medium. If you take this path be careful in your choice of medium. For those mediums that have honourable and cogent links with Spirit the value to humanity is enormous. In expounding this value, White Owl a spirit communicator using Automatic Writing, used the hand of the medium Stephen O'Brien and wrote: 115

It is our function to touch the soul of man and make him think, helping him become aware that he is a mind, evolving through experience. We desire to make people aware of the infinite possibilities and potential within them, so that they will turn away from the false worship of materialism which creates bitterness, greed and cruelty. It is our hope that people will learn the value of peace and love and project these out into the troubled earth so that the children yet unborn may find a better world in which to learn their experiences when their time for birth is ripe. If we can lift one soul, help one person towards the light of patience, tolerance and genuine caring for its fellow creatures, including the animal kingdoms, then our task has been worth while. For these reasons, and many more, we return to your dark earth bringing with us our light of understanding which will sweep away all creeds and dogmas and false divisions between nations and replace them with the knowledge that all life is linked and is One under the Guiding Influence of the Great Spirit - the Giver of All. For the God-Force is within everything, behind everything and through everything. When man learns these truths and lives them in his life with the respect for creation that these truths bring, then peace will be his.

Often mediums seem to link to those relatives who want to return to give us knowledge that death is just moving from one room into another and hence life is eternal rather than trying to convey some of the nuances of the Cosmic Laws within which we all operate. This leaves some people more cynical and sceptical. Stephen Henry Hobhouse, a prominent 20 th century English peace activist, prison reformer, and religious writer, believed that: 116

It is true that the communications [via mediums] thus received are often of a trivial or misleading nature, but there does seem to me to be something like proof that some of them come from our supposedly dead friends or relatives.

Generally, however, mediums work for the benefit of humankind and, as Silver Birch said, that together the spirit world and mediums: 117

…can help those who need our help. Let us give it willingly, not force it on those who are unready.

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As this proceeds, the bond between the medium and their spirit communicator expands. Therefore, according to Silver Birch, as the medium strives for unfoldment: 118

…that quality, the psyche, the spiritual, call it what you will, unfolds and there is a closer co-operation between the instrument and the guides who work with him.

In all of this we must never abuse the Spirit World. We must never treat them unkindly, use them in pursuit of amusement nor trivialise the friendship that we have with them. We must take the advice of Sherwood Wirt: 119

We are not to use God as men use perfumes, with which they are delighted when they have them, but can very well do without them.

We must neither try to control their response to our questions. When we ask for help from spirit, we must not try to tell them the expected result. I’ll touch on this in other chapters but for now I will just give an example. Imagine that a very dear friend is ill. Do you pray for them to get better or do you send them your love and ask spirit to use it for the best advantage of your friend? It seems that the former is assuming that we know best whereas the latter gives spirit our concrete energy which can be used as they deem necessary.

Mentioning energy, it is sometimes the case that the energy given to a person is exceptional and can be observed by others. Hazel Courtney recalls that during what she calls her ‘Divine Intervention’ a friend said of her: 120

As soon as I saw your eyes I knew you were carrying a lot of light and your energy fields were extremely unstable. From the huge amounts of blue and purple in your aura photograph I knew you were experiencing an enormous influx of spirit. You were literally being washed with divine energy from the higher realms and the white-bluish glow on your left-hand side indicated even more incoming energy, showing me that you were receiving direct guidance and assistance from spirit.

Even when we have a very worthy connection with our guides and helpers, we will still encounter disappointments. In those times it may feel as though spirit has deserted us. This, of course, is never the case; they will always be there for us and there will always be a very good reason for their apparent distance from us. We should always remember the notion conveyed by Malcolm Muggeridge who wrote about his own life as a soldier: 121

In some mysterious way it became clear to him that there was no darkness, only the possibility of losing sight of light which shone eternally...

Whilst we may not sense them, their encircling protection is there. Do you remember in the 1960’s an advertisement for insurance which surrounded you with a castellated circle of metal with the strap line ‘Get the protection of insurance around you’? Swap the word ‘insurance’ with ‘spirit’ and then you will get a feel for another type of help that is always there. Heidi Sawyer declared that once we are awakened to the guidance available from spirit then: 122

...you realise how much you are being guided and protected by higher planes of existence at all times.

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This fact, not speculation, has been stressed time and time again by many prophets, sages, masters, seer, mystics and of course those from the Spirit World teaching us the ways of Spirit. For example White Eagle advised us that: 123

If you will be steadfast on the path to which your feet have been guided, you will find the treasure of life, a never-ending stream of help and healing and happiness. We, your companions and guides, are on the road by your side. Not one of you stands alone. You have only to ask in simple trust, and you shall receive; whatever your need, it shall be supplied.

Our guides are so close to us that it stimulated Max Müller to declare that: 124

Those who are absent are often nearer to us than those who are present.

Spirit will guard you commensurate with your level of spirituality and the desires and aspirations that you have – they cannot protect you from yourself. This guardianship has always been one of the roles that spirit has, and it was expressed in The Gospel of the Essenes in the words of Jesus the Nazarene: 125

Blessed is the Child of Light Who doth seek his Heavenly Father, For he shall have eternal life. He that dwelleth in the secret place Of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow Of the Almighty. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, To keep thee in all thy ways.

…and in describing the seeker of truth, the communicator using William Stainton Moses also referred to the loving protection that we are given: 126

This is the character we seek. Loving and earnest, self-denying and receptive to truth; with single eye to God’s work, and with forgetfulness of earthly aims. Rare it is, rare as it is beautiful. Seek, friend, the mind of the philosopher, calm, reliant, truthful, and earnest! Seek the spirit of the philanthropist, loving, tolerant, ready to help, quick to give the needed aid. Add the self-abnegation of the servant of God who does his work and seeks no reward. For such a character work, high, holy, noble, is possible. Such we guard and watch with jealous care. On such the angels of the Father smile, and tend and protect them from injury.

I initially understood ‘injury’ to be spiritual only but I think that it will include the physical nature as well. This type of protection is not a shield from the travails of life for they are a necessary part of our spiritual development, but one which supports us and keeps us on the narrow way. Vida Reed Stone, who was a pioneer of the New Age movement, wrote many books including ‘Behold My Song'. In this thought provoking poem which he channelled from Spirit is written: 127

Know - O Sons - My Beloved, I am the One within every trial.

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I am the One who strengthens thine arm, And lifts thy failing heart.

In a similar vein, Imperator, the primary guide to William Stainton Moses, was reported by Paul Miller as indicating that those in spirit: 128

...can but offer and protect and guide and train and prepare the willing mind for future progress.

...and another teaching and healing spirit known as Dr, Letari, who worked through the trance medium William Lilley, emphatically stated that: 129

We never forsake you. It is you who forsake us and make it impossible for us to come.

Let us never forget however that we never walk alone; Spirit are always their with us. This was one of White Eagle’s the maxims identified in the little book ‘The Quiet Mind’: 130

If the veil could be drawn aside, you would indeed feel happy and thankful to know that by the power and through the will of God, the spiritual beings come close to help you on your upward climb.

All types of healing are theirs to give. Certainly, Spirit can perform healing on us but they can also help us in our mental difficulties. In his book ‘A Discourse on the Life to Come’ Stephen Hobhouse documented the ideas of the Indian mystic Sundar Singh who believed: 131

…that saints and angels are indistinguishable in Heaven and that they co-operate in going to the help of souls in distress and torment.

Always remember that whatever Spirit does for us it is always in the context of their love they have for us. Hence it follows that, as the actor William Roache wrote: 132

…we are taught and guided, but never punished.

You would expect that this loving, supportive help that we get from Spirit would be widely reported in the Christian Scriptures, in particular the New Testament. The freelance writer Michael Mitton in ‘Wild Beasts and Angels’ thought it odd that: 133

Despite the fact that Jesus could have called on legions of angels to his aid at any time, there are only two moments in the Gospels when we are told he has direct contact with the angels. Both times are in times of great testing. Both times the angels are there to strengthen him.

Stephen Hobhouse also thought this strange, and he wrote: 134

It is a remarkable fact that the only definite reference in the Bible to a departed spirit taking an interest in the welfare of those still on earth is in Christ's parable of the rich man once so selfish and now tormented, asking that Lazarus might be sent to preach to his brothers, to save then from a like doom. [Luke xvi. 29]

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As an addendum to the writings recorded in the Bible, ‘The Scripts of Cleophas’ channelled through the medium , supplement the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of St. Paul to this extent, that they furnish an account of the Early Church and the Apostles from immediately after the death of Christ to St Paul's departure from Berea for Athens (Acts xvii,15). Within this document is revealed that: 135

Behind the Twelve, called the Apostles, was ever an Unseen Hand to guide them in their ways and set their feet on a sure road.

And this support is there for us in our own time. This point was made by a monk of the Eastern Orthodox Church who wrote that: 136

...the power of the Spirit is as alive today as it was in the days of the Book of Acts.

And by contrast, Stephen Hobhouse also commented on the Spiritualist writings of his own day: 137

If we turn to the Spiritualist writings of our own day, as far as my reading extends, great stress is laid, sometimes in a crudely materialistic, sometimes in a beautiful and convincing manner, upon the constant service of spiritual help, teaching, and guidance that is the occupation and delight of many of those who have passed on..

For all the help that we get from our spirit friends we ought to be extremely grateful. These aides are agents of the Divine, who created the Cosmic Laws which control our lives and one of which allows spirit to help us. In the personal writings of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the father of the Jesuits wrote: 138

On awakening, I prayed and did not cease to give thanks most earnestly to God our Lord, in the midst of intuitions and tears, for the great benefit and clarity conceded to me, so great as to be inexplicable.

…and from the quill of Bonaventure, a 13 th century Italian medieval scholastic theologian and philosopher came: 139

...and since, therefore, nature avails nothing and human endeavour but little, little should be attributed to inquiry, but much to unction; little to the tongue, but very much to interior joy; little to the spoken or written word, but everything to the Gift of God, that is, to the Holy Spirit. Little or nothing should be attributed to the creature, but everything to the Creative Essence...

Thus all our thanks should be directed to the God of our lives and for the communications we are privileged to receive from His agents. On this point, Cecil Rose said: 140

The important thing is for us to make, each for himself, the thrilling discovery that God has spoken to us. Once we have made that discovery, God will shape our `quiet times' and develop them until they express a full personal relationship with Him, and include our thanksgiving, worship, petition, intercession, as part of our life with Him. We are only talking now of how to begin.

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This is a personal quest; an individual search for truth and understanding which is supplemented by our direct link with the Spirit World. The days are gone, as the spiritual director Michal Levin recognised that: 141

To relate to ‘God’ you must go through a priest, and a church. But that is no longer the case. We are all being urged to connect to spirit directly.

Connect by all means but do not worship those with whom you have a relationship at the expense of God. This point was made by St Augustine in relation to the idolatry of ancient Egypt who: 142

...worshiped and served the creature more than the creator.

Our journey is made together with our spirit guides and helpers who do their utmost to support us through our trials of life from which we gain valuable experience.

Just a few more comments before I end this Chapter. Firstly, I am never sure how it all starts and what are the first glimmerings of spiritual awareness. It may be, as Evelyn Underhill believed, that we are drawn to it by God and His agents: 143

...a journey which is more like the inevitable movement of the iron filing to the great magnet that attracts it, than like the long and weary pilgrimage in the teeth of many obstacles from "this world to that which is to come." Or it may seem like a growth from the childlike, half-real existence into which we are born into a full reality.

Once you are on the spiritual pathway then you will change, events will take on a different hue and your actions will be tinged with a new approach as Julie Soskin was inspired to write: 144

...it is important that you now recognise the true spirituality of mankind. This is not a belief system, this is not a religion, this is actual spirit/matter. It does exist. It is not solid, in your terms of solidity, but it has solidity in its own force, and by accepting that you automatically link to your spirit being, and as you link to your spirit being, you lift yourselves into new consciousness.

…and finally, look back at what has happened in your life and you will realise that the words of Timothy Keller will ring as true for you as they did for him: 145

Yet those who enter a relationship with God inevitably look back and recognise that God's grace had sought them out, breaking them open to new realities.

God speed you on your journey and open your hearts and minds to the inspirations of his spiritual agents.

1 Dean Inge, Goodness and Truth, Mowbray, 1958. Sermon 4: The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, (Pg 46)

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2 Leslie D Weatherhead, The Christian Agnostic, Hodder & Stoughton, 1966. Chapter IX: Providence and Care, (Pg 145) 3 Pamela Young, Hope Street, Coronet, 2011. Introduction, (Pg 2) 4 Evelyn Underhill, The Spiritual Life, Mowbray, 1984. Part One: What is Spiritual Life? (Pg 17/ 18) 5 Jacob Boehme, The Way to Christ, Paulist Press, 1978. The Third Treatise on Holy Prayer with an Order for each day of the week (1624), (para 17) 6 Stephen O'Brien, Visions of Another World, The Aquarian Press, 1989. 8 Communications from Beyond, (Pg 100) 7 Henry Thomas Hamblin, The Book of Daily Readings, The Rally, 1944. May 18, (Pg 77) 8 White Eagle on the Intuition and Initiation, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 2004. Part One: What the Intuition is, and is not - IV: Realising the Source - The Christ Within, (Pg 33) 9 Dannion Brinkley, Secrets of the Light, Piatkus, 2012. Part 1: There and Back Again - 1 My Lively Dance with Death, (Pg 16) 10 Richard Kent & Val Fotherby, The Final Frontier, Marshall Pickering, 1997. 18 The Engineering Officer (The story of Gerard Dunphy, Ireland), (Pg 114) 11 Jacky Newcomb, An Angel held my hand, HarperElement, 2007. Chapter 6: Angels and Miracles - and Some Fun Stories Too! (Pg 221) 12 Dom Aelred Graham, Christian Thought in Action, The Catholic Book Club, 1958. Chapter Three: Learning to Love, (Pg 48) 13 Michael Newton, Journey of Souls, Llewellyn Publications, 2009. Chapter One: Death and Departure, (Pg 15) 14 William Stainton Moses, Spirit Teachings, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Section VIII, (Pg 55 / 56) 15 Henry Thomas Hamblin, The Book of Daily Readings, The Rally, 1944. September 18, (Pg 138) 16 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Speak to Your Spirit Guides, (Pg 18) 17 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part One: Chapter XI - The Search for Spirituality (Spiritual Progression), (Pg 119) 18 Gems of Thought, The Greater World Christian Spiritualist Assn, 1989. How to Rescue Souls in Prison, (Pg 45) 19 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter V: Charity, (Pg 93) 20 Reza Aslan, No god but God, Arrow Books, 2006. 6. This Religion is a Science: The Development of Islamic Theology and Law, (Pg 152) 21 Michael Newton, Destiny of Souls: New Case Studies of Life Between Lives, Llewellyn Publications, 2005. 3: Earthly Spirits, (Pg 66) 22 Grace Cooke, The New Mediumship, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1994. VI. Discrimination, (Pg 73) 23 John Edward, After Life - Answers from the Other Side, Princess Books, 2004. Chapter Two: Shining Star Never Fades, (Pg 25) 24 Evelyn Underhill, The Fruits of the Spirit; Light of Christ; Abba, Longmans, Green and Co, 1957. Abba: Chapter V - The Will, (Pg 43) 25 F P Harton, The Elements of the Spiritual Life: A study in Ascetical Theology, SPCK, 1950. Part I - Chapter III Actual Grace, (Pg 21) 26 Martin Israel, The Pain That Heals, Hodder & Stoughton, 1981. Chapter 12: Equanimity: the Precious Fruit of Suffering, (Pg 137) 27 Martin Israel, The Pearl of Great Price, SPCK, 1988. 2 - The Inner Directive, (Pg 11/12) 28 Brenda Blanch, Heaven a Dance - An Evelyn Underhill Anthology, Triangle, 1992. The Spiritual Life, (Pg 21) 29 St Bernard of Clairvaux, The Love of God, Pickering & Inglis, 1983. Chapter III - Treatise on Grace and Free Choice, (Pg 48) 30 Gems of Thought, The Greater World Christian Spiritualist Assn, 1989. How Spirit Power Can Be Attracted, (Pg 148) 31 A W Austen, Teachings of Silver Birch, Psychic Press, 1993. Behind the Scenes at Seances, (Pg 143) 32 Paul Miller, Cavalcade of the Spirit, Volume I, The Psychic Book Club, 1943. The Moses of Spiritualism, (Pg 56) 33 Spiritism is a spiritualistic philosophy codified in the 19th century by the French educator Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail, under the codename Allan Kardec; it proposed the study of "the nature, origin, and destiny of spirits, and their relation with the corporeal world".

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34 Michael E. Tymn, The Articulate Dead, Galde Press, 2008. Part I: The Earliest Psychical Researchers - Two: The Epidemic Hits France, (Pg 28) 35 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Speak to Your Spirit Guides, (Pg 18) 36 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Do Recognise Spiritual Guidance, (Pg 38) 37 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 1: Chapter IV - Early Mysticism in the Near East, (Pg 50) 38 Georges Huber, My Angel Will Go Before You, Four Courts Press, 2006. Sitting at his gate, (Pg 99) 39 Kathleen Pond(ed), The Spirit of the Spanish Mystics, Burns & Oates,1958. St Peter of Alcantara, (Pg 46 / 47) 40 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. On Clear and Light Minds, Receptive to Influences, (Pg 27) 41 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Fighting Gloom, (Pg 54) 42 St. Theophan the Recluse, The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to it, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1995. 24 Renewal and Self-cleansing, (Pg 120) 43 White Eagle, Spiritual Unfoldment 1, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1994. III: Communication Between Two Worlds – Psychic Communication, (Pg 46) 44 Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God with Spiritual Maxims, Spire Books, 2007. Spiritual Maxims #4, (Pg 70) 45 St John of the Cross, The Dark Night of the Soul, Thomas Baker, 1924. Book 1 - Chapter I – 2, (Pg 6) 46 Barry Oates, David Hopkins and Carole Austin, Philosophy of Spiritualism, Spiritualists' National Union, 2007. First Principle: The Fatherhood of God - Relationship between God and Man, (Pg 14) 47 Jacky Newcomb, An Angel held my hand, HarperElement, 2007. Chapter 6: Angels and Miracles - and Some Fun Stories Too! (Pg 221) 48 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part ONE:The Mystic Fact: Chapter IV - The Characteristics of Mysticism, (Pg 83/84) 49 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part One: Chapter XI - The Search for Spirituality (Spiritual Guidance) (Pg 113) 50 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part Three: Chapter VI – Disciplines, (Pg 319) 51 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. The Influence of Angel Guides, (Pg 27) 52 Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Burns & Oates, 1948. Fifth Part of the Introduction. Chapter VIII - Affections which we must exercise after this Examination, (Pg 259) 53 William Stainton Moses, Spirit Teachings, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Section XI, (Pg 88) 54 Kathleen Pond(ed), The Spirit of the Spanish Mystics, Burns & Oates, 1958. Francisco de Osuna - Of the Three Manners of Silence, (Pg 43) 55 Julie Soskin, Transformation, College of Psychic Studies, 1995. Chapter 6 - Transformers of Light, (Pg 50) 56 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part Three: Chapter V - The Search for Spirituality (The Light Within), (Pg 313) 57 Ryuho Okawa, The Laws of the Sun, Element, 1996. Chapter Five: The Golden Age - The Path to El Cantare (1) - Embrace a Dream, (Pg 128) 58 Sylvia Browne, The Other Side and Back, Piatkus, 2000.1 Help from the Other Side: Our Angels and Spirit Guides, (Pg 22) 59 Lorna Byrne, Stairways to Heaven, Coronet, 2011. The Secrets of Your guardian Angel, (Pg xxxiii) 60 Henry Thomas Hamblin, Divine Adjustment, The Science of Thought Press, 1998. Chapter Two: On Resisting the Temptation to Fear, and the Overcoming of the Sin of Doubt, (Pg 26) 61 Lorna Byrne, Angels in my Hair, Century, 2008. Chapter Two: The Gatekeepers, (Pg 19) 62 Pamela Young, Hope Street, Coronet, 2011. Part Four: The Work, (Pg 217) 63 William Stainton Moses, Spirit Teachings, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Section V, (Pg 35) 64 White Eagle on the Intuition and Initiation, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 2004. Part Two: Developing the Intuition - VII: Accepting a Higher Power, (Pg 70) 65 Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud Speaks, Tudor Press, 1992. Chapter Twelve: Spiritualism versus Orthodox Christianity. (Pg 62) 66 Grace Cooke, The Jewel in the Lotus, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1973. V - The Lotus Pool and the Elder Brethren,(Pg 43) 67 Oliver Davies, Meister Eckhart - Selected Writings, Penguin Books, 1994. Selected German Sermons: Sermon 25, (Pg 227) 68 Joyce Huggett, Listening To God, Hodder & Stoughton, 1988. Chapter 4: Called to Contemplate, (Pg 41)

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69 White Eagle, The Quiet Mind, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1984. The Master Soul is Constant: .. is Wise in Speech and Action: Wait For Guidance, (Pg 65) 70 Lonnie C. Edwards M.D., Spiritual Laws That Govern Humanity and the Universe, Rosicrucian Order, AMORC, 2015 - Kindle version. Chapter 14: A Call for Healing and Peace 71 Sue Minns, Soulwork - Foundations for Spiritual Growth, College of Psychic Studies, 2003. Chapter 6: The Psychic Sense, (Pg 87) 72 Paul Miller, Cavalcade of the Spirit, Volume I, The Psychic Book Club, 1943. The Gospel comes to Life, (Pg 94) 73 Michael Newton, Journey of Souls, Llewellyn Publications, 2009. Chapter Eight: Our Guides, (Pg 121) 74 Robin Waterfield, Jacob Boehme, North Atlantic Books, 2001. Part Two - 4 - Letters to Friends, (Pg 159) 75 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 15: Mysticism and spirituality, (Pg 118) 76 Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, Penguin Books, 1998. The Long Text – 52, (Pg 125) 77 William Stainton Moses, Spirit Teachings, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Section XI, (Pg 86) 78 Paul Miller, Cavalcade of the Spirit, Volume I, The Psychic Book Club, 1943. The Moses of Spiritualism, (Pg 60) 79 Marie Cherrie, The Barbanell Report, Pilgrim Books, 1987. Part I: Fourteen - 12th July 1985, (Pg 79) 80 The Rev. C. Drayton Thomas, Beyond Life's Sunset, Psychic Press, Undated. Chapter XIX: The Meeting with Our Lord, (Pg 114) 81 Richard Whitwell, J.P. de Caussade - A Spiritual Study, The Instant Publishers, undated. Preface, (Pg 11/12) 82 Richard Whitwell, J.P. de Caussade - A Spiritual Study, The Instant Publishers, undated. Chapter V - The Present Moment, (Pg31) 83 Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Elliot Stock, 1891. The First Book - Warnings, useful for a spiritual life… Chapter VII 84 Teilhard de Chardin, Le Milieu Divin, Fontana, 1966. Part Two: The Divinisation of our Passivities, (Pg 84) 85 Henry Thomas Hamblin, The Life of the Spirit, The Science of Thought Press, 1934. Chapter II - Initiation (continued), (Pg 20) 86 Emanuel Swedenborg, Divine Providence, Swedenborg Society, 1949. Chapter X: The Divine Providence is equally with the wicked and with the good. (Pg 233) 87 Emanuel Swedenborg, Divine Providence, Swedenborg Society, 1949. Chapter IV: There are Laws of the Divine Providence, and these are unknown to man, (Pg 107) 88 Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, Penguin Books, 1998. The Long Text – 10, (Pg 55) 89 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter X: Grace and Free Will, (Pg 173) 90 Robin Waterfield, Jacob Boehme, North Atlantic Books, 2001. Part Two - 2 - God and Creation, (Pg 96) 91 Evelyn Underhill, Worship, Nisbet, 1946. Part I; Chapter I - The Nature of Worship, (Pg 11) 92 Lumsden Barkway, An Anthology of the Love of God (from the writings of Evelyn Underhill), Mowbray, 1953. III The Church and Sacraments: I The Church, the Home of Love: The Whole Body (The School of Charity), (Pg 85) 93 John Edward, After Life - Answers from the Other Side, Princess Books, 2004. Chapter Eight: The 9/11 Factor, (Pg 174) 94 Winifred Graham, More Letters From Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, 1943. My Final Message, I Say Good-bye Regretfully, (Pg 79) 95 Harry Emerson, Listen My Son, The Psychic Book Club, 1945. Chapter Sixteen: The Truth About Religion, (Pg 84) 96 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part Two: Chapter IV - Wisdom from Within (Awareness) (Pg 189) 97 Ralph Waldo Trine, In Tune with the Infinite, G Bell & Sons, 1931. Chapter III The Supreme Fact of Human Life, (Pg 31 / 32) 98 Julianus Pomerius, The Contemplative Life - 'De Vita Contemplativa', Newman Bookshop, 1947. Book One - Chapter 20, (Pg 43) 99 Peter Spink, Beyond Belief, Judy Piatkus, 1996. 6: The How of Learning, (Pg 88) 100 Bede Griffiths, Return to the Centre, Collins, Fount Paperbacks, 1978. 5. The One and the Many, (Pg 43) 101 Terry Tastard, The Spark in the Soul, Darton Longman and Todd, 1989. Chapter 3 - Meister Eckhart and God the Ground of Our Being, (Pg 45) 102 John Edward, After Life - Answers from the Other Side, Princess Books, 2004. Chapter Four: Houston, (Pg 83)

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103 John Edward, After Life - Answers from the Other Side, Princess Books, 2004. Chapter Four: Houston, (Pg 84) 104 Geraldine Pengelly, The Red Man Cometh, Athena Press, 2006. Everything Happens for a Reason, (Pg 105) 105 George Trowbridge, Swedenborg - Life and Teaching, Swedenborg Society, 1935. (Pg 111) 106 Henry Drummond, Natural Law in the Spirit World, Hodder & Stoughton, 1899. Environment, (Pg 271) 107 Anne Dooley, Guidance from Silver Birch, Spiritualist Press, 1966. Chapter Two: Who Are You? (Pg 23) 108 Teilhard de Chardin, The Heart of Matter, Collins, 1978. Part II: The Mass on the World – Prayer, (Pg 132) 109 Geraldine Pengelly, The Red Man Cometh, Athena Press, 2006. My Learning Continues, (Pg 58 / 59) 110 Morton T Kelsey, The Other Side of Silence, SPCK, 1985. Part Three: Preparation for the Inward Journey - 9. Time, (Pg 90 / 91) 111 Madame Guyon, Spiritual Torrents, Christian Books, 1984. Part II: Chapter X 112 John Edward, After Life - Answers from the Other Side, Princess Books, 2004. Chapter Ten: Papa, Can You Hear Me? (Pg 209) 113 Simone Weil, Waiting on God, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1952. Letters of Farewell; Letter VI; Last Thoughts, (Pg 41) 114 Pamela Young, Hope Street, Coronet, 2011. Part Four: The Work, (Pg 246) 115 Stephen O'Brien, Visions of Another World, The Aquarian Press, 1989. 16 Behind the Scenes, (Pg 205 / 206) 116 Stephen Henry Hobhouse, A Discourse on the Life to Come, Independent Press Limited, 1954. Chapter IV: The Indwelling Life, (Pg 58) 117 Stella Storm, Philosophy of Silver Birch, The Spiritual Truth Press, 1998. Chapter Six: The Responsibility of Mediumship. (Pg 57) 118 A W Austen, Teachings of Silver Birch, Psychic Press, 1993. Problems of Healing, (Pg 64) 119 Sherwood Eliot Wirt, Exploring the Spiritual Life, Lion Books, 1985. 14 - From The Rules and Exercises of Holy Living by Jeremy Taylor, (Pg 202) 120 Hazel Courteney, Divine Intervention, Cico Books, 2002. Chapter 8: The Meetings, (Pg 134) 121 Malcolm Muggeridge, Conversion: A Spiritual Journey, Collins, Fount Paperbacks, 1989. 8. The Soldier, (Pg 110) 122 Heidi Sawyer, Why My Mother Didn't Want Me To Be Psychic, Hay House, 2008. Chapter 2: What Are Psychic Development and Intuition? Inference from the 'Logical Mind', (Pg 24) 123 White Eagle, The Quiet Mind, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1984. The Master Soul is Constant: Help from Above, (Pg 11) 124 Max Müller, Thoughts on Life and Religion, Archibald Constable and Company, 1905. Death, (Pg 43) 125 Edmond Bordeaux Szekely, The Gospel of the Essenes, C W Daniel Co, 1976. From the Essene Book of Jesus: The Sevenfold Peace, (Pg 69) 126 William Stainton Moses, Spirit Teachings, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Section V, (Pg 37 / 38) 127 Vida Reed Stone, Behold My Song, Willing Publishing Company, 1947. Behold My Song, (Pg 26) 128 Paul Miller, Cavalcade of the Spirit, Volume I, The Psychic Book Club, 1943. The Moses of Spiritualism, (Pg 67) 129 Arthur Keith Desmond, The Gift of Healing - The Story of Lilley the Healer, Psychic Press, 1944. Book II: In the Present. Chapter Seventeen: Teachings of Dr. Latari, (Pg 134) 130 White Eagle, The Quiet Mind, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1984. Introduction, (Pg 9) 131 Stephen Henry Hobhouse, A Discourse on the Life to Come, Independent Press Limited, 1954. Chapter I: The Experience of Dying: The Angels, (Pg 18) 132 William Roache, Soul on the Street, Hay House, 2007. Part III: On The Street. 11: Settling Down, (Pg 178) 133 Michael Mitton, Wild Beasts and Angels, Darton Longman and Todd, 2000. Chapter 6 - Healing and Hope, (Pg 129) 134 Stephen Henry Hobhouse, A Discourse on the Life to Come, Independent Press Limited, 1954. Chapter VI: The Redemption of Hell, (Pg 67) 135 Geraldine Cummins, The Scripts of Cleophas, Psychic Press, 1961. The First Parchment - Chapter XIV: Saul is Confuted by Stephen, (Pg 45) 136 A Monk of the Eastern Church, Orthodox Spirituality, SPCK, 1980. Chapter IV: Christ the Sender of the Spirit, (Pg 72) 137 Stephen Henry Hobhouse, A Discourse on the Life to Come, Independent Press Limited, 1954. Chapter VI: The Redemption of Hell, (Pg 68) 138 Saint Ignatius of Loyola: Personal Writings, Penguin Books, 1996. The Spiritual Diary: Part I, (Pg 76)

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139 Bonaventure, The Journey of the Mind to God, Hackett, 1993. Chapter Seven: The Spiritual and Mystical Transport of the Mind in which Rest is given to our Understanding and our Affection passes over Entirely to God, (Pg 38) 140 Cecil Rose, When Man Listens, Blandford Press, 1956. Chapter Two: Learning God's Plan, (Pg 31) 141 Michal Levin, Spiritual Intelligence, Hodder & Stoughton, 2000. Part II: Your Journey. Chapter Three – Emerging, (Pg 38) 142 The Confessions of S. Augustine, Seeley & Co, 1909. Book the Seventh, (IX) 143 Evelyn Underhill, The Spiritual Life, Mowbray, 1984. Part One: What is Spiritual Life? (Pg 27) 144 Julie Soskin, Transformation, College of Psychic Studies, 1995. Chapter 8 - Spiritual Union, (Pg 64 /65) 145 Timothy Keller, The Reason for God, Hodder & Stoughton, 2009. EPILOGUE: Where do we go from here? (Pg 237)

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15.4: Spiritual Development – Intuition

For most of us, who are not experienced and trained mediums, the primary link between us and the transcendent world is intuition. This is our ability to gain knowledge without using our five senses, logic or reason. There is no loss of individuality within this process, and yet there seems to be a union, a bonding, between our self and one or more other spirits. It is a very powerful tool by which our spirituality, whilst we live on earth, can expand and blossom. It appears that more and more people are recognising the possibility of inspired thought and its potential for their lives. As the spiritual mentor Michal Levin observed: 1

Human Consciousness is changing. It is expanding to incorporate a sixth sense. Beyond sight, smell, sound, taste and touch there is another sense, a sense that responds to another aspect of our environment. A dimension for which we have no word because we cannot describe it – save by ascribing certain functions to it. It is a particular sensitivity. Intuition is the word most commonly used. We are facing the possibility, for some – maybe all – of us the eventual certainty, of expanding our intuitive functioning.

Intuition follows certain Cosmic Rules; it does not happen without good reason although often we may not be aware of any cause. As we start to accept the existence of a Spirit World and recognise the Natural Laws within which our lives are bound, then we can begin to explore and develop our link with the Spirit Realm and all therein. Once we do this we realise that the scope of our intuition is limitless, as stated by the mystic, poet and innovator Swami Paramananda: 2

There is knowledge of everything from intuition.

And in many cases it is a creative process through which we can acquire knowledge and ideas apparently without the arduous task of research, etc. Abu, communicating from the Spirit World, confirmed this and said that intuition: 3

…is a seeing, a seizing upon the resultant without the necessary labour of going around and through all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle and piecing together the 'resultant' after prolonged effort.

I believe that there is a rightful balance between knowledge from learning, reading and discussion and the knowledge that is gained from intuition; one supports the other. It seems to me that I could think of this duality as a pair of legs supporting an athlete, where if we only had one, then we would not be able to run as quickly as if we had two of similar proportions. On this theme, many mystics, such as Thomas A Kempis, believe that intuition is the only leg that we need. He was reported by Evelyn Underhill as saying: 4

Blessed be the ears that heed not outward speech but hear the whisper of God.

This may be OK for a cloistered contemplative, but for most of us, who have to balance a material existence with spiritual aspirations and also have sufficient knowledge to be able to accept inspirations that we get, there has to be a balance. John Blofeld, who was a British writer on Asian thought and religion, especially Taoism and Chinese Buddhism, said that he knew of: 5

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…no account of Enlightenment's occurring wholly as the cumulative result of sacred learning. At most one can say that learning may sometimes prepare the ground for an instantaneous intuitive experience.

The implication is that intuitive thoughts build upon the basic grounds which study, learning and previous inspired thoughts have created. That is, an idea has to settle into my psyche, be digested and understood before the next inspiration can be received which builds upon what I have already received, understood and accepted. Our spiritual houses have to be built brick by brick starting with good foundations.

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, an Indian philosopher and statesman whose book ‘An Idealist View of Life’ gives an additional view on this learning-intuition cycle: 6

The insight does not arise if we are not familiar with the facts of the case, the contradictions and the half views which intellect throws up. The successful practice of intuition requires previous study and assimilation of a multitude of facts and laws. We may take it that great intuitions arise out of a matrix of rationality. Secondly, when the discovery is made, we find that it has room for the partial concepts which preceded the discovery, if only they submit to a little readjustment and reinterpretation. The readjustment is so easy that, when the insight is attained it escapes notice and we imagine that the process of discovery is only rational synthesis. Thirdly, for purposes of communication, the insight has to be set forth as a rational synthesis. It is logical reason that consolidates the position and renders it easy for others to follow the intuitions of minds of more than average sensitiveness.

As he says, it is true that intuition is a difficult animal to which to pin the tail. We often believe that it is our own reasoning which has developed an idea whereas most times it is a combination of both knowledge and intuition. In the three volume set of books which comprise ‘The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross’, John writes: 7

And not only in these things does the Holy Spirit give such persons light, but also in many others, relating both to the present and to the future, and even, in many cases, as regards those absent from them; and although at times this comes to pass through intellectual forms, it frequently happens without the intervention of any forms that can be apprehended, so that these persons know not how they know. But this comes to them from the Divine Wisdom; for, since these souls exercise themselves in knowing and apprehending nothing with the faculties, they come in general, as we have said in the Mount, to know everything, according to that which the Wise Man says: ‘The worker of all things, who is Wisdom, taught me all things.'

In a much more modern context, Robert George Graham, communicating from the Spirit World through his daughter’s automatic writing, corroborated this by telling us that people living their earth lives gain inspiration from their spirit helpers: 8

...without being aware of the fact.

…and often, as Roy Dixon-Smith said: 9

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We do not recognise their impressions as external ones but regard them as hunches, brainwaves...

For those of us who do recognise that our inspirational base lies within the Spirit World then we can acknowledge the help that we get from our guides and all those other supporters. And what a wonderful experience it is, as Winifred Graham was inspired to write: 10

But you who believe, and especially those who are psychic, can feel the nearness, and enjoy the contact of angel visitors to earth. They bring you soul-comfort, fortitude, and a world of wonderful inspiration.

Most inspirational thoughts that I have had come as a consequence of contemplating a problem or some topic where I cannot seem to find a logical or reasoning foothold. Andrew Harvey has similar experiences: 11

Sometimes, too, I have found I have been given direct inner answers to my problems and clear guidance. Usually, however, the 'answers' or 'guidance' came more gradually - often in the course of an event or incident during the day that revealed the nature of the problem I was dealing with and its possible solution.

…and the way this often happens was described by William Clemmons: 12

Finally, we discover that this insight came to us after we had had a long period of activity in working on the problem, and then began to relax our inner controls; there was an alteration between our own efforts and relaxation - it just 'came to us'.

...and from the Sacred Tibetan Teachings comes the reassuring words: 13

Knowledge which did not appear before becomes evident for the first time.

In attempting to describe what it is like to be psychic, the spiritual author and teacher Heidi Sawyer explained that inspiring spirits: 14

...drop helpful hints and valuable information into our consciousness. Most of us, are not listening.

Another way that spirits awaken a person’s curiosity in spirit communication is through what the ‘psychic barber’ Gordon Smith calls ‘synchronicity'. This, he explains, is: 15

...essentially a pattern of coincidences that seems too significant to be random and can take all manner of forms. Perhaps when you are having one of those sudden lows that seem to come out of nowhere and start missing your loved one intensely, you are aware that 'your' song will start playing on the radio, or a snatch of it will blast out of the window of a passing car. ...and I expect that there are as many ways of getting that hint across as there are Spirits.

This was corroborated by the spirit communicating through Neale Donald Walsch who suggested that: 16

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Each of you experiences your conversations with God in your own way—and in different ways at different times. It will always be a two-way conversation, such as the one we are having right now. It could be a conversation “in your head,” or on paper, or with My responses taking just a little more time, and reaching you in the form of the next song that you hear, or the next movie you see, or the next lecture you attend, or the next magazine article you read, or in the chance utterance of a friend whom you “just happen” to run into on the Street.

Similar events will have happened in your life; think about it and remember those occasions. In my own case, I have received inspired thoughts during those silent and peaceful times when either just going to sleep or just waking up. At these times the inspired thought easily slips into oblivion and becomes impossible to remember. In order to counter this, during my university days, I attached a large piece of paper and a pencil on a string to the wall by the side of my bed so that I could capture these fleeting thoughts without having to open my eyes or get out of bed. It worked ... because when we do relax and put our problems ‘out of our mind’ it is then that flashes of inspiration can arrive. This, according to Brenda Blanch, has been documented by Evelyn Underhill: 17

But when those who are at least attempting to live the life of Spirit, and have consequently become more or less sensitive to its movements, are confronted by perplexing choices, and seem to themselves to have no clear light, they will often become aware, if they were to wait in quietness, of a subtle yet insistent pressure in favour of the path which they should take. The early Friends were accustomed to trust implicitly in the indications of this kind, and they were usually justified.

I suppose that the best ‘quietness’ of the mind is when we are asleep. Hence many get intuitive thoughts during this time dreamtime as Radhakrishnan wrote: 18

"Sing, heavenly muse," is the sublime opening of Paradise Lost. Milton speaks of the "celestial patroness" who...... deigns Her nightly visitation, unimplored And dictates to me slumbering; or inspires Easy my unpremeditated verse. [Paradise Lost, Book ix. 1 1 . 2 1-24.]

The respected medium Horace Leaf has provided a specific example of the effect of dreams. He described how a friend of his, an accountant living in Aberdeen, Scotland, had a dream to thank for holding his job: 19

When quite a young man, he was given his first important piece of accountancy to do. He was terribly worried because of his inability to make the account balance and stayed up late at night trying to find out the cause of the deficiency, but without success. He retired to bed scared and almost broken-hearted, as he had to present his report the next morning. During the night, he dreamed he saw one of the books he had been auditing, with a finger pointing at an item which represented the deficiency in his balance. When he awoke he hurried back to business and, opening the book, the counterpart of which he had seen in his dream, found the very item which he had so unaccountably missed.

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In the dream-state our minds are relaxed and able to link with the Spirit World more easily because we will have let go of pressing problems. This seems to be a prerequisite for spirit driven inspiration. The spirit teacher White Eagle says: 20

…that the first step in using the intuition is not relying on the mind. Truly not to know - not to let the mind close on an idea - is the best way to open the eyes to the spirit; it is a kind of faith, a deep one.

Inspirational thoughts come to us in some unusual occasions. Whilst I have mentioned the following in a previous chapter, it is worth outlining again as inspiration lies at its heart. On one occasion during my work, I remember talking to a group of people about a particular line of analytical thought. After explaining a difficult concept, one of the group said that I had chosen words which encapsulated the whole of the problem. Even at that point I could not remember the words I had used. I’m certain, with hindsight, that I had been, in part, the mouthpiece of a spirit guide. This sort of guidance is not uncommon in Spiritualist addresses and other spiritually related situations. Jacob Boehme, born into poverty in 1575 and who emerged as one of the most renowned mystics of his and subsequent ages, was one such inspired speaker and writer, who said: 21

I do not purpose, premeditate, and muse aforehand what I am to write or speak, but I submit and resign myself to the knowledge of God.

We are told by the Quaker John Punshon that the 17 th century preachers John Camm and George Fox both seemed to speak prophetically: 22

...under divine inspiration rather than as interpreters of a written revelation.

Perhaps, when we are teaching or speaking in a public arena we ought to ask ourselves the same question as came to the Chinese Christian missionary Watchman Nee: 23

Should we not ask ourselves whether what we preach emerges from God's revelation or comes from men?

This perhaps also applies to the written word. I have read many books by many different types of people and whether they profess to be centred on the spiritual or not I have found some sentences and thoughts contained within them which I am sure were inspired from Spirit. One that springs quickly to mind is a sentence from Terry Pratchett’s hilarious book ‘Unseen Academicals’ in which he wrote: 24

The librarian was not very familiar with love, which had always struck him as a bit ethereal and soppy, but kindness, on the other hand was practical .

So perhaps we don’t need to read and study just religious books but be very mindful of the words we are reading in any book. The British philosopher, mystic, traveller, and guru known as Paul Brunton realised that there are certain sentences and paragraphs in many books which: 25

...stand up like peaks in such books. There are the passages wherein the author has written wiser than he knew, written I should say, under inspiration of his spiritual self.

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Irrespective of the type of inspiration, many come unrequested and yet are very welcome. They seem to be there when needed and as Thomas Merton felt, we somehow trip over the ideas that we need, for they: 26

…seem to have been put there for us to find.

But we have to create the right environment so that we can stumble across the required inspirations. The most appropriate environment is wherever you feel most comfortable, your mind is stilled and there is a quietness surrounding you. When you have shut out the entire daily hubbub and are able to be perfectly tranquil. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan said that: 27

The intuition which is an activity of the whole being cannot be gained by mere intellectual effort, though it is equally true that it cannot be gained without it. Intellectual inaction seems to be the prelude to the intuitive flash. To allow the non- intellectual and yet rational part of our mind to play on the object, relaxation is necessary.

…and he went on to say: 28

Intuitive ideas spring in those deep silences which interrupt our busy lives. In them the mind is brought under the grasp of the spirit. It is then that our deeper consciousness grows and becomes intensely aware of the nature of the object. The truth shapes itself from within and leaps forth as a spark from fire. The relaxation of intellect means the activity of the whole mind, the awakening of the whole being for the crucial act to arise. When the flash occurs, we feel it to be true and find that it lifts up the puzzles and paradoxes into a luminous atmosphere.

There have been many spirits, mystics and spiritual writers who have expressed the view that intuitive communication is best realised in quiet times, when the pressures of our material lives can be reduced. I will provide a few references from such august spirits as John Blofeld (a British writer on Asian thought and religion), Imperator (the spirit communicator working through the channel of William Stainton Moses), White Eagle, Evelyn Underhill (the famous Christian mystic and writer on mysticism), and Francisco de Osuna (a 16 th century Franciscan mystic), respectively:

The promptings of intuition are unfailingly there for those who seek them, but its voice can be heard only amidst stillness. 29

...truth, the holiest and purest, comes direct from spirit to spirit, and may not be proclaimed on the world’s housetop. Doubtless there are coarse views of truth, rude blocks which man has hewn, and which all may use alike. These are the foundation-stones which every builder must use. But the richest and purest gems must be preserved in the spirit-shrine, and be gazed upon in silence and alone. 30

Always, in your inner selves and in your quiet moments, you can rise into this perfect life, and receive from those who dwell there the inspiration to live likewise on earth . 31

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But when those who are at least attempting to live the life of the Spirit, and have consequently become more or less sensitive to its movements, are confronted by perplexing choices, and seem to themselves to have no clear light, they will often become aware, if they will wait in quietness, of a subtle yet insistent pressure in favour of the path which they should take . 32

For, as it is said in the Gospel, we hear the voice of God - that is, his inspiration - we do not know where it goes nor whence it comes. For this reason we should be very quiet and listen intently . 33

Opening our ears is important. We have to ‘listen’ to spirit without which, no matter how much they try to inspire us, we will be deaf to it. Pamela Young suggested that we: 34

Listen to your intuition, follow your inner voice, and watch for signs of confirmation from Spirit.

The medium Betty Shine, knowing that we are all to some degree or other intuitive, believed that most of us have lost the art of listening. Consequentially she wrote: 35

If you want to take better control of your life, do not ignore your gut feelings, because they will usually be right.

...and Betty went on to explain the relationship between intuition and listening: 36

It is quite simple. By listening to your feelings, and taking note of them, you automatically release your mind at which point it expands and touches the Universal Mind, and information is received. With practice and relaxation, your mind might continue to expand, and you may eventually become psychic.

The best opportunities to ‘listen’ to spirit are in those places and times when we are quiet and alone. The Gospel of the Essenes mentioned that: 37

I will speak with you When you are alone ... I will speak to you Through the Wisdom of the Ancients.

Don’t misinterpret being quiet as being in a totally submissive state. Cecil Rose in ‘When Man Listens’ explained that: 38

This does not mean that, when we have a `quiet time,' we resign our reasoning powers. The idea that listening to God means making your mind a blank is a curious misconception which has hindered many people. It does mean that you leave room for God to lead you beyond your human thoughts, and tell you things you could never know yourself.

Interestingly, whilst we can sometimes recognise that we have been inspired, most of the time we haven’t a clue which spirit is providing us with the thought. The psychic

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:08:56 15.4 Spiritual Development – Intuition Page 8 of 30 researcher Frederic Wood, from his work with many different spirit teachers especially Lady Nona, 39 was able to write: 40

Inspiration is a still weaker form of trance-control. In creative effort, for example, external ideas are sometimes absorbed into our consciousness. The artist, composer, writer, and preacher are each and all familiar with it, though they seldom know the source, or the individual intelligence who may be inspiring them.

At times of solitude and silence, when your guides and spirit helpers influence you most, I do not think it is very important to know the detail of the source. It is at those times when you are receptive then, as the medium and teacher Julie Soskin noticed: 41

All the beings of light who work with you and through you are extremely busy and active at this time. Active in their inspiration and their teaching...

To be responsive to intuitive signals needs to be developed. In some people it seems to be well honed from the very beginning, but for most of us it has to be tuned progressively. According to Cyprian Smith, Meister Eckhart is believed to have said: 42

...we have to learn new ways of knowing.

Although it is not easy, we can educate ourselves to become more receptive to spiritual thoughts. Winifred Graham’s late father was a supporter of this and suggested that we: 43

...must try to cultivate spiritual insight, which is a great gift, and can be taught.

Once acquired then it is surprising when intuitive thought bubbles unwittingly to the surface. It has happened to me during talks that I have given, where I’m certain that the words I used were inspired. Apparently this is not an unusual occurrence. The clinician and Jungian analyst Harry A. Wilmer, although he used the word meditation rather than inspired thought, noted that: 44

It is usually not recognised that some individuals have spontaneous moments of meditation in the course of their ordinary speech.

Becoming more sensitive to our spirit friends is a natural consequence of increasing our spirituality. We become more sensitive to impressions from them as the English medium realised: 45

...any insight I have is entirely dependent on my own spiritual evolution.

There are many ways, too, that we can consciously improve our links with the inspiring thoughts of our guides. One was suggested by White Eagle: 46

Endeavour to train yourself to be receptive on the intuitional planes. One way of doing this is to keep what you are so fond of calling 'an open mind'.

...and another, which is vital to increasing our spirituality, is to come to terms with our own character, as Heidi Sawyer recommended: 47

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Knowing yourself is one of the key starting points of developing any aspect of psychic or intuitive awareness.

Perhaps the one process which underpins any gift that we are trying to develop is practice. There is no substitute for it. The more you link with spirit the stronger will that connection become. Evelyn Underhill tells us that: 48

Instinct is at best a rough and ready tool of life: practice is required if it is to produce its best results.

Intuitive thoughts are given to us for a reason. Often it is to solve a problem or to understand a concept or to help us to become aware of a particular truth or to spur us to act. Irrespective of which of these is the reason, it is true that the more support we have from our friends, colleagues and like-minded people the better will be the result. In the book ‘Spiritual Alchemy’, Christine Page, a doctor of medicine and a homeopath, stated that: 49

What the soul needs is support and encouragement to follow its intuition...

One of the things to learn about intuitive reception is that it is easy to cut off the link with spirit. The bond between the Spirit World and the Earth Plane is fragile. It will respond to all sorts of perturbations. For example, White Eagle told us that: 50

The elements composing the body must be purified if the soul and the spirit are to be quickened to receive impression and inspiration from their true home.

So we must look after our physical and well as our spiritual aspects. According to Georges Huber, the Blessed Peter Faber, the 16 th Century co-founder of the Jesuits, took this a little further and pointed out: 51

…that vice, and particularly over-eating and over-drinking, shuts a person off from the inspirations of the good angels and leaves them open to the influence of the bad angels.

And therefore we have to be aware that potentially, as Joyce Huggett experienced: 52

...the inner voice I heard did not always originate in God.

This point was also touched on by the healer Agnes Sanford when she said that: 53

There is of course danger in this [intuitive knowing] as there is danger in all adventure.

And what an adventure it is, if we respond and accept our intuitive impulses. However, it would be irresponsible of us to consider every intuitive feeling as always being for our long term benefit. There are spirits who may not have our best interests always at heart. This means that we must ‘test’ all our inspirations with reason and common sense. As far back as the 14 th Century the unknown author of the Cloud of Unknowing advised: 54

...in all ordinary activities a man must never pursue an inspiration - be it ever so pious or attractive - until he has rationally examined it in the light of these three

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witnesses [in the light of Scripture, reliable counsel, and the dictates of common sense] .

And in the following century the mystic Thomas A Kempis cautioned us that: 55

We must not credit every word and every rising thought But with care and patience we must weigh a matter as it is with God.

The 18 th century French Jesuit priest couched it in different terms: 56

Intuition and inspiration are then the intimations of God’s will and it is best for souls to obey them, not forgetting, however, the caution required when doing so.

Therefore we need to learn what to do to make sure that what inspirations we have are right for us. This was stressed by Brother Watchman Nee, a church leader and Christian teacher who worked in China during the first half of the 20th century: 57

God's children should learn daily in experience what is and what is not genuine intuition.

…and he followed this with: 58

If we wish to walk after the spirit we must be watchful in all points, searching especially the source of every notion and sensation.

Moving westwards into the Indian subcontinent, Bede Griffiths, a British-born Benedictine monk who lived in ashrams in South India, warned: 59

When it comes to the realm of the psychic, however, intuition is fundamental but, and this needs to be repeated, whatever is experienced in this realm always has to be studied in the light of reason.

There is a fundamental threshold, however, which has to be reached before inspiration and reason are happy bed-fellows. In your early days of spiritual development your intuition will not be sufficiently tuned to allow you to apply reason to anything that you receive. Later this will not be the case, as the truths that you will be given will be sufficient for your mental strength to be completely applied. All this was outlined by White Eagle: 60

Until a person has acquired a certain degree of intuition and inner vision, the questions that he or she will be asking will be unanswerable. Reason can only be satisfied as intuition unfolds.

Nevertheless, we have to be careful not to subdue all intuitions based on our ability to reason and apply common sense. Life, being an adventure, will naturally force us to take risks. Sometimes, therefore, we must follow our intuition even though reason may advise otherwise. Cecil Rose, a member of the Christian organisation ‘The Oxford Group’ understood this and wrote: 61

If we are to fit into God's plan for us, we are again and again to take steps for which it is impossible at the time to see the real reasons.

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This makes reason and logic difficult to apply. Nevertheless, as we move forward in life we often take steps in the dark; where we cannot see the consequences of what we do. This may happen only a couple of times in a person’s life but each time it does it tends to be life changing. For myself, this has happened three times – so far – and on each occasion I have (with hindsight) felt an influence guiding me even though, if I had applied common sense, then perhaps I would not have ventured out in the way I actually did. When I read William Roache’s words, they resonated with me: 62

I think at some point you do have to rationalise what you're doing, but taking highly important steps always has to be intuitive.

Another spiritual disciple to support that view is White Feather, the guide to Geraldine Pengelly, who said: 63

Always go with the first impressions

Often monumental changes in my life were not spiritual but material; they revolved around my material life. And, of course, inspiration and guidance will often relate to the material world and our situation within it. This is certainly true in my case and which was nicely explained by White Eagle: 64

As you work with courage and patience in your particular corner, so will you be rewarded by an ever-increasing consciousness of the companionship and the very real help in your material lives, given to you by those invisible.

In parallel with this physical help, there have been spiritual inspirational transformations – some, fortunately, I was able to talk over with a mentor. The idea of having a director, mentor, confessor, call it what you will, has been stressed by Carl Jung in the context of therapy: 65

Every therapist ought to have a control by some third person, so that he remains open to another point of view. Even the pope has a confessor. I always advise analysts: "Have a father confessor, or a mother confessor!" Women are particularly gifted for playing such a part. They often have excellent intuition and a trenchant critical insight, and can see what men have up their sleeves, at times see also into men's animal intrigues. They see aspects that the man does not see. That is why no woman has ever been convinced that her husband is a superman!

In the spiritual context, the Roman Catholic saint, Francis de Sales, recommends a ‘director’ for all those on the spiritual pathway: 66

But before giving your consent to inspirations in important or extraordinary matters, in order that you may not be deceived, ask counsel always of your director, so that he may examine whether the inspiration is true or false; because the enemy, seeing a soul prompt to consent to inspirations, very often prepares false ones in order to deceive her; but this he can never do, so long as she obeys her director with humility.

In order to do this, you must have real confidence and trust in your spiritual mentor. Such

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:08:56 15.4 Spiritual Development – Intuition Page 12 of 30 people are very hard to come by and often it is left to you and I, as individuals, using our own reason and common sense to determine whether we should trust that which we have been intuitively given by Spirit. In this process, there needs to be a balance between analysis and inspiration. Too much analysis will quash inspirations and they will not be acted upon, whereas too little analytical reasoning will leave us open to thoughts which are not in our best interests. To stress this point the Quaker John Punshon wrote: 67

Intuition and insight are precious gifts, more usually associated with wisdom than an analytical mind.

Nevertheless, it is in this balance that I have difficulty; I am, by nature, an analyst. All of my working life I have honed this characteristic. Now I must temper it and put it in its correct perspective. As reported by Aldous Huxley, Jalal-ud-Din Rumi, the 13th-century Persian poet, jurist, theologian, and mystic, put it very poetically and wrote: 68

Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment; Cleverness is mere opinion, bewilderment is intuition.

…and where the fulcrum of this balance lies is hard to establish as John Blofeld recognised: 69

Just at what point understanding parts company from what has previously been conceived intellectually and becomes pure intuitive experience is hard to say.

This gives us a little further insight into intuition. Our Angelic friends do not give us all the answers on a plate; they stimulate our thoughts so that we may think about an idea and develop it for ourselves. Thus Rumi’s bewilderment leads to thoughts which then lead to an accepted (or rejected) idea which can then be built upon by more inspirations; and so the process continues. This is the spiritual learning mechanism; it is creative as identified by the British mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russell: 70

...avoid the intellect, which looks back and is static; what we must use is intuition, which contains within itself the urge to creative novelty.

This advice supports that of the 14 th century German mystic John Tauler: 71

...that in the school of spirit, man does not learn through books, which teach through outward images addressed to the senses; but here the truth, which of its nature does not speak by means of images, is spoken into the soul itself.

I’ll give you a few more views on the juxtaposition of analysis and intuition from St John of the Cross, Bede Griffiths, Aldous Huxley and Georges Huber:

Wherefore it is best to learn to silence the faculties and to cause them to be still, so that God may speak . 72

Our scientific habit of mind has taught us to concentrate on gross matter and its rational analysis, so that the subtle senses, with their intuitive perception, have become atrophied . 73

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...for the habit of analytical thought is fatal to the intuitions of integral thinking, whether on the 'psychic' or the spiritual level . 74

The less the soul is controlled by the senses, St Thomas observes, the more open is it to angels' inspirations . 75

Of course all this assumes that we receive intuitive thoughts. I’m sure that we all do although often we can’t recognise them. But whatever happens, take the advice of Carl Jung who said: 76

If insight does not come by itself, speculation is pointless.

In other words, don’t try to force the issue; be patient and develop your link with Spirit and eventually your connection with your guides and helpers will emerge. Whatever you do, don’t be put off if initially you can’t connect. Neither should you be deterred by those people around you that do not understand the importance of intuition. Brian Snellgrove, the originator of the use of Kirlian energy photography as a diagnostic tool to examine physical and mental conditions, realised this and wrote: 77

Do not be put off by the sceptics and cynics. They contribute very little to the sum total of human knowledge. ... Follow your instinct.

And Father M C D'Arcy, a leading English Jesuit philosopher during the first half of the 20th century, informed us that, in his sermon for the feast of St. Martin, Thomas Aquinas implored us not to reject inspired thoughts: 78

A man hears from the Father when the good inspiration comes, he fails to learn when he rejects the inspiration. .. The learner is he who bends his will to the divine inspiration...

…and from the Scottish evangelist Henry Drummond we learn that: 79

And there is the Talent for Inspiration. Neglect that, and all the scenery of the spiritual world is flat and frozen. But cultivate it, and it penetrates the whole soul with sacred fire, and illuminates creation with God.

So don’t ignore or suppress intuition and associated inspiration; it should be one strand, albeit an important one, of your spiritual development. Brian Weiss, based on his research experience into past life regression, future-life progression and survival of the human soul after death, was able to inform us that we: 80

…are given intuitive powers we should follow and not try to resist.

We can achieve this by linking with our spirit guides and others who will teach and inspire us. We can do this NOW even during our earthly lives as Helen Greaves was told by her deceased friend Miss Francis Banks: 81

...so that even during the limitation of earthly life, he [man] can enter the beauty of spiritual worlds and receive inspiration therefrom.

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And White Eagle, too, told us that we can make an intuitive connection with spirit: 82

Through emotion - or, better still through intuition - one does reach the spirit.

By taking this route, we can expand our knowledge of the truths which impact upon our lives – both spiritual and physical. In fact, it is only though inspiration that universal truths can be realised. Neale Donald Walsch was told by his communicator from the world of spirit that we should: 83

Always listen to your feelings. Listen to your highest thoughts. Listen to your experience. Whenever any of these differ from what you've been told by your teachers, or read in your books, forget the words. Words are the least reliable purveyor of the Truth.

We begin with words - taught and read; we end with inspiration which supplants all that has gone before and which we use as a springboard to truths unknown. The truths that we discover are not trivial but momentous; cosmic; universal as well as those which affect our daily lives. The implication is that all revelations are personal and unique to each of us alone. I have experienced the sort of inspiration which is mind boggling in so far as at the instant that I understood it, that understanding was whisked away from my grasp. It is this sort of realisation that Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows was referring to when she wrote: 84

To more fully understand the greater mysteries of the universe, the birth of the higher consciousness is required, and it is herein that the greater advanced intuitive nature of man rests.

Being sensitive to the telepathic links we have to our spirit mentors, provides a golden thread which we can use to move towards a better understanding of the Natural Laws. The more we know of these Laws and their implications, the better we can conduct our lives to be in tune with them. This point was made by Estelle Roberts’ guide Red Cloud: 85

Inspiration, to my understanding, means tuning in to the law of God...

Nonetheless, most intuitive knowledge is usually about our relationship with our spiritual journey and our spirit communicators, acting as agents of our Creator, seem to know what is best for us at any particular time, as Jacob Boehme recognised: 86

True knowing is the revelation of the Spirit of God...He knows what he wishes in His children.

…and the 14 th century English Augustinian mystic, Walter Hilton, informed us that: 87

Through this inspiration, a pure soul perceives readily the 'veins of His whisperings' which are the specific revelations of His essential truth.

Specific in so far as they relate just to the recipient. Each inspiration reveals a little bit of knowledge – one step at a time, as the medium Ronald F Vowles wrote in the introduction to his book ‘The Greater Truth’: 88

...a little knowledge and truth is released which will become available to the

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conscious mind in the form of inspired thought.

Such enlightenment has been recognised for thousands of years. One of the earliest references that I have found is in ‘The Zend Avesta of Zarathustra’ which tells of the religious beliefs of Zoroaster or Zarathustra. He was born between the 18th and 6th Centuries BC and was an Iranian/Persian prophet and philosopher and the founder of Zoroastrianism. In this book is given: 89

1. And then the Understanding, 2. That continuously unfolds 3. And that one that 4. Is not acquired through learning.

Some of these ‘hints’ at truths are not always recognised as such although, in time, we may realise the importance of them. Father Andrew, an Anglican friar, noticed that: 90

There come to our souls sometimes understandings, an urge, a light, some sort of interpretation. Some secret of the divine will suddenly become clear.

Using this ‘light’ analogy Father Andrew, in one of his letters to a fellow Christian in what was then Southern Rhodesia, indicated how most of us relate to the Spirit World: 91

I do not pretend to see light, but I do see gleams, and I know I am right to follow those gleams.

When we become aware of one of this ‘rays of light’ is the point when we shout, like Archimedes, ‘Eureka!’

Over time the small glimpses of truths discovered through learning AND through intuition allow us to construct our spiritual philosophy and from that develop and implement our Philosophy of Life. Each brick in our knowledge wall does not have to be from scientific or ‘proven’ sources, in fact, those gained intuitively will often be unable to be proven. This does not mean that we have failed in the construction of our belief system, just that some elements are not yet provable. David Hay, in his book ‘Exploring Inner Space - Scientists and Religious Experience’ referred to the 18 th century theologian Jonathan Edwards who said that for him: 92

Spiritual knowledge … is a kind of insight. Faith is perception, not an admission of ignorance...

Building upon these small insights our understanding will expand and continue to expand. This, according to Franklin Chambers, was realised by the religious writer Baron Von Hügel who said: 93

...did I come to see with final vividness and fullness how deep and how far that intuition leads him who accepts it as true.

As an aside, it is worth noting that not all inspirations are positive. If you can imagine walking the spiritual pathway then whenever we find ourselves drifting from the main path we will be ‘nudged’, by spirit, back on track. This type of intuition could be considered as

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:08:56 15.4 Spiritual Development – Intuition Page 16 of 30 being negative. Ralph Waldo Emerson, an American essayist, philosopher, and poet, best remembered for leading the Transcendentalist movement of the mid 19th century, wrote about the scope of inspirational thought in his book ‘Natural History of Intellect’: 94

The action of the Instinct is for the most part negative, regulative, rather than initiative or impulsive. But it has a range as wide as human nature, running over all the ground of morals, of intellect and of sense.

…and he also commented that intuition: 95

…is that glimpse of inextinguishable light by which men are guided; though it does not show objects, yet it shows the way.

However such intuitive thought affects and tries to direct you, the important thing is, once you have accepted its authority, to act upon it. It is no use developing your intuitive sense and then when you receive advice through that route to ignore it. This is different than not recognising what is being conveyed to you; it is the deliberate action of disregarding the advice. This idea of enacting inspired thoughts was uppermost in the mind of William Law when he quoted from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer for Rogation Sunday, Prevent (of Trinity 17): 96

"O God, from whom all good things do come, grant to us Thy humble servants that by Thy Holy inspiration we may think those things that be good, and by thy merciful guiding may perform the same "

Making use of intuition is paramount. Of this, Watchman Nee wrote: 97

Let us therefore remember the functions of the spirit. To be led by the spirit is to follow its intuition. The Holy Spirit leads the saints by this intuition

…and our guides lead us in a similar way. Meister Eckhart had this to say about our inner inspirations: 98

For we should concentrate on this inner prompting, and act from it, whether through reading or praying or - if it is fitting - some form of external activity.

In this way you will, as the spiritual researcher and teacher Ian Lawton identified, be doing the right thing: 99

If you learn to feel with your intuition, and then act, you will always do the right thing. It may not be perfect, but it will be right.

One aspect of action is not only to directly improve our spirituality but to help others (which indirectly has an impact on our own spiritual progress). Based on his understanding gained from his Near Death Experiences, Dannion Brinkley wrote: 100

The more you follow your intuition from a place of purity, for the benefit of others, the stronger it grows.

Our Philosophy of Life therefore expands and accepts that the revelations are from God’s

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:08:56 15.4 Spiritual Development – Intuition Page 17 of 30 agents. According to Jean Leclercq, St Bernard’s aim was always to remind us that: 101

…those good ideas we get for the conduct of our own...life are always a revelation from God himself?

It may be that an intuition does not directly lead to action but is the trigger to a wider process. Taking a recognised creative inspiration and using this as the stimulus for further contemplation will usually lead to either a direct acceptance or rejection of the inspired thought. It is, at least, one mechanism that we can use to authenticate what we are given. White Eagle suggested this route in his communications which led to the book ‘White Eagle on the Intuition and Initiation’: 102

Often, intuition comes like a flash; it is an inward knowing. The thing is to have courage to act on it, to be prepared for whatever it brings. Then the intuition can be further developed in meditation: not through activity of the mind but through quiet contemplation within the sanctuary of the heart.

One understood intuitive thought will always become the foundation for more inspired communications. John Punshon in ‘Encounter With Silence’ made the point that: 103

If you are faithful to that measure of light that you have been given to live up to, they said, more will be given when you are ready. This is a lovely realism.

This highlights the need to regularly enter into a contemplative state whereby our lives are still and we are able to ‘listen’ to our guides, as the medium Robert Brown suggested: 104

We can all profit from taking time to 'listen' and follow the direction of Spirit.

Later in the same book, he also advised that: 105

A good test for inspiration is to think of a subject, perhaps one you know well, and sit as for meditation. Open all the centres [chakras], but especially direct the energy to the heart. Reflect on the ... [subject] ... and what it means to you and see the energy especially going to the heart and the crown chakra.

I’ll expand the idea of Chakras in a later chapter, but in the initial stages of linking with spirit, I would advise that the best mechanism is through contemplation. This is where you take a subject and apply your mind, in an open sort of way, to it. This, to my way of thinking, is different to meditation which is where you try to empty the mind and let the thoughts of spirit enter unmolested. The latter is not a problem in the advanced stages of spiritual development, but in the early days it opens your psyche to all sorts of adventurous spirits who may or may not give you good advice. Even though the likes of William Roache suggest meditation: 106

Meditation is of course an important part of this [spiritual development] process, because it is basically a way to relax and let the higher self come in and inspire you.

…as does Sherwood Wirt: 107

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Our activity therefore should consist in placing ourselves in a state of susceptibility to divine impressions, and pliability to all the operations of the eternal Word.

I would choose the contemplative route first. In this state you can listen to your inner promptings. Colum Hayward, reflecting the ideas of White Eagle, said: 108

Nonetheless to hear whatever comes from within and react appropriately is by far the best way forward. Insight is real.

This support from spirit through inspiration was also communicated to Beatrice Russell: 109

...we can give you strong impressions and help you through your intuition...

…and in the ancient script of the book ‘Unto Thee I Grant’, comes the advice: 110

Wherefore to thee alone speak shadows in the visions of thy mind? Reverence them: for know that these are from on high.

You will need also to bear in mind that you may not be able to understand all inspirations at the time your receive them. St John of the Cross realised this: 111

And thus there may pass through the soul many detailed messages from God which neither the soul nor its director will understand until the proper time.

This is quite a rare occurrence, as usually, your spirit guides know when is best to feed you with particular inspired thoughts. Nevertheless, it may be necessary, on some occasions, to park an inspiration. Remember, in a previous chapter, I have stressed the importance of recording all your thoughts, ideas, inspirations, etc as you plough your spiritual furrow. This is one occasion when you will find it useful. Write down in a journal all inspired thoughts in particular those which you have had to park. Subsequently you will be able to bring the inspirations back to your mind and, now having the necessary knowledge, be able to accept or reject them. And you don’t need to be intellectual or have a ‘head full of theology’ to be inspired by spirit. What is important is to recognise the impact that spirit have on you. Beatrice Russell was informed by her spirit communicator that: 112

...it is not Reason that counts but the illumined faith of those who can live intuitively; those who know, without having deep scientific knowledge.

So don’t be put off or feel inferior just because you don’t have an intellectual background. God, through his spiritual agents, decides who becomes a link to spirit not the education system.

Maybe, at this stage, it is useful to get some idea about what inspiration and intuition really are. Some writers use phrases, like in Neale Donald Walsch’s book, which don’t tell us too much but which you feel to be descriptively right: 113

Intuition is the ear of the soul

Others ask the question but don’t provide a simple answer, such as the philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson: 114

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And what is Inspiration? It is this Instinct, whose normal state is passive, at last put in action.

This, however, does recognise that in most people the potential is there to link with spirit but it has not been developed; it is latent. As well as giving us some clues as to what inspiration is, Ralph Waldo Emerson tried to articulate what he felt instinct was: 115

In reckoning the sources of our mental power, it were fatal to omit that one which pours all the others into mould - that unknown country in which all the rivers of our knowledge have their fountains, which by its qualities and structure determines both the nature of the waters, and the direction in which they flow. We have a certain blind wisdom, a brain of the brain, a seminal brain, which has not yet put forth organs, which rests in oversight and presence, but which seems to sheathe a certain omniscience; and which, in the despair of language, is commonly called Instinct.

…and another American philosopher whose forenames were also Ralph Waldo but this time with a surname of Trine also believed that being open to spiritual influences should be part of everyday life of every human: 116

There is a mystic force that transcends the powers of the intellect and likewise of the body. There are certain faculties that we have that are not a part of active, thinking mind; they transcend any possible activities of the active thinking mind. Through them we have intuitions, impulses, leadings, that instead of being merely the occasional 'should be the normal and habitual'.

The only attempt at trying to explain intuition that I have come across is from the religious writings of Francis de Sales. In his book ‘Introduction to the Devout Life’ he wrote: 117

By inspiration we mean all the interior attractions, movements, reproaches and pangs of remorse, all the lights and rays of knowledge which God causes within us... Through His fatherly care and love, in order to awaken us, to stir us up, to urge and attract us to holy virtues, to heavenly love, to good resolutions, in a word, to all that leads us to our everlasting good.

Carl Jung admitted that he was not able to define inspiration: 118

We cannot explain an inspiration. Our chief feeling about it is that it is not the result of our own ratiocinations, but that it came to us from elsewhere. And if we happen to have a precognitive dream, how can we possibly ascribe it to our own powers? After all, often we do not even know, until some time afterward, that the dream represented foreknowledge, or knowledge of something that happened at a distance.

Around the time that Jung started to develop his theories of psychology, the Anglican priest Venerable Basil Wilberforce was concluding that: 119

It is useless to try and define this inner intuitive knowledge.

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In ‘Pathway of the Immortal’ Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows also believed that many instances of inspiration are precognitive: 120

Since the mind is the instrument of the soul, a surprising percentage of thought forces are precognitive and are the cause of intuitive impressions through the astral and physical levels. Thus, in many cases, a thought does not necessarily create a specific action but rather serves to indicate the effect of a pre-existing cause.

White Eagle did not round upon any one aspect of inspiration, but likened it to another latent human sense: 121

At one level, intuition is a sixth sense. This sixth sense is continually being developed, and in the future it will become as natural to use as the other five. Meanwhile, the quickening or awakening of the sixth sense is a great step forward. Various names might be used, but we think that 'intuition' is the best word to describe this awakening to cosmic truth. We sometimes refer to it as the inner light, which seems to guide you to certain action and into certain lines of thought .

The best explanation is to tell you that you will know what it is when you have experienced it. This is why spiritual development is experiential and not just about acquisition of knowledge. It is wonderful to have, and to know that you have a direct link with spirit and through this your life WILL be changed. The preacher and teacher Leslie Weatherhead felt that as we develop our spirituality our whole approach to everything will, by definition, change. Based on his Christian background, he expressed this as: 122

By the assent of mind and will He [God] can change your reactions to life...

Julie Soskin amplified this and said: 123

This intuitive state - when fully formed, and when you are fully fledged within it - means that you will work quite differently. You will work with a synchronisation that is now unknown. You will know what to do and where to be, not by your desire and certainly not by your reason, but by your knowing.

But how does intuition work? At the physiological level it is as White Eagle suggested: 124

...the higher mind [intuition] , which is situated at the back of the head, and the frontal mind, the intellect or the mind of the earth.

Perhaps this represents a link between the chakras and the endocrine system – but that is for another chapter but I will site a comment from the spiritual teacher Sue Minns who understood that intuitive communication: 125

...is closest to the spiritual self. It works through visual imagery and inner knowing. The Third Eye or Brow chakra is the energy centre connected with intuition. We all have an intuitive ability that can give direction to our lives, connecting us to a higher level of guidance that can be truly life enhancing.

As the Rosicrucian medic Lonnie C. Edwards remarked: 126

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Mystical intuition enables the student to be receptive and attuned to cosmic impressions and guidance.

In ‘Mysticism - A Study and an Anthology’, F C Happold puts a different slant on it: 127

How the insights gained through intuition come about, it is difficult to say. In the process of logical analysis and deduction the mind works from point to point; definite mental effort is involved; the stages of thought can be analysed. The insights of intuition, however, often have the appearance of something given, a sort of revelation coming from something outside oneself. The mind, often in a state of passivity, makes a sudden leap. What has been before obscure become clear. Disconnected fragments fall into place, are integrated, and take on a pattern.

Roy Dixon-Smith gave us a clue as to part of the mechanism when he wrote: 128

I am now fully aware that it is ideas and not necessarily words that are conveyed...

Although Abdy Collins used the word ‘telepathy’ I’m not sure this is any more than a different word for the same phenomenon: 129

Its existence [that of telepathy] is of great importance to those who believe in survival, because it is assumed to be the means by which discarnate spirits impress their thoughts on living persons.

Through her extensive research into the lives and beliefs of the mystics of all faiths, Evelyn Underhill was able to provide us with the insight that: 130

The great teacher, poet, artist, inventor, never aims deliberately at his effects. He obtains them he knows not how: perhaps from a contact of which he is unconscious with that creative plane of being which the Sufis call the Constructive Spirit, and the Kabalists Yesod, and which both postulate as lying next behind the world of sense. "Sometimes," said the great Alexandrian Jew Philo, "when I have come to my work empty, I have suddenly become full; ideas being in an invisible manner showered upon me, and implanted in me from on high; so that through the influence of divine inspiration, I have become greatly excited, and have known neither the place in which I was, nor those who were present, nor myself, nor what I was saying, nor what I was writing; for then I have been conscious of a richness of interpretation, an enjoyment of light, a most penetrating insight, a most manifest energy in all that was to be done; having such an effect on my mind as the clearest ocular demonstration would have on the eyes." This is a true creative ecstasy, strictly parallel to the state in which the mystic performs his mighty works.

Whatever it is, whatever it is called we can still benefit from its effects. Some like Simone Weil describe it as though it were something beyond us: 131

Ideas come and settle in my mind by mistake, then, realising their mistake, they absolutely insist on coming out. I do not know where they come from, nor what they are worth, but, whatever the risk, I do not think I have the right to prevent this operation.

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The French Jesuit priest Père De Caussade believed that intuition is the mechanism used by his God to directly communicate: 132

The Divine Action, disguised, reveals its designs, not by thoughts, but by intuition. It manifests them to the soul either by necessity, leaving it but the one present course to choose, or by some sudden impulse in the soul, which impels to action without reflection; or finally, by a direct attraction, or, it may be repulsion, which, while not infringing the freedom of the soul, yet influences it towards or away from objects.

Agnes Sanford understood the link between the Divine and humanity was through the Holy Spirit: 133

The gift of knowledge is an integral part of our natures. It is increased by the Holy Spirit, both by the quickening of our thinking and also by direct information from without, in words or in dreams or visions, or simply as an inner knowing.

However, I believe that inspired thoughts can travel between any sentient being and another. When it is between humans it is often called telepathy, and when between a discarnate spirit and us we call it inspiration or intuition. It has been shown that animals too can receive inspired thoughts. There must therefore be something inherent in our being which can be developed to increase our awareness to the thoughts of others from both the spiritual and physical realms. We are only just at the beginning of our understanding of this phenomenon but with patience and lots of research humanity may come to realise it as perhaps the most important sense that we have.

There are so many facets which demonstrate this linkage between spirits both discarnate and human; the support that we receive from the Spirit World being just one. There are other linkages which help us in our daily lives. One of them was highlighted by the psychotherapist Carl Jung: 134

I too have this archaic nature, and in me it is linked with the gift - not always pleasant - of seeing people and things as they are. I can let myself be deceived from here to Tipperary when I don't want to recognize something, and yet at bottom I know quite well how matters really stand. In this I am like a dog; he can be tricked, but he always smells it out in the end. This "insight" is based on instinct, or on a "perticipetion mystique" with others. It is as if the "eyes of the background" do the seeing in an impersonal act of perception.

The ability to link with our spirit friends has often been associated with the expansion of our psychic faculties. To some extent this is true although many who follow the psychic development path are not interested in strictly spiritual development but more on becoming mediums. This latter route is not a spiritual avenue but a spiritual cul-de-sac. So beware of falling into the ‘psychic’ trap and make sure that you interpret correctly references to psychic development. For example, understand that when Sue Minns uses the words ‘Seeing psychically’ she is not necessarily referring to clairvoyance but to being ‘aware’ of intuitive promptings: 135

The important aspect of 'seeing' psychically is being aware of images that come into

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your mind and being able to interpret them.

All in all, this connection between two spiritual beings can take many forms and we should develop our sensitivity not only for our individual benefit but in order to collectively lift humanity out of the dangerous, self-destructive situation which it has created for itself. As we all have supporting guides in the Spirit World, we can all become what Ralph Waldo Emerson called ‘inspired’: 136

It is this employment of new means - of means not mechanical, but spontaneously appearing for the new need, and as good as the end - that denotes the inspired man.

We can, of course, look at the lives of the mystics and in particular artists of all types and see inspiration at work. Inspiration comes to all of the great artists. Taking the words of White Eagle again: 137

Angels are messengers of creation and of growth and so all the creative arts are directly influenced by them, as are all the ways in which we receive inspiration, new ideas and awareness.

So in all fields, from the scientific to the artistic, inspired thoughts are available from spirit. From his own experience the great English mystic, painter and poet William Blake declared: 138

One power alone makes a poet: imagination, the divine vision.

In fact, as White Eagle remarked: 139

Imagination is the door to true spiritual vision.

Imagination is, after all, another word covering the whole gamut of inspiration. Sensitive people in any branch of the arts can create, in themselves, a channel to Spirit whereby they can gain inspiration. Jostein Gaarder in his philosophical introductory book ‘Sophie's World’ told us that: 140

All artists are aware of that. But then suddenly it’s as if all doors and all drawers fly open. Everything comes tumbling out by itself, and we can find all the words and images we need. This is when we have ‘lifted the lid’ of the unconscious. We can call it inspiration, Sophie. It feels as if what we are drawing or writing is coming from some outside source.

Similarly, in the fields of Philosophy and Science inspired thoughts have come from Spirit as F C Happold realised: 141

The status of intuition, creative insight, imagination, call it what you will, is an acknowledged one. It is recognised not only by the mystic, the poet, and many philosophers, but also by the scientist.

Karen Armstrong, an academic majoring on comparative religion, also believed that: 142

A true philosopher should cultivate intuitive knowledge, flashes of insight that

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suddenly fused all the information he had acquired discursively into a new and integrated vision, an ecstatic perception that Spinoza called "beatitude."

It is easy for us to appreciate the ability of the artist, being a sensitive, to receive intuitive thoughts, but often we believe that the hard-nosed, practical scientist, engineer and even financier are immune to such influence. Not so! I was trained in the mid-1960s as a Chemical Engineer and once graduated undertook research into control of petro-chemical processes using computers. Computers were in their infancy; I was fortunate enough to be able to use a brand new IBM 1130 with 8k of core memory which was housed in its own air-conditioned room at the Department of Chemical Engineering at Leeds University. There were times when I needed to solve some difficult technical problems and spirit never let me down; inspiration came in one form or another. In general terms, anyone in any role can receive inspiration in whatever they are doing. It can be in any field of work – in your own work specifically. Robert Graham communicating through his daughter Winifred tells us that: 143

…sudden inspirations that occasionally rush into the mind and surprise you are direct gifts from the Spirit World. Never drive them out, or call them fanciful. Some of the greatest work done on earth has been started by a thought flashing through the brain that is receptive to angel whispers.

And from another spirit voice who used Beatrice Russell as a channel: 144

Man has an inner knowledge that truth is to be found in beauty and art of all kinds; flashes of intuition come to him, but he is so constituted that he wishes everything to be put into definitions - he wants to have the issues clearly cut.

All this aside, the prime area for intuitive and inspirational thought is spiritual. One mystic who was forever attributing his work to inspiration from his spirit friends was Jacob Boehme. In the book about him, Robin Waterfield wrote that inspiration: 145

… opened itself in me from time to time, as in a young plant; albeit the same was with me for the space of twelve years, and I was as it were pregnant (or breeding of it) with all, and found a powerful driving and instigation within me, before I could bring forth into external form of writing; which afterward fell upon me as a sudden shower, which hitteth whatsoever it lighteth upon; just so it happened to me, whatsoever I could apprehend, and bring into the external principle of my mind the same I wrote down. However, afterward the sun did shine on me a good while but not in a continual constant manner; for when the same did hide itself, I scarce knew, or well understood my own labour or writings so that, man must acknowledge that this knowledge is not his own, or from himself, but God's and from God; and that God manifests the ideas of his wisdom in the soul of man after what manner and measure he pleaseth.

…and from another biographer, Alexander Whyte, we learn that Boehme: 146

…protests in every book of his that what he has written he has received immediately from God. “Let it never be imagined that I am any greater or any better than other men. When the Spirit of God is taken away from me I cannot even read so as to

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understand what I have myself written.”

I expect that the degree and depth of inspiration that the great artists and mystic of all ages were party to, will far surpass anything that I, or probably you, could anticipate. Nevertheless we should ‘never say never’ and whatever glimmer of spiritual inspiration we may get we should treasure and develop it, as Harry Earnest Hunt suggested: 147

Sight cometh to a man through the light of his eyes and he beholdeth the multitude of things that are around him; but there is an inner vision which he may use for growth and his Soul's purposes.

Communications from Robert Graham, through the channel of his daughter Winifred, came in two books. In the first ‘My Letters from Heaven’ is written: 148

If the inhabitants of your world would be more ready to receive this help, and rely on it, they might achieve marvellous and unexpected success. They lean too much on self, and too little on God and His Angel servers, who are sent to inspire and cheer weary mortals in the vale of woe.

And in a follow-up book ‘More Letters From Heaven’ is given the simple advice: 149

Never go against instinct...

In complete support of this the one-time estate agent Lance G Trendall, in his self published book ‘Dead Happy’, remarked that during uncertain times in his life, spirits have invited him to ask questions about his life and the answer has always been the same: 150

Listen to your intuition, do what you believe is right, your intuition is always correct

Follow it, foster it, and let your spirit guide lead you along your spiritual pathway using inspired thoughts and advice without which you would not travel either as quickly or as surely.

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1 Michal Levin, Spiritual Intelligence, Hodder & Stoughton, 2000. Part II: Your Journey. Chapter Three – Emerging, (Pg 33) 2 Swami Paramananda, The Upanishads, Grange Books, 2004. The Threads of Union (excerpts from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali) - Part Three: On Divine Powers: 3.32, (Pg 121) 3 W. F. Rickard,, Abu Talks, Regency Press, 1992. Chapter 5 – Intuition, (Pg 28) 4 Evelyn Underhill, The Fruits of the Spirit; Light of Christ; Abba, Longmans, Green and Co, 1957. Light of Christ: I Preparation, (Pg 25) 5 John Blofeld, Beyond the Gods, E P Dutton & Co, 1974. Chapter 5 - The Path of Learning, (Pg 101) 6 Radhakrishnan, An Idealist View of Life, Unwin, 1980. Chapter V : The Spirit in Man - 1. Intuition and genius in science, (Pg 139 / 140) 7 The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1947. Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book III. Chapter II, (Pg 231) 8 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Mingling with the Unseen, (Pg 23) 9 Roy Dixon-Smith, New Light on Survival, Rider & Co, 1952. Part One: Chapter II: Outline of Mental Mediumship, (Pg 49) 10 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Talk to Friends in Heaven, (Pg 41) 11 Andrew Harvey, The Direct Path, Rider & Co, 2000. Two: Practicing the Path - Eighteen Sacred Practices for Transformed Spiritual Living, (Pg 131) 12 William Clemmons, Discovering the Depths, Triangle, 1989. 10 You Don't Have to Die on Every Cross, (Pg 118) 13 Sacred Tibetan Teachings on Death and Liberation, Prism Press, 1999. III The Doctrine Of The Six Lights, (Pg 79) 14 Heidi Sawyer, Why My Mother Didn't Want Me To Be Psychic, Hay House, 2008. Chapter 3: What It's Like to Be Psychic: Persistent Message, (Pg 39) 15 Gordon Smith, Through My Eyes, Hay House, 2007. Chapter 5: Why They Come back, (Pg 93 & 94) 16 Neale Donald Walsch, Friendship with God, Hodder & Stoughton, 1999. Two, (Pg 20) 17 Brenda Blanch, Heaven a Dance - An Evelyn Underhill Anthology, Triangle, 1992. The Spiritual Life, (Pg 22) 18 Radhakrishnan, An Idealist View of Life, Unwin, 1980. Chapter V : The Spirit in Man - 2. Intuition and artistic achievement, (Pg 147) 19 Horace Leaf, What Mediumship Is. Spiritualist Press, 1955. Chapter II: The Dream Consciousness, (Pg 19) 20 Colum Hayward, Eyes of the Spirit, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1987. Chapter Two: The experience of working with a spiritual teacher, (Pg 58) 21 Robin Waterfield, Jacob Boehme, North Atlantic Books, 2001. Part Two - Selections - A Letter to an Enquirer, (Pg 73) 22 John Punshon, Encounter With Silence, Friends United Press, 1989. Silence in the Quaker Tradition - Stillness and Speaking, (Pg 5) 23 Watchman Nee, When is My Spirit Normal?, Ministry of Life, 1927. Chapter 1 - The Dangers of Spiritual Life, (Pg 136) 24 Terry Pratchett, Unseen Academicals, Doubleday, 2009. (Pg 77) 25 Paul Brunton, The Secret Path, Rider & Co, 2003. Chapter IX - The Way of Divine Beauty, (Pg 147) 26 Thomas Merton, A Secular Journal, The Catholic Book Club, 1959. Part Four : Interlude - Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani (Holy week, 1941), April 9, 1941 Our Lady of Gethsemani, (Pg 96) 27 Radhakrishnan, An Idealist View of Life, Unwin, 1980. Chapter V : The Spirit in Man - 1. Intuition and genius in science, (Pg 141) 28 Radhakrishnan, An Idealist View of Life, Unwin, 1980.Chapter V : The Spirit in Man - 1. Intuition and genius in science, (Pg 141 / 142) 29 John Blofeld, Beyond the Gods, E P Dutton & Co, 1974. Chapter 7 - The Esoteric Path, (Pg 149) 30 William Stainton Moses, Spirit Teachings, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Section XXXII, (Pg 282) 31 White Eagle, The Quiet Mind, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1984. The Master Soul is Constant: .. is Calm, Quiet and Steady: Man is Divine, (Pg 46 / 47) 32 Evelyn Underhill, The Spiritual Life, Mowbray, 1984. Part Four: Some Questions and Difficulties, (Pg 114) 33 Kathleen Pond(ed), The Spirit of the Spanish Mystics, Burns & Oates,1958. Francisco de Osuna - Of the Three Manners of Silence, (Pg 43) 34 Pamela Young, Hope Street, Coronet, 2011. Part Four: The Work, (Pg 218) 35 Betty Shine, The Infinite Mind, Harper Collins, 2000. Chapter 25: Clairvoyance and Intuition, (Pg 166)

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36 Betty Shine, The Infinite Mind, Harper Collins, 2000. Chapter 25: Clairvoyance and Intuition, (Pg 168) 37 Edmond Bordeaux Szekely, The Gospel of the Essenes, C W Daniel Co, 1976. The Vision of Enoch: The most ancient Revelation: God Speaks to Man, (Pg 23) 38 Cecil Rose, When Man Listens, Blandford Press, 1956. Chapter Two: Learning God's Plan, (Pg 32) 39 This is a psudonym for a spirit reportedly that of a Babylonian princess who became a wife of Amenhotep III, Pharaoh of Egypt in the XVIIIth Dynasty 40 A. J. Howard Hulme and Frederic H. Wood, Ancient Egypt Speaks, Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter IV - The Trance-States and , (Pg 50) 41 Julie Soskin, Transformation, College of Psychic Studies, 1995. Chapter 5 - Higher Intuition, (Pg 37) 42 Cyprian Smith, The Way of Paradox [spiritual life as taught by Meister Eckhart], Darton Longman and Todd, 1996. 1 Light in the Darkness, (Pg 13) 43 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Cultivate Spiritual Insight, (Pg 31) 44 Harry Wilmer, Quest for Silence, Diamon, 2000. 8 Patience - Meditation, Contemplation, and No-Mind, (Pg 161) 45 Tony Stockwell, Spirited, Hodder Mobius, 2005. Chapter 5 Is There Really Life After Death? (Pg 99) 46 White Eagle on the Intuition and Initiation, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 2004. Part One: What the Intuition is, and is not - II: Moving Beyond the Age of Reason, (Pg 25) 47 Heidi Sawyer, Why My Mother Didn't Want Me To Be Psychic, Hay House, 2008. Chapter 5: When Choosing a Psychic - Consider ... Methods of Self-development, (Pg 65) 48 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter III Psychology and the life of the Spirit: (I) The Analysis of Mind, (Pg 79) 49 Christine R. Page, Spiritual Alchemy, C W Daniel Co, 2004. Chapter Two - Cycles of Energy, (Pg 79) 50 White Eagle on the Intuition and Initiation, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 2004. Part Two: Developing the Intuition - VIII: Stages of Development, (Pg 77) 51 Georges Huber, My Angel Will Go Before You, Four Courts Press, 2006. Sitting at his gate, (Pg 97) 52 Joyce Huggett, Listening To God, Hodder & Stoughton, 1988. Chapter 13: Many Mistakes, (Pg 136) 53 Agnes Sanford, Healing Gifts of the Spirit, Arthur James, 1999. Chapter 9; The Work of the Holy Spirit, (Pg 130) 54 The Cloud of Unknowing and The Book of Privy Counselling, Doubleday, 1973. The Book of Privy Counseling: Chapter 17, (Pg 179) 55 Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Elliot Stock, 1891. The First Book - Warnings, useful for a spiritual life. Chapter IV 56 Père De Caussade, The Sacrament of the Present Moment, Fount, 1987. 8. The Sacrament of the Present Moment – the Soul’s part – Let God’s Will be Done, (Pg 77) 57 Watchman Nee, When is My Spirit Normal?, Ministry of Life, 1927. Chapter 1 - The Dangers of Spiritual Life, (Pg 141) 58 Watchman Nee, When is My Spirit Normal?, Ministry of Life, 1927. Chapter 2 - The Laws of the Spirit (3) Poisoning of the Spirit, (Pg 148) 59 Bede Griffiths, A New Vision of Reality, Fount, 1992. 12 Synthesis: Towards a Unifying Plan, (Pg 267) 60 White Eagle on the Intuition and Initiation, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 2004. Part One: What the Intuition is, and is not - II: Moving Beyond the Age of Reason, (Pg 24) 61 Cecil Rose, When Man Listens, Blandford Press, 1956. Chapter Two: Learning God's Plan, (Pg 27) 62 William Roache, Soul on the Street, Hay House, 2007. Part III: On The Street. 7: An Actor's Life .. (Pg 111) 63 Geraldine Pengelly, The Red Man Cometh, Athena Press, 2006. New Beginnings, (Pg 31) 64 White Eagle, The Quiet Mind, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1984. The Master Soul is Constant: .. is Strong to Serve: Keep the Light Burning, (Pg 51 / 52) 65 Carl Gustav Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Fontana, 1995. IV Psychiatric Activities, (Pg 156) 66 Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Burns & Oates, 1948. Second Part of the Introduction. Chapter XVIII - How we should receive inspirations, (Pg 102) 67 John Punshon, Encounter With Silence, Friends United Press, 1989. An Experience of Unprogrammed Worship - Speaking Comfortably to God, (Pg 41) 68 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter VII: Truth, (Pg 141) 69 John Blofeld, Beyond the Gods, E P Dutton & Co, 1974. Chapter 6 - The Path of Meditation, (Pg 122) 70 Bertrand Russell, Religion and Science, Oxford University Press, 1960. Chapter VIII: Cosmic Purpose, (Pg 213)

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71 Susanna Winkworth, The History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler with 25 of his Sermons, H.R.Allenson, 1906. Sermon for Whit Sunday, (Pg 348) 72 The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1947. Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book III. Chapter III, (Pg 235) 73 Bede Griffiths, Return to the Centre, Collins, Fount Paperbacks, 1978. 7. The Cosmic Powers, (Pg 54) 74 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter I: That Art Thou, (Pg 19) 75 Georges Huber, My Angel Will Go Before You, Four Courts Press, 2006. Sitting at his gate, (Pg 96) 76 Carl Gustav Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Fontana, 1995. XII Late Thoughts I, (Pg 372) 77 Brian Snellgrove, The Unseen Self - Kirlian Photography Explained, C W Daniel Co, 1996. Chapter 3 - What is the Kirlian apparatus and how does it work, (Pg 61) 78 Father M C D'Arcy, Thomas Aquinas - Selected Writings, J M Dent, 1950. 1. Sermon for the Feast of S. Martin, (Pg 4) 79 Henry Drummond, Natural Law in the Spirit World, Hodder & Stoughton, 1899. Degeneration, (Pg 119 / 120) 80 Brian Leslie Weiss, Many Lives, Many Masters, Judy Piatkus, 2002. Chapter Five, (Pg 69) 81 Helen Greaves, Testimony of Light, Neville Spearman, 1995. The Return, (Pg 26) 82 White Eagle on the Intuition and Initiation, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 2004. Part One: What the Intuition is, and is not - V: The Nature of the Intuition, (Pg 41) 83 Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations with God - Book 1 An uncommon dialogue, Hodder & Stoughton, 1997. Chapter 1, (Pg 8) 84 Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows, Pathway of the Immortal, International Publications Inc, 1980. Chapter IX: World of Prophecy (Science of Tomorrow) (Pg 176) 85 Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud Speaks, Tudor Press, 1992. Chapter Nine: Inspiration, (Pg 48) 86 Jacob Boehme, The Way to Christ, Paulist Press, 1978. The Fifth Treatise on the New Birth that is (1622) Chapter Seven, (para 13) 87 Walter Hilton, The Stairway of Perfection, Image Books, 1979. Book Two: Chapter Forty-Six, (Pg 340) 88 Ronald F Vowles, The Greater Truth, Harmony Press, 1987. Introduction, (Pg 6) 89 The Zend Avesta of Zarathustra, International Biogenic Society, 1973. NYAYIS 2: ATAS NYAYIS - THE FIRE, II, (Pg 50) 90 Father Andrew SDC, In the Silence, A.R.Mowbray, 1951. The Epistle to the Ephesians: VI. The Catholic Challenge (iii), (Pg 181) 91 Kathleen E. Burne, The Life and Letters of Father Andrew, A.R.Mowbray, 1951. Part II: Letters: To a Religious, Southern Rhodesia, October 29th, 1932, (Pg 113) 92 David Hay, Exploring Inner Space - Scientists and Religious Experience, Mowbray, 1987. Part Two: What is the Experiental Dimension - 6. The New England Connection: Jonathan Edwards, (Pg 80) 93 P. Franklin Chambers, Baron Von Hugel: Man of God. An introductory Anthology compiled with a biographical preface, Geoffrey Bles: The Centenary Press, 1946. An Introduction Anthology - Part Two: Philosophical - The Perils of Monism, (Pg 117) 94 Ralph Waldo Emerson, Natural History of Intellect, Solar Press, 1995. I. Natural History of Intellect - I. Powers and Laws of Thought, (Pg 36) 95 Ralph Waldo Emerson, Natural History of Intellect, Solar Press, 1995. I. Natural History of Intellect - I. Powers and Laws of Thought, (Pg 34) 96 William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life - The Spirit of Love, SPCK, 1978. The Spirit of Love: The Second Part - The First Dialogue Between Theogenes, Eusebius, and Theophilus, (Pg 404) 97 Watchman Nee, When is My Spirit Normal?, Ministry of Life, 1927. Chapter 1 - The Dangers of Spiritual Life, (Pg 133) 98 Oliver Davies, Meister Eckhart - Selected Writings, Penguin Books, 1994. The talks of instruction - 23 On Inner and Outer Works, (Pg 45) 99 Ian Lawton, The Wisdom of the Soul, RSP (Rational Spirituality Press), 2007. 5: Concluding Questions, (Pg 145) 100 Dannion Brinkley, Secrets of the Light, Piatkus, 2012. Part 3: The Seven Lessons from Heaven - Conclusion: If It’s True, What Shall We Do? (Pg 191) 101 Jean Leclercq, Contemplative Life, Cistercian Publications, 1978. St. Bernard on the role of the young, (Pg 32) 102 White Eagle on the Intuition and Initiation, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 2004. Part One: What the Intuition is, and is not - V: The Nature of the Intuition, (Pg 53) 103 John Punshon, Encounter With Silence, Friends United Press, 1989. Silence in the Quaker Tradition - The Cross and the Light, (Pg 18)

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104 Robert Brown, We Are Eternal, Hodder & Stoughton, 2004. Part Two: Chapter 8 - Spirit All Around Us, (Pg 148) 105 Robert Brown, We Are Eternal, Hodder & Stoughton, 2004. Part Three: Appendix, (Pg 196 / 197) 106 William Roache, Soul on the Street, Hay House, 2007. Part III: On The Street. 9: The Master, (Pg 156) 107 Sherwood Eliot Wirt, Exploring the Spiritual Life, Lion Books, 1985. 12 - From A short and Very Easy Method of Prayer by Madame Guyon, (Pg 171 / 172) 108 Colum Hayward, Eyes of the Spirit, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1987. Chapter Three - The kingdom of one's self, (Pg 71) 109 Beatrice Russell, Fragments of Truth from the Unseen. Unknown Publisher, 1951. Fragments of Truth from the Unseen, (Pg 25) 110 Unto Thee I Grant, Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, 1966. Book Eight: Man Considered in the General. Chapter II- On the Use of the Senses, (Pg 45) 111 The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1947. Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book II. Chapter XX, (Pg 160) 112 Beatrice Russell, Beyond the Veils through Meditation, Lincoln Philosophical Research Foundation, 1986. Inner Knowledge, (Pg 44) 113 Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations with God - Book 3 An uncommon dialogue, Hodder & Stoughton, 1999. Chapter 6, (Pg 115) 114 Ralph Waldo Emerson, Natural History of Intellect, Solar Press, 1995. I. Natural History of Intellect - II. Instinct and Inspiration, (Pg 68) 115 Ralph Waldo Emerson, Natural History of Intellect, Solar Press, 1995. I. Natural History of Intellect - II. Instinct and Inspiration, (Pg 65) 116 Ralph Waldo Trine, In Tune with the Infinite, G Bell & Sons, 1931. Chapter XIII - The Way, (Pg 222) 117 Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Burns & Oates, 1948. Second Part of the Introduction. Chapter XVIII - How we should receive inspirations, (Pg 100 / 101) 118 Carl Gustav Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Fontana, 1995. XII Late Thoughts I, (Pg 373) 119 Ven. Basil Wilberforce, D.D, The Secret of the Quiet Mind, Elliot Stock, 1916. “If Thou Hadst Known”, (Pg 86) 120 Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows, Pathway of the Immortal, International Publications Inc, 1980. Chapter IX: World of Prophecy (Science of Tomorrow), (Pg 179) 121 White Eagle on the Intuition and Initiation, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 2004. Part One: What the Intuition is, and is not - V: The Nature of the Intuition, (Pg 47 / 48) 122 Leslie D Weatherhead, How Can I Find God?, Hodder & Stoughton, 1965. Part II: How may we find Him? - I: What does finding God mean? (Pg 67) 123 Julie Soskin, Transformation, College of Psychic Studies, 1995. Chapter 9 - The Soul Mind, (Pg 77) 124 White Eagle on the Intuition and Initiation, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 2004. Part One: What the Intuition is, and is not - V: The Nature of the Intuition, (Pg 52) 125 Sue Minns, Soulwork - Foundations for Spiritual Growth, College of Psychic Studies, 2003. Chapter 6: The Psychic Sense, (Pg 84) 126 Lonnie C. Edwards M.D., Spiritual Laws That Govern Humanity and the Universe, Rosicrucian Order, AMORC, 2015 - Kindle version. Chapter 13: The Plan 127 F C Happold, Mysticism - A Study and an Anthology, Penguin Books, 1971. The Study: 4. The Problem of Knowledge, (Pg 28) 128 Roy Dixon-Smith, New Light on Survival, Rider & Co, 1952. Part One: Chapter VI: Interlude in India, (Pg 116) 129 B Abdy Collins, Death is not the End, The Psychic Book Club, 1941. Chapter IV: Man's Wonderful Faculties, (Pg 21) 130 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part ONE: The Mystic Fact: Chapter III - Mysticism and Psychology, (Pg 63/64) 131 Simone Weil, Waiting on God, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1952. Letters of Farewell; Letter IV; Spiritual Autobiography. (Pg 32) 132 Richard Whitwell, J.P. de Caussade - A Spiritual Study, The Instant Publishers, undated. Chapter X - Intuitive Guidance, (Pg 48) 133 Agnes Sanford, Healing Gifts of the Spirit, Arthur James, 1999. Chapter 9; The Work of the Holy Spirit, (Pg 130) 134 Carl Gustav Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Fontana, 1995. II School Years, (Pg 68) 135 Sue Minns, Soulwork - Foundations for Spiritual Growth, College of Psychic Studies, 2003. Chapter 6: The Psychic Sense, (Pg 85)

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136 Ralph Waldo Emerson, Natural History of Intellect, Solar Press, 1995. I. Natural History of Intellect - II. Instinct and Inspiration, (Pg 72) 137 Walking with the Angels - A Path of Service, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1998. Part One - 11. Responding to the Creative Stream, (Pg 80) 138 Osbert Burdett, William Blake, Macmillan & Co, 1926. Chapter X - 1810 – 1818, (Pg 170) 139 White Eagle, Spiritual Unfoldment 1, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1994. V: Spiritual Faculties – Clairvoyance, (Pg 73) 140 Jostein Gaarder, Sophie's World, Phoenix, 1995. Freud, (Pg 339) 141 F C Happold, Mysticism - A Study and an Anthology, Penguin Books, 1971. The Study: 4. The Problem of Knowledge, (Pg 28) 142 Karen Armstrong, The Case For God, Vintage Books, 2010. Part Two: The Modern God - 8 Scientific Religion, (Pg 196) 143 Winifred Graham, More Letters From Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, 1943. Inspirational Messages, (Pg 23) 144 Beatrice Russell, Fragments of Truth from the Unseen. Unknown Publisher, 1951. Truth, (Pg 28) 145 Robin Waterfield, Jacob Boehme, North Atlantic Books, 2001. Part Two - Selections - A Letter to an Enquirer, (Pg 64 / 65) 146 Alexander Whyte, Jacob Behmen an appreciation, Oliphant Anderson & Ferrier, 1895. (Pg 13) 147 Harry Earnest Hunt, The Gateway of Intuition, Wright & Brown, 1930s (?). XI Imagination, (Pg 49) 148 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Rely on Spiritual Helpers, (Pg 36) 149 Winifred Graham, More Letters From Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, 1943. "Auras", (Pg 17) 150 Lance G Trendall, Dead Happy, Lance Trendall Publishing, 1992. 17: More on Spirit Communication, (Pg 126)

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15.5: Spiritual Development - Your Responsibility

Your responsibility to yourself and to others heightens the more your spirituality develops. This is one of the Cosmic Laws; you cannot escape its application. I’ll expand this a little. In the physical world ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking it although it may mitigate the consequences. In the spiritual sense you cannot and will not be held responsible for those truths which you did not know about. However, the point about developing your spirituality and your connection with the spirit world is that you will begin to appreciate more spiritual truths; the more you know the more you are responsible for upholding them; the Natural Laws are relentless.

One of the spiritual truths that I have learnt is that of Compensation. In simplistic terms, it means that whatever you do comes back to you; if you do good then somehow, that is returned to you. Of course, the opposite is also true. Knowing this Cosmic Law means that you always try to do the best you can for your friends, neighbours, colleagues and generally anyone you meet. If you do the opposite then you will, in some way, reap the inevitable consequences. Red Cloud communicating through the medium Estelle Roberts used a well worn Biblical phrase to express this truth: 1

In your midst truth is born, the truth that man is responsible for his own actions, the realisation that "what a man sows that also must he reap."

Using the same simile, William Ralph Inge, the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral at the early years of the 20 th Century, wrote: 2

We sow to the Spirit, and by the Spirit we reap eternal life - life, that is, of a divine and imperishable quality, life in that higher sphere which we call the spirit world.

…and the modern mystic Andrew Harvey in his excellent and supportive book ‘The Direct Path’ described this spiritual journey as: 3

...the ultimate adventure - which is to claim complete responsibility, in and under God, for one's own spiritual development.

It is our choice; no one can take this burden from us. Thus, this is all tied up with free will, as Silver Birch informed us: 4

Free will is a gift of the Great Spirit, but if it is not used aright then the price must be paid.

Many others, both living and discarnate have echoed the same truth. The Japanese mystic and visionary Mokichi Okada understood that: 5

For man, freedom and responsibility are like two sides of the same coin. One cannot exercise freedom without being responsible for the consequences. The decision to follow good or evil is a responsibility that ultimately resides in the soul.

Therefore we must be very careful how we exercise our free will. As one whose life had been changed completely through spiritual understanding gained during Near Death

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Experiences, Dannion Brinkley said: 6

Therefore, it is our divine responsibility to choose wisely based on the counsel of a virtuous heart.

In other words, build your spiritual Philosophy of Life and stick to it. As you would expect, the more your spirituality develops the more your responsibility increases. William Stainton Moses was informed by Imperator, his communicator from the Spirit World: 7

We do say, we have always said, that man’s responsibility is in proportion to the light which is in him; that man’s duty is not lessened but increased by the quality of the revelation of which he is the recipient.

This idea was snappily encapsulated in four words which were given by a higher spirit through the mediumship of Phyllis V. Schlemmer: 8

With knowledge comes responsibility.

This is true for many aspects of life; the more we know of a subject, the better ought to be our response to it. A trivial and yet significant example was my understanding of the trauma which fish experience when they are caught. During my earlier years I used to fish for sport in canals, lakes and rivers. The fish, once caught, would be retained in a net and then returned to the water at the end of that fishing session. Twenty or so years ago, a television programme explored the Japanese love of fishing for carp in small man-made pools and the owner of the pools explained that the lives of the fish living in these pools was significantly less than those living elsewhere because they were regularly being caught. This knowledge went straight to my heart; why should I inflict pain and trauma on any other creature for my own pleasure. At that point, I gave all my fishing gear away and I have not fished for sport ever since. This is a small example where knowledge gained puts a responsibility upon us. And it all hinges upon how we exercise our free will. It is always our choice; to do good or ill. Another voice from the Spirit World is that of White Eagle, who tried to express this in terms of the ancient mysteries: 9

The masters teach us that if we would tread the path of the mysteries, we must train ourselves to think accurately, to take care of our surroundings, to create harmony, to be precise and particular in our thought. This is the foundation upon which a person's spiritual life is built.

It is this responsibility around which our ‘new’ and spiritually based philosophy and lives should be built. The Cosmic Laws represent God in the fullest sense and by living within these we start to move towards our Creator and the objectives that we set for each of us. Evelyn Underhill, a most famous mystical writer, put it as: 10

We are the agents of the Creative Spirit, in this world. Real advance in the spiritual life, then, means accepting this vocation with all it involves.

And it is up to us to shoulder that responsibility, or as the Reverend William Houff simply expressed it: 11

Spiritual growth is a highly personal undertaking.

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No one can do it for us; this opportunity is open to everyone; there are no boundaries of race, gender, religion, intellect, or any other quality which a person may possess. From his understanding about the lives of the mystics, the philosopher and social thinker Rudolf Steiner stated that they: 12

...will always emphasise the truth that the way to the Higher Knowledge is open for anyone who has acquired for himself the faculties by which he may win entrance.

As far as I’m concerned the only requirement is that the person should awaken to the idea of the need to spiritually develop. This is a great responsibility; if we continue to pursue the spiritual life then we must take the consequences for everything that we think, say and do. Our conduct, in this respect, was articulated by Martin Israel, an English pathologist, Anglican priest, spiritual director, and author of numerous books on Christian life and teaching: 13

If there is some abiding meaning to our lives we have to accept personal responsibility for our conduct. Whatever the theoreticians may say, we have to accept the fact of will as a part of our life in the world.

This responsibility means that we accept the consequences of all that we think, say and do, or as Michael Newton put it in ‘Journey of Souls’: 14

...all souls are held accountable for their conduct in the bodies they occupy.

The Reverend Ben Patterson exhorted us to recognise this and in so doing accept that: 15

The choices we make, the things we do, all have consequences that must be faced.

This accountability has been outlined by mystics for at least the last 2000 years. One English mystic who certainly expressed this view was the anchoress Julian of Norwich. In his treatise ‘On the Brink of Universalism’ about this noble lady the ex-bishop of Oxford, Richard Harries, stated: 16

Each person is a unique centre of consciousness, called to assume responsibility for his or her own life.

Similarly within the teachings of the Mexican mystic Don Miguel Ruiz we find a slight expansion of this idea: 17

What happens to you is dependent upon your own thoughts. Your actions and reactions are under your control. You are not the Victim nor are you a Judge to lay blame on others. You are a spiritual being empowered with the potential to transform the dream of the planet.

These ideas were reiterated by the spiritual mentor Michal Levin who wrote: 18

The process of developing spiritually is closely linked to the process of taking responsibility for yourself in every aspect. Reaching towards spirituality means not blaming others, or a cruel fate, or seeing it as someone else’s job to change your

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situation, or deal with a situation you can see. But accepting that it is your responsibility.

And we have to grasp this nettle firmly if we are to overcome some of our natural tendencies. Christopher Jamison, the Abbot of the Benedictine Monastery, Worth Abbey, in England, understood that we have to take responsibilities for any feelings that we have. He wrote in ‘Finding Happiness’: 19

Sadness is not aroused in us by other people's faults, says Cassian, "Rather, we are to blame." Once again, the desert tradition and cognitive behaviour therapy coincide in asking us to take responsibility for our own feelings.

...and as Gordon Smith, from his own experience, articulated: 20

...taking responsibility for our own behaviour is not always straightforward. It is always easier to lay the blame on someone else.

We must not fall into this trap. It is, therefore, up to each of us to accept this responsibility and it is our choice to continue along the spiritual pathway. No one is ever coerced into spiritual development. It is always your choice and as the American evangelical Christian pastor Rick Warren said: 21

Spiritual growth is not automatic. It takes an intentional commitment. You must want to grow, decide to grow, make an effort to grow, and persist in growing.

The spiritual stairway is there for each of us to climb. Each step brings us closer to our destiny and we must accept that the choice to make that journey, to take the first step, is ours and ours alone. The spirit who communicated through the automatic writing of Neale Donald Walsch’s inspired the thought that: 22

If you do get to the next step, if you evolve to the next level, it’s because you want to, not because you have to.

…or as another North American born clergyman Morton Kelsey said: 23

Turning inward is a venture that each of us must assent to and pursue on our own, because we desire it.

And in this spiritual growth we are not competing with anyone – other than with our own material self. Progress is by us and for us as individuals in the context of the life that we have chosen. Beth Collier described it as: 24

We are not competing with anyone, but making our own progress in the place God has put us and the conditions he has given us to cope with.

So we take the conditions of life as we see them, gather up the loins of our free will and apply it in the right way to provide spiritual momentum, or as the spiritual writer Laurie Worger said: 25

...but to climb the Mountain of God one must start from where we find ourselves at

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present.

Very few people, once they have embarked on this journey, knowingly depart from it. They may be side-tracked and veer off course for a while but always seem to come back and continue along their spiritual pathway. From her own experience, Heidi Sawyer confirms this observation: 26

...once a person has experienced spiritual development it becomes a path that is impossible to leave.

However, the rate at which we develop, whilst we may be helped and guided by Spirit, is up to us. As reported by Beatrice Russell, St. Paul, in many letters that he wrote, tried to tell his friends that: 27

…the power of the Spirit depends to a large extent on what we ourselves can make it by our own efforts.

Joel Goldsmith, a mystic and writer, wrote something similar: 28

If a person is interested in a spiritual way of life, in seeking the realm of God or finding a solution to human problems, it is necessary that that person embark on his mission alone ... each one must find his way within himself, alone.

…and from the medium Ronald Vowles: 29

...if you wish to make spiritual progress you can only do this for yourself.

As the spiritual inspirer Michal Levin, from her knowledge and experience, realised that for each of us: 30

It starts with the understanding that you need to connect with spiritual forces yourself, not through a guru or priest. By accepting this tenet, you accept a new degree of responsibility.

The medium Stephen Turoff was instrumental in channelling details of the Spirit World from James Legget. This soldier, who was killed in the Battle of the Somme, relayed many events that happened during his first days, months and years after he passed to Spirit. During this time he recalled one of the higher spirits making the comment that for spiritual progress: 31

Each individual must take every step of it himself. We [those in Spirit] may hold a guiding light for those whose eyes are open and surround them with spiritual strength. Neither a spirit nor a human being should attempt to control another’s mind or to compel him to act against his will. We should be co-workers, helping each other in the Christ spirit. We can inspire, aid and guide, but never compel.

This responsibility drives us to improve. We need to cultivate and work at any characteristic in order for it to be better; spiritual attitude is no different. In essence we need to set out on a voyage of inner discovery and through that to improve those traits which we feel that maybe we have neglected and which ought to be transformed. James

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Redfield, Michael Murphy, and Silvia Timbers, in their book ‘God and the Evolving Universe’ indicated that it mainly hinged around practicing our spirituality: 32

Both history and common sense tell us that our further advance depends upon us. This rule applies to the development of all of our capacities. The emergent attributes ... will not flourish unless we cultivate them. They will not deliver their gifts unless we turn toward the greater life they reveal and nurture then through constant acknowledgment and intelligent, long-term practice.

...and you are continuously supported in this by your spirit guides and helpers. During a séance on 22 nd February 1984 through the trance mediumship of Marie Cherrie, the spirit of Maurice Barbanell told us that: 33

One thing you become aware of over here [in the Spirit World] is that although there can be some help and guidance given by others most of the progress is done by you.

…and no one else can do it for you. In fact neither can you do it for anyone else, as the New Age specialist Diana Cooper realised: 34

Every single individual is responsible for their own feelings and their own destiny and you do not have the right to carry someone else's burden for them for then you prevent their growth.

This was confirmed by the teaching spirit White Eagle who said: 35

Each one of you has been called. Every individual soul has work to do. None can do the work of another. Each must do his or her own work.

An exceptionally beautiful way of describing this requirement came from the Persian poet and Sufi Jalal-ud-Din Rumi. According to the modern mystic Idries Shah, Rumi wrote: 36

Tie two birds together. They will not be able to fly, even though they now have four wings.

As far as I read this image, each on their own can fly (spiritually develop) but if one tries to carry another’s development, then neither will be successful. So each person has to embark on their own journey, and there is something fantastic about the start of this adventure. When I began, the awe and wonder was often overwhelming. I’m sure that everyone who embarks anew has this type of sensation. In Malcolm Muggeridge’s spiritual autobiography, he describes what it was like after he was converted to Christianity: 37

Thus our entry into the Church is settled. Which gives me, not so much exhilaration as a deep peace; to quote my own words: "A sense of homecoming, of picking up the threads of a lost life, of responding to a bell that has long been ringing, of taking a place at a table that has long been vacant."

It took Malcolm over 70 years before he realised the need to take this spiritual step; it took me probably 50. Each one of us has to do similar – not necessarily via a formal religion but certainly to take a spiritual pathway. Abbot Christopher Jamison recognised that religion

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This movement to separate spirituality and religion has had a number of effects beyond simply creating the distinction. One of the most significant effects has been the emergence of a belief in western society that the institutional part of religion is optional - the real spirituality is a wholly private event and that this inward part is more or less the same across all religions and all people

Some people need the stability of a religious base to their lives and will perhaps progress spiritually despite the constraints which some religions impose. This was ratified by Imperator the primary guide to the mystic William Stainton Moses: 39

We tell you that many a soul has progressed in spite of its creed by honesty and sincerity and singleness of purpose; and that many a soul has been dragged down by the very load of that faith in which its hopes were centred.

So we have to be aware of what effect our religion is having on our development; we must not let it constrain us. Most religions are like the curates egg – good in parts but it is the other aspects which need to be carefully monitored. As an example we know that the Bible supports the theory of personal responsibility through the ‘reap what you sow’ which is included in both the Old and New Testaments. Islam, through the Qur’an also speaks clearly of reward and punishment being awarded in this life as well. Maulana Mohammad Ali, an Indian Muslim leader who died in 1931, explained that: 40

The law of the requital of good and evil is a comprehensive one: "He who has done an atom's weight of good shall see it. And he who has done an atom's weight of evil shall see it." [Surah 99: 7,8]

So irrespective of the community to which you belong, spiritual development is a very private, personal and often lonely journey. This was simply expressed by the Reverend John McConnachie of St. John's Church Dundee who wrote, expressing the theologian Karl Barth’s belief that: 41

A man may be a member of a family, a Church, a State, but in relation to God he stands alone.

Similarly, George Gurdjieff, a Greek-Armenian mystic and spiritual teacher, was quoted by Peter Ouspensky, a Russian philosopher, as saying: 42

What is possible for individual man is impossible for the masses

In other words, each person must take the spiritual step themselves; and no many people do it. You are one of the few. Michael Newton, from his vast experience of past life regression, described it as: 43

Spiritual perception must be an individual quest or it has no meaning.

On this topic, the spirit communicating through the medium Irene Bays informed us that: 44

...nobody but yourself can tread your spiritual path.

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…and she followed this later in her book by reporting that: 45

Each and every one of you has the right to your own opinions, for each and every one of you is walking your own spiritual path ... So what one accepts, the other cannot accept and of course into this comes the fact that you are on different levels of understanding…

Many other people, covering the whole range of mystical experience, have echoed this sentiment. Colin Fry, the television medium, expressed this as a search within oneself: 46

Spirituality is a very personal thing. You don't get it from another. You find it within yourself and when you do it is yours to keep.

As a spark of God we need to understand that it is perhaps our inner self that is driving our search for truths. In so doing, this soul of ours is the core element which is to be changed though our spiritual journey. By knowing all our foibles of character, we can attempt to change them. Carl Wickland talking to a spirit known as Esovilia Chevilia through the trance mediumship of his wife was told: 47

We must find the Great Spirit within, not look outside. Find ourselves and we will find Him, for we are a part of that wonderful Mind, that wonderful Power.

The book by the Indian prophet Shankara Acharya 48 , ‘The Crest Jewel of Wisdom’, provides us with the knowledge that only through understanding ourselves can we gain true enlightenment: 49

Sons and kindred may free a father from his debts; but other than a man's self, none can free him from bondage.

Such understanding of our innermost being and subsequent development is not an easy task and patience gets tested time and time again. Building our understanding brick by brick is a time consuming and difficult task, which John Blofeld, a British writer on Asian thought and religion, informed us: 50

This very gradual process of fruition must depend entirely upon the efforts of each individual .

...or as William Houff wrote: 51

Achieving enlightenment is like letting silty water clear; it happens in its own time, and attempts to rush it do not accelerate the process.

Brian Weiss, another American past life regression specialist, described the development process as one where we polish and clean the diamond soul within us: 52

It is as if a large diamond were to be found inside each person. Picture a diamond a foot long. The diamond has a thousand facets, but the facets are covered with dirt and tar. It is the job of the soul to clean each facet until the surface is brilliant and can reflect a rainbow of colours. .. The diamond is perfect, not one flaw. The only

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differences among people are the number of facets cleaned. But each diamond is the same, and each perfect.

Whilst this is a nice analogy, it is not very useful to us in our quest for spiritual perfection – or as close as we can get to it. In the extreme, as described by Morton Kelsey, it is a very heroic pathway to tread: 53

For me as an individual, the inner world demands that if I am to gain my life, I must be willing also to lose it. This is an individual path; it is the way of the hero and heroine who offer their lives without knowing they will be selected for the quest or where the way will take them .

It is not an easy road to take. There are many pitfalls and distractions created both by ourselves and others. In a rather different type of book called ‘The Rabbi's Tale - Letters from Gamaliel’ the author Graham Jeffery described the path that he is taking: 54

...I labour here, trying to keep that one road open, which Rome does not seem to tax: that road of which Isaiah spoke, 'a road shall there be called the way of holiness. And the wayfaring man, though plain and perhaps stupid, shall be able to follow it.' What a job, though. Keeping up this road is so difficult ... it gets overgrown ... is so easily forgotten. And my main work must always be to try to travel it myself.

…and along this troublesome lane many have travelled, although for each of us it seems as though we are the only ones – and the first. Abbé Henri de Tourville, a 19 th century French priest, in his advice to all following this pioneer’s way: 55

You were made for this; accept it quietly and neither worry yourself about trying to be 'like everybody else' nor be astonished that others are not like you; that can only come with time. We are not pioneers in order to find ourselves straightway in a crowd.

We seek new pastures, new roads to discover the truths of the Spirit. This is a continuous process; you will never reach the end of your journey on earth and it will take you through eternity to achieve your goal. Evelyn Underhill understood this vast programme of expansion: 56

To acknowledge and take up that double obligation to the seen and the unseen, in however homely and practical a way, is to enter consciously upon the spiritual life. That will mean time and attention given to it; a deliberate drawing-in from the circumference to the centre, that 'setting of life in order' for which St. Thomas Aquinas prayed.

…and Robert Brown, the British medium working in the USA, believed that: 57

…growing up is the maturing and education of the real you, which is why we continue to evolve even in the spirit world. We have tasks and lessons in the spirit world, and clearly they are not tasks that necessitate a material condition, but the world that we find ourselves in after passing is exactly as we choose to think it.

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Being a spiritual being within a physical body, the essence of our life on Earth is to enrich our spirit through the life that we are now leading. The better we can progress our spirit, the better will be the situation that we encounter when we die, which will then provide a springboard for our further progress within the Spirit World. This statement was corroborated by the Scottish medium Gordon Smith: 58

After thinking long and hard about what life will be like when we die, I'm convinced that so much is dependent on our life now and on our state of mind at the moment of death. To prepare yourself for that inevitable journey you must begin to take responsibility for all that you are in this life, to look at your life with clarity and assess it with truth.

So the better we live now, the better will be our opportunities in the Afterlife. So, as the spirit channelling inspiration through Irene Bays understood, we have to accept this ceaseless quest: 59

But then learning never ceases, for is not every Earth experience a way of learning.

...and as was stated through the mediumship of Phyllis V. Schlemmer: 60

Each soul has to develop in its own way through learning and evolution.

And what opportunities we discover on this pathway. We know they lie ahead of us, as other pioneers have told us, and yet each of us must experience it for ourselves. Spirit development is experiential and Laurie Worger advised us that: 61

We know that the experiences of others cannot just be transferred into us but we do know that many wonderful spiritual experiences gained by others are similarly open to us.

The world is our oyster and each of us, too, can discover the ‘pearl of great price’. To achieve this we must treat everything that we encounter as being important to us or to another creature. Winifred Graham’s father told us this very simple fact: 62

Little things must never be neglected or despised.

By treating everything honestly and with reverence (and by this I don’t mean that you have to be po-faced) we can take the truths we discover and stitch them into our Philosophy of Life which we use as the basis for everything we think, say and do – to practice what we preach, as Jacob Boehme believed that everyone should do: 63

Let each one practice how he may enter again into the Love of God and of his brethren

This ‘love of God’ means many things to many people. A very simple view is that as God created the environment which in turn created and still controls everything, then we should be very appreciative of the Cosmic Laws. We should never, knowingly, abuse them or believe that we can change them for our own benefit. That is, according to the teaching spirit Silver Birch: 64

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Thus, you have personal responsibility and a measure of free will, but not so great that you can counteract the operation of any natural laws.

As Shankara Acharya explained hundreds of years ago, we have to understand the Laws of Life and the environment in which we live in order to know how to grow spiritually: 65

...the disciple then sets himself to study and learn his own nature, human nature in its many forms, the laws of life and of the world in which he dwells.

I do not think that many people believe that they can counter the Universal Laws, but they often believe that they are above them; that they can ‘get away’ with breaking them. Here, I think specifically about those priests who have abused children – they know the laws; they know the consequences and still they continue to pander to their base instincts. St Bernard of Clairvaux summarised this as: 66

For the one who chooses rightly, redeeming grace helps us to achieve the good. But when we fail, it is because we do so in our own impotence.

So, don’t fail knowingly. We will certainly fail sometimes because of our natural inabilities, but provided our intentions are sound and lie with the Law, then we cannot be held accountable – responsible, yes, accountable, no.

This spiritual life upon which you have embarked will absorb your energies and your time. It is fantastic and the older you get the more wonderful will be the experience. The implication is that we get more peaceful, mellow and tolerant the older we get. However, experience of most old-folks that you meet is probably the opposite, as Laurie Worger observed: 67

...the aged instead of being sweet are entirely the opposite, and this shows how little they have learned of reality.

Don’t let this observation put you off. Their spirituality is in their own hands; yours is within your own control. If we all could take responsibility and move spiritually forward, what a fantastic planet we could create. Sir had this vision and described it in his book ‘The Vital Message’: 68

With the actual certainty of a definite life after death, and a sure sense of responsibility for our own spiritual development, a responsibility which cannot be put upon any other shoulders, however exalted, but must be borne by each individual for himself, there will come the greatest reinforcement of morality which the human race has ever known.

Let each of us try to be part of this vision by following our spiritual path, acting according to the Cosmic Laws, and taking responsibility for our own thoughts, words and deeds. Heaven awaits …

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1 Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud Speaks, Tudor Press, 1992. Chapter Four: World Birth, (Pg 18) 2 Dean Inge, Goodness and Truth, Mowbray, 1958. Sermon 4: The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, (Pg 48) 3 Andrew Harvey, The Direct Path, Rider & Co, 2000. Introduction, (Pg 19) 4 A W Austen, Teachings of Silver Birch, Psychic Press, 1993. All is Ruled by Law, (Pg 59) 5 Mokichi Okada, Johrei - divine light of salvation, Society of Johrei, 1984. Part Four: Life and Thought of Mokichi Okada: Commentary on Basic Concepts: Man, (Pg 199) 6 Dannion Brinkley, Secrets of the Light, Piatkus, 2012. Part 2: The Fourfold Path to Power - 12 The Power in Choice, (Pg 114) 7 William Stainton Moses, Spirit Teachings, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Section XXVIII, (Pg 226) 8 Phyllis V. Schlemmer, The Only Planet of Choice, Gateway Books, 1996. VI: Terrestrial Affairs - 19: Adventures in Consciousness, (Pg 279) 9 White Eagle on the Intuition and Initiation, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 2004. Part One: What the Intuition is, and is not - V: The Nature of the Intuition, (Pg 50) 10 Evelyn Underhill, The Spiritual Life, Mowbray, 1984. Part Three: The Spiritual Life as Co-operation with God, (Pg 78) 11 William Houff, Infinity in Your Hand, Skinner House Books, 1994. Chapter 5: Methods in the Paths of Discipline and Knowledge - Like the Zen archer: taking aim in the dark, (Pg 47) 12 Rudolf Steiner, The Way of Initiation, Theosophical Publishing Society, 1912. The Way of Initiation: 1 - The Superphysical World and its Gnosis, (Pg 46) 13 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 14: Freedom and the will, (Pg 106) 14 Michael Newton, Journey of Souls, Llewellyn Publications, 2009. Chapter Four: The Displaced Soul, (Pg 48) 15 Ben Patterson, Waiting, Intervarsity Press, 1989. Chapter Seven: Counterfeit Faith, (Pg 113) 16 Robert Llewelyn (ed), Julian - Woman of our Day, Darton Longman and Todd, 1986. On the Brink of Universalism by Richard Harries, (Pg 49) 17 Mary Carroll Nelson, Beyond Fear - The Teachings of Don Miguel Ruiz on Freedom and Joy, Rider & Co, 2003. Chapter Eleven: The Way of the Nagual in the World, (Pg 163) 18 Michal Levin, Spiritual Intelligence, Hodder & Stoughton, 2000. Part III: How to Live the Ideas. Chapter Ten – Putting Principles into Practice, (Pg 247 / 248) 19 Christopher Jamison, Finding Happiness, Phoenix, 2008. Part TWO Eight Thoughts: Sixth Thought Sadness - What Causes Sadness, (Pg 163) 20 Gordon Smith, The Unbelievable Truth, Hay House, 2004. Chapter Three: Heaven and Hell - A Pain in the Neck, (Pg 57) 21 Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, Zondervan, 2002. How we Grow, (Pg 179) 22 Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations with God - Book 1 An uncommon dialogue, Hodder & Stoughton, 1997. Chapter 9, (Pg 149) 23 Morton T Kelsey, The Other Side of Silence, SPCK, 1985. Part Three: Preparation for the Inward Journey - 9. Time, (Pg 89) 24 Beth Collier, Beyond Words, Triangle, 1987. 7 Making a start, (Pg 64) 25 Laurie Worger, My Treasures For You, The Percival Book Company, 1965. Chapter 8: The Endocrine Glands, (Pg 85) 26 Heidi Sawyer, Why My Mother Didn't Want Me To Be Psychic, Hay House, 2008. Chapter 5: When Choosing a Psychic - Consider ... Spiritual development, (Pg 67) 27 Beatrice Russell, Fragments of Truth from the Unseen. Unknown Publisher, 1951. The Power of the Spirit, (Pg 11) 28 Joel S Goldsmith, The Contemplative Life, L N Fowler & Co, 1963. Chapter TWO - Erasing Our Concepts of God, Prayer, and Grace, (Pg 19) 29 Ronald F Vowles, The Greater Truth, Harmony Press, 1987. Chapter 5 - Spiritual Practices – Preparation, (Pg 30) 30 Michal Levin, Spiritual Intelligence, Hodder & Stoughton, 2000. Part II: Your Journey. Chapter Five – Your Energy Body, (Pg 96) 31 Stephen Turoff, Seven Steps to Eternity, Clairview, 2002. Chapter 4, (Pg 71) 32 James Redfield, Michael Murphy, Silvia Timbers, God and the Evolving Universe, Bantam Press, 2002. Part Four - Practices and Readings: 16 Transformative Practice, (Pg 219 / 220) 33 Marie Cherrie, The Barbanell Report, Pilgrim Books, 1987. Part I: Four - 22nd February 1984, (Pg 29) 34 Diana Cooper, A Little Light on the Spiritual Laws, Hodder & Stoughton, 2000. Chapter Twenty: The Law of Responsibility, (Pg 107) 35 White Eagle, The Quiet Mind, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1984. The Master Soul is Constant: .. is Strong to Serve: Accept the Task, (Pg 54)

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36 Idries Shah, The Way of the Sufi, Penguin Books, 1975. Part Two: Classical Authors. 8: Jalaludin Rumi, (Pg 118) 37 Malcolm Muggeridge, Conversion: A Spiritual Journey, Collins, Fount Paperbacks, 1989. Introduction, (Pg 13) 38 Christopher Jamison, Finding Sanctuary, Phoenix, 2007. PART TWO: STEP 5 - Community. (Pg 143) 39 William Stainton Moses, Spirit Teachings, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Section XXVIII, (Pg 226) 40 Maulana Mohammad Ali, Introduction to The Study of the Holy Qur'an, The Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha'at- Islam, 1976. Chapter II - Essentials of Religion: Section 3 - Life after Death, (Pg 91) 41 John McConnachie, The Significance of Karl Barth, Hodder & Stoughton, 1931. Chapter III: The New Terminology, (Pg 82) 42 Ouspensky P D, In Search of the Miraculous, Harcourt Inc, 2001. Chapter 3: (Pg 58) 43 Michael Newton, Destiny of Souls: New Case Studies of Life Between Lives, Llewellyn Publications, 2005. 10: Our Spiritual Path, (Pg 399) 44 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part One: Chapter I - The Plan, (Pg 17) 45 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part One: Chapter XII – Meditation, (Pg 124) 46 Colin Fry, Life Before Death, Rider & Co, 2008. 6. Searching: the quest for spirituality, (Pg 123) 47 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XVI: Philosophy - Experience, May 12, 1921, (Pg 450) 48 Shankara Acharya is not a name but a title, akin to the term ‘Dali Lama’. The "Shankara" referred to here was born near Malabar in Southern India about the year 686 A.D. 49 Shankara Acharya, The Crest Jewel of Wisdom, John M Watkins, 1964. The Crest Jewel of Wisdom - The Master Answers, (Pg 19) 50 John Blofeld, The Wheel of Life, Rider & Co, 1959. Chapter 2 - The Six Pulses and a regrettable Buttonhole, (Pg 52) 51 William Houff, Infinity in Your Hand, Skinner House Books, 1994. Chapter 7: Suffering the Pitfalls - No pain, no gain. No shortcuts either! (Pg 80) 52 Brian Leslie Weiss, Many Lives, Many Masters, Judy Piatkus, 2002. Chapter Sixteen, (Pg 211) 53 Morton T Kelsey, The Other Side of Silence, SPCK, 1985. Part Two: The Basic Climate for Meditation - 8. A Word of Warning and Encouragement, (Pg 77) 54 Graham Jeffery, The Rabbi's Tale - Letters from Gamaliel, Palm Tree, 1989. Letter Three, (Pg 15) 55 Abbé Henri de Tourville, Letters of Direction, Mowbray, 1939. III - Our Own Day, (Pg 27) 56 Evelyn Underhill, The Spiritual Life, Mowbray, 1984. Part Two: The Spiritual Life as Communion with God, (Pg 58) 57 Robert Brown, We Are Eternal, Hodder & Stoughton, 2004. Part Two: Chapter 7 - Life after Life, (Pg 140) 58 Gordon Smith, The Unbelievable Truth, Hay House, 2004. Chapter Two: Life After Death - God's Waiting Room, (Pg 46) 59 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part Three: Chapter XV - The Final Chapter (Lauda), (Pg 390) 60 Phyllis V. Schlemmer, The Only Planet of Choice, Gateway Books, 1996. VI: Terrestrial Affairs - 18: Making a Difference, (Pg 257) 61 Laurie Worger, My Treasures For You, The Percival Book Company, 1965. Chapter 9: The Practice of Mystical Endeavour, (Pg 94) 62 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Use Every Effort to Brighten the Lives of Others, (Pg 26) 63 Jacob Boehme, The Way to Christ, Paulist Press, 1978. The Fifth Treatise on the New Birth that is (1622) Chapter Eight, (para 2) 64 Anne Dooley, Guidance from Silver Birch, Spiritualist Press, 1966. Chapter Three: Serving Your Apprenticeship, (Pg 23) 65 Shankara Acharya, The Crest Jewel of Wisdom, John M Watkins, 1964. Introduction, (Pg 9) 66 St Bernard of Clairvaux, The Love of God, Pickering & Inglis, 1983. Chapter III - Treatise on Grace and Free Choice, (Pg 37) 67 Laurie Worger, My Treasures For You, The Percival Book Company, 1965. Chapter 18: Conscious Knowledge, (Pg 165) 68 Arthur Conan Doyle, The Vital Message, Hodder & Stoughton, 1919. Chapter I: The Two Needful Readjustments, (Pg 37)

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15.6: Spiritual Development – Patience

Be Patient; don’t rush things. Anything worth having is worth waiting for. I don’t know from where this phrase derives but it is very applicable to Spiritual Development which is a very, very slow process. On this topic, the spirit communicator who used John Scott as his channel said: 1

...all that is important and lasting is slow in growth.

I think it is right and important to stress the word ‘lasting’. The slowness of the process allows for complete digestion of one mouthful of spiritual food before the next is taken. For each step needs to have a period of time for the knowledge to be consolidated with what you already know. It is a slow build; one brick in the spiritual wall on top of the next. Again from later in John Scott’s book: 2

...things do not happen suddenly; you must expect slow growth in all that is lasting. It is the universal way in which worlds are run - growth by infinitesimal stages, call it evolution or what you like, that is the great law. Sudden change is not the system of the Highest; sudden changes by mankind do not last.

There are so many avenues of learning where slow sure progress is a necessity. The psychic Heidi Sawyer, having gone through the process herself recognised that: 3

The greatest thing that you are up against when developing psychic skills is impatience.

Whilst this is true for many things in nature and within our lives, it is certainly true for our spiritual growth. This was voiced by Evelyn Underhill who, according to Lumsden Barkway, realised that: 4

So it is that the life of the Spirit is to unfold gently and steadily within us; till at last the full stature for which God designed us, is attained.

...and Evelyn added: 5

It is an organic process, a continuous Divine action, not a series of jerks.

This whole mechanism is typical of any process which is to last; evolution not revolution. A gentle push forward is what is needed. Silver Birch, giving us more teachings from the world of Spirit, said: 6

...all spiritual growth must be slow and progressive.

…and in addition, he also remarked: 7

In silence, in harmony and in love, your souls unfold all the time. Though it may be slow, it is sure and certain.

The temptation, all the time, is to try to speed up the process; we are impatient creatures.

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Although in our hearts we know that progress needs time, we still try to push forward too quickly. Colin Fry, the British medium, recognised that: 8

It is a human characteristic to set your sights on horizons. The danger of this is you can be tempted to rush towards them, only to find that when you reach them there is another horizon and what you lost in haste was the joy, experience and learning of the journey.

Staying with the theme of enjoying one’s life journey, in the front of my PhD Thesis 9 published in 1971 I used the following quotation from El Dorado by Robert Louis Stevenson:

To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive and the true success is to labour.

During this long process of learning and building our knowledge base we build the right sort of spirituality. Often in the young, impatience gets in the way whereas as you mature you do realise the importance of taking your time – ‘festina lente’ as George Lamb, my old Latin master, used to say – ‘hurry slowly’. Jean Leclercq, a 20 th century French monk, understood the reason for this and in his ‘Contemplative Life’ wrote: 10

For while youth has its advantages these very qualities present dangers, especially that of wanting to go too far and do too much.

Every youngster is impatient; it seems to be an inherent characteristic. This observation was not lost on the ex-Principal of New College in Edinburgh University, Marcus Dods. In his 1897 book ‘How to Become Like Christ’ he wrote: 11

Many young persons seem to think life will all be gone before they taste any of its sweets. They must have everything at once, and cannot postpone any of its enjoyments or advantages. No quality is more fatal to success and lasting happiness than impatience.

Patience lifts the barriers to success or as the Sufi Idries Shah expressed it: 12

The impatient man is his own enemy; he slams the door on his own progress.

Thus, we must temper our impatience. No matter in what sphere, steady and thoughtful progress will out. The one-time Dean of Norwich and a prolific author, David Lawrence Edwards confirmed that: 13

...in religion as in science, no impatient person stands a chance.

Marcus Dods, once a minister of the Free Church of Scotland, knew that impatience held back spiritual progress: 14

Yet, like petted children, we continue persistently to cry for the thing we have not. Sometimes it is a mere question of waiting. The thing we sigh for will come in time, but not yet. To wait is the test of many persons; and if they are impatient, they fail in the one point that determines the whole.

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Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian philosopher and social thinker, recognised the negative impact that impatience has on development: 15

It is conceivable, of course, that the learner should impatiently expect results, but he will attain to nothing so long as he fails to master his impatience.

So put a bridle on your urgency and allow everything to happen at the right time, in the right place and it will then yield the right result. The following sentence highlights two factors; patience and timing about which Brian Weiss said: 16

Patience and timing ... Everything comes when it must come. A life cannot be rushed, cannot be worked on a schedule as so many people want it to be.

He also noted, but in a different book, that Buddhists have an expression: 17

Don't push the river. It will travel at its own speed anyway.

This does not come easily as the spirit teacher White Eagle observed. He suggested that: 18

When in doubt, do nothing. Be still, have patience and wait. Learn to be still, my children, to be calm and still and wait for God; God will not fail you.

Therefore, be patient and wait, as anonymous author of the ‘The Cloud of Unknowing’ suggests: 19

So I say again, avoid all unnatural compulsion and learn to love joyfully with a sweet and gentle disposition of body and soul. Wait with gracious and modest courtesy for the Lord's initiative and do not impatiently snatch at grace like a greedy greyhound suffering from starvation.

This analogy is very apt, having experienced my son’s Labrador and golden retriever. It is necessary to consolidate our experiential knowledge. It is no use building a house on foundations of wet concrete. Every element of progress needs to be grasped and be fully understood before the next step can be made. In ‘The Commanding Self’ the Sufi mystic Idries Shah recognised this requirement: 20

It is important to absorb what one is taught, not just to taste it, or swallow it. People generally are in such a hurry that they do not allow themselves to digest materials which, however, can be useful only if absorbed.

Depending on the complexity of our learning, it may take what seems like ages to move to the next stage. This was expressed, in ‘God and the Evolving Universe’ by the authors James Redfield, Michael Murphy, and Silvia Timbers, as: 21

...improvements usually come in spurts after long periods of little or no advance.

Thus everything will appear to come at the right time – no amount of pushing and fretting will change it. The Western Buddhist John Blofeld emphasised that: 22

Truth cannot be grasped by the throat like a highwayman's victim, but will reveal

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itself in its own time. Whether I should find it during this life or after a hundred incarnations to come no longer seemed important. 'Slowly, slowly catchee monkey. 'All that need matter henceforth was that I should keep myself in a constant state of preparedness.

What a lovely thought; always do the best you can in everything that you do in taking the spiritual high-road. If you do this then you will certainly develop in the right way and you will not be too worried about how fast (or slowly!) you are improving. Michael Newton, the regression therapist, discovered that the transition from one spiritual level to another: 23

...is a slow one, in keeping with the practice of infinite care that is so evident in all spiritual training.

Angela of Foligno, a 13 th century Italian mystic, recognised the slow progress that anyone travelling the spiritual pathway must accept: 24

It is very pitiful and a cause of great heartache that the soul can move itself in the direction of God only very slowly and painfully in order to advance a very small step.

Developing our spiritual nature is such a slow process which Silver Birch described as: 25

The things of the spirit require careful nurture and slow growth.

...and therefore, as the mystic Henry Thomas Hamblin advised: 26

Let us then cultivate patience, persistence, endurance.

In fact, such development is so slow that often any change is imperceptible. From day-to- day it is often hard to see any progress at all. However, if you look back over the years you will be able to recognise real but slow enlightenment. Again from Evelyn Underhill’s writings, as collected by Lumsden Barkway’s in his book ‘An Anthology of the Love of God’: 27 28

All real progress in spiritual things comes gently, imperceptibly, and is the work of God.

…and the apparent conclusion is, as Evelyn remarked in ‘The Mystery of Sacrifice’: 29

Often it seems to the soul that nothing happens.

This gradual development applies to all spheres of existence; it is true for the earth plane and for every spiritual realm. This was understood by Irene Bays’ spirit communicator who wrote through automatic writing that: 30

...all things do not happen as quickly as we desire. This applies not only to the Spirit upon the Earth plane, but the Spirit of the Spirit World.

…and this teaching spirit went on to stress that even our spirit guides and helpers cannot hurry things along for us:

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We walk side by side and we cannot hasten anything. Indeed it is better to have a gradual awareness than to plunge and completely submerge oneself, for that way there can be a drowning. To gather information gently is of much greater value, for if one thing follows upon another in quick succession, then very often that which happened first becomes lost.

Francis de Sales, a 17 th century Bishop of Geneva, authored an excellent book called ‘Introduction to the Devout Life’. In it he remarked on the need to have slow and incremental progress which: 31

…is only brought about little by little, by progressing from improvement to improvement, with effort and by slow degrees.

Progress depends, to some extent, on the amount of effort and time we put into our development. If we are determined, have fortitude and persistence, along with patience, then inevitable progress will definitely happen. This reassurance was also given by St. Theophan the Recluse in ‘The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to it’: 32

Godly things move along slowly and imperceptibly, but steadfastly.

Staying with the deistic mind-set, Jonathan Fryer tells us that in the Quaker George Fox’s journal he wrote that all of us ought to: 33

...wait patiently upon the Lord...

Hence, if we cannot speed things up, then what is the point of setting unachievable goals and being impatient? Let me therefore take more words out of Beth Collier’s book ‘Beyond Words’: 34

Do not be impatient, for it may take a long time to reach the goal you have set yourself...

It is not only goals that we have set for ourselves which are important but those life objectives which were established before we were born. The spirit of Diana, Princess of Wales communicating through the mediumship of Hazel Courteney said: 35

We all come with a purpose and we come to learn various lessons, so for the moment, learn to be patient.

The rewards for sticking to your spiritual objectives are great but you cannot hurry the process. Perseverance is the name of the game; Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh suggested the change is not: 36

...a quick process: change comes incrementally, through perseverance.

This was essentially the message given by a spirit communicator through Beatrice Russell that: 37

In years to come you will, if you persevere, come to great heights; but it entails

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endless patience, and the almost total withdrawal at times, from the outside world.

This withdrawal is not necessarily physical but spiritual. If you are following your spiritual pathway then perhaps many may consider you to be different. The 19 th century biblical scholar Marcus Dods explained that: 38

We may be dimly conscious that our tastes are not precisely those of other men, and that if the ordinary ways of society are the best men can devise for spending life satisfactorily, these are scarcely the ways that will suit us.

I think, here, that I would replace ‘withdrawal’ with ‘dependency’ as we all still have to balance our material life with our spiritual. However, within this we can make ourselves less dependent upon those events within the material world. Red Cloud, the guide to Geraldine Pengelly also commented on impatience: 39

Patience in all things is the way we learn and go forward, one step at a time. Impatience causes the wrong things to happen at the wrong time. When thoughts are heard, stop and let the thoughts move closer to you. It will then give the bigger picture of what is being given to you.

…and Brother Watchman Nee also gave us his opinion of impatience: 40

In walking after the spirit we must avoid all haste.

This haste is not just in terms of being patient for our own development. It is also about not being hasty in what we say to others. In one of his aphorisms, the Spanish Jesuit Baltasar Gracián noted that: 41

A word uttered in passion may be light to the person who hurled it but should feel heavy to the one who catches and ponders it.

So we must be mindful of what we say; it needs great patience on our part. All of this is supported by Evelyn Underhill’s statements that: 42

Growth in God is a far more gradual, less conscious process than we realise at first. We are so raw and superficial in our notions, that we cannot conceive the nature of those tremendous changes by which the child of grace becomes a man of God. We all want to be up and doing long before we are ready to do.

There is a positive reason for not developing too quickly. It is all to do with our capacity to absorb knowledge and experience quickly. You can demonstrate this for yourself – read a book or watch a film for the second time and realise how much more you see in the content than when you first saw it. Thus reflection on what we know and experience will lead us to consolidate the material and thereby laying a good foundation for additional knowledge and other experiences. Ralph Waldo Emerson uncovered a different aspect of this rationalisation process: 43

It is observed that our mental processes go forward even when they seem suspended. Scholars say that if they return to the study of a new language after some intermission, the intelligence of it is more not less. A subject of thought to

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which we return from month to month, from year to year, has always some ripeness of which we can give no account.

Things we learned many years ago often bubble to the surface when needed. I’ll give you a trivial example: I studied French during my school years and only came to use it in earnest some 40 years later. I was really surprised as to how much I remembered from those formative years – I was able to communicate in Nice without too much difficulty. It is no different than in spiritual development. We don’t always know how bits of knowledge will piece together later on our spiritual journey. Sometimes writers have used analogies to represent emergent knowledge; birth is one. That is, the birth of new knowledge at each step of the spiritual ladder. This was used by the Trappist monk, poet, social activist and student of comparative religion, Thomas Merton: 44

But birth in the Spirit happens many times in a man's life, as he passes through successive stages of spiritual development.

I suppose that ‘spiritual food’ is not much different than physical food; too much and our bodily system cannot take it and too little and we become emaciated. This simile was used by Evelyn Underhill in her book ‘The Essentials of Mysticism’: 45

Seek spiritual food and give yourselves time to assimilate it, so that you may be strong.

Another reason for slow progress is, as the guide to Geraldine Pengelly wrote: 46

Too much too soon can be confusing. We will take our time so that you understand.

Not only too much, but it is necessary to recognise that we need to appreciate all the fundamentals before a particular truth can be accepted. Some notions we can’t always assimilate and so perhaps we need to recognise that we must park an issue and await further developments. Idries Shah in ‘The Commanding Self’ understood this issue and wrote: 47

At your present stage you have to try to see that a person groping, or asking certain questions originating in an unprepared mind, is not capable of assimilating an answer except in his own terms of thinking, which may be inadequate for profiting by that answer.

Every facet of our knowledge, whether through study or experience, takes time to mature to the level that is required. The degree that we need to understand a concept depends upon the requirements for the next step to be taken. For example, being certain that life continues beyond death is sufficient for most people to embark on their spiritual journey; it is not necessary for them to know every last detail of living in the life to come. All will be revealed in good time; we have eternity in which to progress and learn. White Eagle made this very point: 48

Spiritual power moulds physical and material conditions, but spiritual power is never in a hurry. You want things to happen immediately, but God never hurries. There is all eternity in which to work and live and be joyful!

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That might be so, but we have to achieve what we can as best we can in this current life. This means understanding ourselves and our drivers and trying to mould ourselves into something that we consider to be better. Part of this process was noted by the psychic Heidi Sawyer: 49

Patience helps you to master your strengths and be aware of your weaknesses.

During this unhurried development time we are greatly helped by our guides, helpers and friends in the Spirit World. In the ‘Philosophy of Silver Birch’ we read that: 50

What is important is that man should become aware of his true self and of the access he can have to the source of all being. He should know that the Great Spirit is not inaccessible, remote, far-off, unreachable, but is within himself and that he has a spiritual armoury, a strength, a reserve, a potency on which he can call in times of difficulty and crisis. Moreover, in addition to this tremendous potential within himself, he can also reach out to the infinite power of the spirit without. He can climb a ladder, on which, rung after rung, there are beings waiting to help him as he is ready to reach them. And this is important.

Thus the seeds of our knowledge and experience are primarily provided by inspiration from Spirit rather than from our own self. It is this process which we have to gently foster and nurture. While the invocation is for us to be patient, it is a good job that our spiritual guides are also very patient, as the English peace activist Stephen Hobhouse recognised: 51

However slowly the soul climbs, the watchers and helpers never lose patience.

We can measure this ‘slowness’ in two ways; by time and by spirituality. It is the latter which decides whether we are progressing well or not. This was highlighted in Beatrice Russell’s book ‘Beyond the Veils through Meditation’: 52

Only step by step can you climb to the heights of this [Divine] wisdom, and your progress will not be measured in terms of time, for you will have transcended time, but in terms of spiritual growth.

…and this was summarised by the American psychiatrist Brian Weiss: 53

For purposes of spiritual evolution, it helps to envision time as a river, though we should measure it not chronologically, as we do now, but in lessons learned on our road to immortality. So don't push the river of time. You're just going to splash around impotently; that is, you can thrash against the current or flow with it peacefully. Impatience robs us of joy, peace, and happiness. We want what we want, and we want it now. Nowhere is this more evident than in twenty-first-century America. But that's not how the universe is engineered. Things come to us when we are ready. Before we are born, we look over the landscape of the life to come, only to forget it after birth. We hurry in the present, worrying only about fixing the now, but as adults in our present lives we should recognise there is a right and wrong time.

Similarly, the consequence of your patience has been described by Silver Birch; he said: 54

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Spiritual attainment is a long, slow, difficult path, as the pilgrim embarks on it, he leaves behind many familiar landscapes and journeys more and more into the unknown. But, as compensation, which is part of the natural law, he begins to have warmth and beauty, the nobility and lustre, the grandeur and divinity of the spirit as part of his natural accompaniment. This is the law of compensation in action.

These are only some of the beneficial qualities which naturally emerge during the process of spiritual development. Another which is often mentioned is humility; that quality which sets yourself in the right relationship to everyone else. This has been long recognised as a ‘godly’ characteristic and, according to Kathleen Pond, the Spanish mystic Alonso de Madrid believed that a second quality linked to humility which: 55

...our Redeemer and Master Jesus Christ wants us to learn from him is patience. It is so much a sister of humility that they are almost always together, and usually where one is found, the other is found with it.

Of course, as I have highlighted before, the overarching quality which includes all others is love; love for everything. White Eagle, likewise, is forever making the same point: 56

To love is to be tolerant towards all, towards all the happenings of daily life; to be patient, thoughtful, kind and meek. All these qualities are contained in the one word: love.

This teacher from the Spirit World also linked patience with love and with peace: 57

If the action of another irritates you and you chafe under a sense of injustice, do not try to attack, even in your thoughts, the one who appears to have offended. Have you not given yourself to the Master of Love? There can be no compromise; your way is clearly shown. It is the way of love, gentleness, peace.

...and this peace from patience was also described by the 17 th century Spanish Jesuit Baltasar Gracián: 58

Patience leads to an inestimable inner peace, which is bliss on earth.

It would be very nice if we could love all, and all the other precious qualities automatically emerge. I think, however, that this may work the other way round; that we try to become more kind, more compassionate and, of course, more patient and then we may have developed love for all things. So as part of this strategy, we all have to learn to be patient; it does not come easily. From our innermost being we need to be less impatient with other people through to not being impatient when things do not happen quickly enough. Certainly, with spiritual development, the latter often tries our patience. One of Baltasar Gracián’s aphorisms touched on this topic: 59

Know how to wait. It shows a great heart with deep reserves of patience.

So, let love be your watchword and be very patient. Quietly and gently follow your spiritual pathway and step by step gain spiritual growth, and with hindsight, you will be amazed at the progress you have made.

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1 John Scott, I Lent a Hand to a Ghost, Psychic Press, 1950. Psychology: (Pg 53) 2 John Scott, I Lent a Hand to a Ghost, Psychic Press, 1950. Love: (Pg 89 / 90) 3 Heidi Sawyer, Why My Mother Didn't Want Me To Be Psychic, Hay House, 2008. Chapter 13: Top Ten Tips for Psychic Development. (Pg 152) 4 Lumsden Barkway, An Anthology of the Love of God (from the writings of Evelyn Underhill), Mowbray, 1953. V Sanctification, The Growth of Love: Hidden Growth (The School of Charity), (Pg 169) 5 Evelyn Underhill, The Fruits of the Spirit; Light of Christ; Abba, Longmans, Green and Co, 1957. Light of Christ: II Incarnation and Childhood, (Pg 45) 6 A W Austen, Teachings of Silver Birch, Psychic Press, 1993. The Divine Plan, (Pg 40) 7 A W Austen, Teachings of Silver Birch, Psychic Press, 1993. When Nothing Happens .. (Pg 147) 8 Colin Fry, Life Before Death, Rider & Co, 2008. Introduction, (Pg 5) 9 David Alan Jones, Development of Optimal Control Algorithms for Fixed Bed Catalytic Chemical Reactors, A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University of Leeds, August 1971. 10 Jean Leclercq, Contemplative Life, Cistercian Publications, 1978. St. Bernard on the role of the young, (Pg 27) 11 Marcus Dods, How to Become Like Christ, Thos. Whittaker and also available on-line through Project Gutenberg, 1897. Indiscreet Importunity, (Pg 73 / 74) 12 Idries Shah, The Commanding Self, Octagon Press, 1994. Section II: People 'On Different Levels', (Pg 81) 13 David L Edwards, Religion and Change, Hodder & Stoughton, 1974. Part Two: Chapter 8 - A New Statement of Christian Belief - Science and Religion, (Pg 348) 14 Marcus Dods, How to Become Like Christ, Thos. Whittaker [and also available on-line through Project Gutenberg], 1897. Indiscreet Importunity, (Pg 73) 15 Rudolf Steiner, The Way of Initiation, Theosophical Publishing Society, 1912. The Way of Initiation: VII - The Higher Education of the Soul, (Pg 196) 16 Brian Leslie Weiss, Many Lives, Many Masters, Judy Piatkus, 2002. Chapter Eight, (Pg 112) 17 Brian Leslie Weiss, Same Soul, Many Bodies, Piatkus, 2006. Chapter 6 - Paul: Patience and Understanding, (Pg 94) 18 White Eagle, The Quiet Mind, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1984. The Master Soul is Constant: .. is Calm, Quiet and Steady: God Will Not Fail You, (Pg 38) 19 The Cloud of Unknowing and The Book of Privy Counselling, Doubleday, 1973. The Cloud of Unknowing: Chapter 46, (Pg 107) 20 Idries Shah, The Commanding Self, Octagon Press, 1994. Section V: Undigested, (Pg 176) 21 James Redfield, Michael Murphy, Silvia Timbers, God and the Evolving Universe, Bantam Press, 2002. Part Four - Practices and Readings: 16 Transformative Practice: Basic Principles of Transformative Practice, (Pg 224) 22 John Blofeld, The Wheel of Life, Rider & Co, 1959. Chapter 10 - The Great Pilgimage, (Pg 215) 23 Michael Newton, Destiny of Souls: New Case Studies of Life Between Lives, Llewellyn Publications, 2005. 8: The Advancing Soul, (Pg 321) 24 Angela of Foligno, Memorial, DS Brewer, 1999. The Memorial of Angela of Foligno - The First Twenty Steps, (Pg 25) 25 A W Austen, Teachings of Silver Birch, Psychic Press, 1993. Whence Comes Inspiration? (Pg 203) 26 Henry Thomas Hamblin, The Book of Daily Readings, The Rally, 1944. January 5, (Pg 14) 27 Lumsden Barkway, An Anthology of the Love of God (from the writings of Evelyn Underhill), Mowbray, 1953. IV The Spiritual Life: III Prayer, The Commerce of Love: Progress in Prayer (The Fruits of the Spirit), (Pg 127) 28 Evelyn Underhill, The Fruits of the Spirit; Light of Christ; Abba, Longmans, Green and Co, 1957. The Fruits of the Spirit: Part I; V Meekness and Temperance, (Pg 41) 29 Evelyn Underhill, The Mystery of Sacrifice, Longmans, Green and Co, 1948. Chapter IV - The Consecration, (Pg 50) 30 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part One: Chapter V – Freewill, (Pg 69) 31 Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Burns & Oates, 1948. First Part of the Introduction. Chapter V - That a Beginning Must be made ... (Pg 45) 32 St. Theophan the Recluse, The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to it, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1995. 74 Yearning for Monastic Life, (Pg 296) 33 Jonathan Fryer, George Fox and the Children of the Light, Kyle Cathie, 1991. The Journal: The Preacher - Christ has the Key, is the Way, (Pg 12) 34 Beth Collier, Beyond Words, Triangle, 1987. 7 Making a start, (Pg 78) 35 Hazel Courteney, Divine Intervention, Cico Books, 2002. Chapter 13: The Journey Back to Chaos, (Pg 184)

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36 Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh, The Path, Viking, 2016. 1: The Age of Complacency, (Pg 12 / 13) 37 Beatrice Russell, Fragments of Truth from the Unseen. Unknown Publisher, 1951. Reincarnation, (Pg 5) 38 Marcus Dods, How to Become Like Christ, Thos. Whittaker and also available on-line through Project Gutenberg, 1897. Indiscreet Importunity, (Pg 73) 39 Geraldine Pengelly, The Red Man Cometh, Athena Press, 2006. Everything Happens for a Reason, (Pg 87) 40 Watchman Nee, When is My Spirit Normal?, Ministry of Life, 1927. Chapter 1 - The Dangers of Spiritual Life, (Pg 132) 41 Baltasar Gracián, The Art of Worldly Wisdom - A pocket Oracle, Mandarin, 1995. Aphorism 207: (Pg 117) 42 Evelyn Underhill, The School of Charity, Longmans, Green and Co, 1934. Part II - Chapter IV – Incarnate, (Pg 47) 43 Ralph Waldo Emerson, Natural History of Intellect, Solar Press, 1995. I. Natural History of Intellect - I. Powers and Laws of Thought, (Pg 26) 44 Thomas Merton, Reflections on My Work, Collins, Fontana Library, 1989. Preface to the Japanese edition of 'The New Man', (Pg 147) 45 Evelyn Underhill, The Essentials of Mysticism, Oneworld, 1999. Some Implicits of Christian Social Reform, (Pg 147) 46 Geraldine Pengelly, The Red Man Cometh, Athena Press, 2006. Lessons and Journeys, (Pg 73) 47 Idries Shah, The Commanding Self, Octagon Press, 1994. Section II: Starting to Learn, (Pg 72) 48 White Eagle, The Quiet Mind, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1984. The Master Soul is Constant: .. is Calm, Quiet and Steady: God Never Hurries, (Pg 43 / 44) 49 Heidi Sawyer, Why My Mother Didn't Want Me To Be Psychic, Hay House, 2008. Chapter 13: Top Ten Tips for Psychic Development. (Pg 153) 50 Stella Storm, Philosophy of Silver Birch, The Spiritual Truth Press, 1998. Chapter Six: The Responsibility of Mediumship. (Pg 64) 51 Stephen Henry Hobhouse, A Discourse on the Life to Come, Independent Press Limited, 1954. Chapter VI: The Redemption of Hell, (Pg 68) 52 Beatrice Russell, Beyond the Veils through Meditation, Lincoln Philosophical Research Foundation, 1986. Divine Living, (Pg 33) 53 Brian Leslie Weiss, Same Soul, Many Bodies, Piatkus, 2006. Chapter 6 - Paul: Patience and Understanding, (Pg 94) 54 Stella Storm, Philosophy of Silver Birch, The Spiritual Truth Press, 1998. Chapter Fourteen: Selected Silver Birch sayings, (Pg 150) 55 Kathleen Pond(ed), The Spirit of the Spanish Mystics, Burns & Oates,1958. Alonso de Madrid - On Patience, (Pg 75) 56 White Eagle, The Quiet Mind, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1984. The Master Soul is Constant: .. is Tolerant: Loving Means Seeing Good, (Pg 30) 57 White Eagle, The Quiet Mind, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1984. The Master Soul is Constant: .. is Gentle, Loving , Kind: No Compromise, (Pg 22) 58 Baltasar Gracián, The Art of Worldly Wisdom - A pocket Oracle, Mandarin, 1995. Aphorism 159: (Pg 90) 59 Baltasar Gracián, The Art of Worldly Wisdom - A pocket Oracle, Mandarin, 1995. Aphorism 55: (Pg 31)

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15.7: Spiritual Development – Step by Step

Evolution is an incremental process; it is through a similar process that our spirituality grows. I accept that perhaps there are occasions when there are monumental changes in personal, community or cosmic environments, but most of the time it is one very small step at a time. In acceptance of this, in one of his spiritual books, ‘My Treasures For You’, Laurie Worger wrote: 1

Spiritual advancement consists of a series of small steps rather than one large leap!

Walter Hilton also believed this to be true. In the 14 th century this Augustinian English mystic compared physical to spiritual progress: 2

But a soul can't suddenly leap from the lowest state to the highest, any more than a man who wants to climb a high ladder can set one foot on the lowest step or rung and fly with his next step to the top; rather, he must go up by process, taking one step at a time until he reaches the top. So it is spiritually

From my own personal experience, this seems to be the case. No matter how impatient we are, there seems to be a natural sequence of events; take one step, use your reason to examine it, incorporate it into your general Philosophy of Life, prove to yourself that you have really accepted and understood, and then you may be privileged to see and take the next step upward. To provide a modern picture of this scenario, I’ll turn to the mystic and spiritual author Henry Thomas Hamblin who wrote: 3

In our early innocence, when we are at the beginning of the new life, we pray "Lord, increase our faith," and then expect it to arrive all at once, complete and readymade, just as though we had ordered a suit of clothes through the mail. We think then that it is a quality, or power, that can be given us by God, without any work or training on our part. We imagine that all that is necessary for us to do is to pray to the Lord to increase our faith, or to give us a large faith; and then as a result we shall suddenly become men and women of great faith. A larger experience of life dispels this misunderstanding. It is then seen that to pray in this way is equivalent to an office boy asking to be made Managing Director of the firm that employs him. It is possible for an office boy to become head of his firm - indeed, there is nothing to prevent him from doing so if he has the right stuff in him - but he must first become the best office boy that ever was, and the best junior clerk, and the best managing clerk, and many other things, before he is allowed to reach the goal of his ambition. In other words, he has to work his way through and up, learning all the time, aspiring all the time, until at last he is recognized as the most able and best-fitted for the position of managing head. It is the same with the new life of the Spirit: we have to work our way through, patiently, step by step. We have to aspire and experiment. We have to embark upon many a daring adventure, learning the whole while, until at last we reach a stage of freedom and actual knowing.

When talking about incremental ascent or step by step progress, we tend to think of it as a vertical ladder with many rungs. This, I think, is too simplified. I view it more like a series of landings one above the other. One step upwards brings us to the next landing where we

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:10:26 15.7 Spiritual Development – Step by Step Page 2 of 12 are not able to see the next step to take. We need to examine this landing from all perspectives and once we have completely understood its topography, we may be shown the next step upwards. The teaching spirit known as Silver Birch described this as: 4

In the constant process of seeking perfection each step forward brings another step into view.

We could also use another analogy which another teaching spirit White Eagle himself has often used: 5

…mountain ranges to describe the process of spiritual unfoldment; as one peak is attained, another higher peak is revealed, then another and another, until the whole range opens up before the climber.

You must also remember that this incremental progression does not end with death. We advance spiritually across all the planes we inhabit just like John Edward recorded: 6

Regardless of where we are - in a physical body or not - we strive to put one step in front of the other, however tentative, as we travel our spiritual path.

This was confirmed by the late Maurice Barbanell, who, communicating from the Spirit World through the medium Marie Cherrie said: 7

Truly the possibilities of this level are all embracing and one can only expand one's consciousness a little bit at a time.

Based on Maurice’s experience, it appears that there is no way that we can get anywhere close to our goal within this lifetime. This was confirmed by the former Southern Baptist pastor Gene Edwards, who in the introduction to the book ‘Spiritual Torrents’ originally written by Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de la Motte-Guyon, commonly known as Madame Guyon, wrote that this 17 th century born French mystic says that: 8

...an advanced stage of spirituality is rarely achieved.

In fact, I would say ‘never’ rather than ‘rarely’. Some people only think in terms of a lifetime to reach these ‘big results’ and the top of this mythical ladder. The American theologian William Clemmons wrote: 9

Serious spiritual growth is costly and gradual. It is the work of a lifetime.

…and from Rick Warren: 10

Spiritual maturity is neither instant not automatic; it is a gradual, progressive development that will take the rest of your life.

Read literally, this is a very limiting perspective. To me, our progress seems to be everlasting no matter what environment in which we find ourselves. It is one exciting adventure where we learn and experience one new thing after another; step by step we slowly progress. In all of the following, I will continue to use the ‘step’ metaphor although it is woefully inadequate at describing the individual complexity of our personal

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:10:26 15.7 Spiritual Development – Step by Step Page 3 of 12 developmental stages. In fact to add more complexity to the ‘step’ analogy, Aldous Huxley, the English born author who during the latter part of his life became very interested in spiritual subjects, suggested to us that: 11

Spiritual progress is a spiral advance .

...and not a simple one step at a time. In fact, an incremental, many-dimensional, jigsaw would probably be better but how could I explain that?

The simplest way to conceive of our spiritual progress is using a linear, one-dimensional model. William Houff, the Unitarian minister, described the definitive act of spiritual growth is to: 12

...take one step and let tomorrow's step take care of itself.

Anyway, however these increments are described, one thing is sure – they are very small and virtually imperceptible. Everything that we think, say and do could be one of these infinitesimal and incremental changes to our spirituality. This thought was conveyed by the 19 th century Russian Orthodox mystic Theophan the Recluse: 13

Thus each step, each word, even each movement and glance, everything may direct one to walk in God's will and, consequently, to move each moment toward the ultimate goal.

Rick Warren, a Californian evangelical Christian pastor, outlined it as: 14

Spiritual growth is sometimes tedious work, one small step at a time. Expect gradual improvement.

Don’t think that it will be or can be anything different. The mystics accepted this; why shouldn’t you. One such mystic, the 19 th century French Catholic Carmelite nun Therese of Lisieux, who also known as "The Little Flower of Jesus", admitted that God: 15

...does not like teaching us everything at once, but normally enlightens us a little at a time.

About 100 years or so earlier, again in France, the Jesuit Père De Causade, in a letter to Mother Marie-Anne Sophie de Rottembourg, reminded her that: 16

… in this way the operations of God are almost imperceptible. The work of Grace is accomplished in the most intimate part of your interior, in the part of the soul’s depths which is furthest from the senses and consequently from sensible experience.

Or in a short pithy phrase from Deepak Chopra, an expert in New Age spirituality and alternative medicine, the reassurance that: 17

Tiny steps bring big results

It is interesting to note that an apparent step backward may, in reality, be a step forward. As we grow spiritually we will need to reject some ideas that we have held in the past in order

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:10:26 15.7 Spiritual Development – Step by Step Page 4 of 12 to accept a new idea. This is akin to death and rebirth concept often espoused by evangelical missionaries. This similarity was noticed by the psychic barber Gordon Smith and recorded in his book ‘Through My Eyes’: 18

Spiritual growth is a process not unlike bereavement, in that a part of you dies and you must progress despite that...

Such little increments and changes across many lifetimes in many different environments are our destiny and the sooner we start the better. Roy Dixon-Smith, too, suggested, based on his spiritual research, that it will take us many lifetimes on earth and in spirit to reach anything like true spirituality: 19

The truth is normal and prosaic - a gradual upward progress through planes of ever more refined, beautiful and rapidly vibrating matter and radiation, an easy natural progress without drastic terrifying changes of condition and environment but with an ever-increasing power of mind over matter.

This was borne out by the work of Dr. Brian Weiss to whom it was revealed, through many years working in the field of past life regression, that spiritual development: 20

…is like climbing a tree. There are many different branches and many different choices. You'll come to the top of the tree eventually, but it may take five lifetimes or ten or thirty. How many lifetimes will it take to fulfil your soul's goal of learning compassion, for example? It will depend on the choices you make. Thus, both destiny (the tree, after all, was there) and free will coexist.

Many years earlier, the Swedish visionary and mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, had written and understood that: 21

...everyone is taught according to the understanding appropriate to his own love; what is taught beyond this does not remain. All those who are taught by the Lord in the Word are instructed in a few truths while in the world, but in many when they become angels.

Thus it seems to be a continuous process as the mystical author Evelyn Underhill recognised: 22

So it is that the life of the spirit is to unfold gently and steadily within us; till at the last the full stature for which God designed us is attained. It is an organic process, a continuous Divine action; not a sudden miracle or a series of jerks.

Because it is never ending, we ought never to idle whilst in the middle of a climb. If we do then the implications are, according to the Spanish Saint John of the Cross: 23

The stairs of a staircase have naught to do with the top of it and the abode to which it leads, yet are means to the reaching of both; and if the climber left not behind the stairs below him until there were no more to climb, but desired to remain upon any one of them, he would never reach the top of them nor would he mount to the pleasant and peaceful room which is the goal.

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Silver Birch put it a different way: 24

All knowledge has its place. Do not strive to stop at any rung of the ladder of progress. It is only by imbibing, by striving to get the complete picture, that life will be understood by you.

And at each step you need to fully understand what has gone before. It may take many repetitions of events for something to sink into our psyche. We have to take the bull by the horns and change; we have to want to develop; our aspirations should drive us. In writing the history of the life of the 14 th century German mystic Reverend Doctor John Tauler, Susanna Winkworth grasped this idea and stated it as: 25

For the path to life does not stretch across the levels of habit, but winds up the heights of aspiration, and at every fresh step in the ascent a wider horizon of duty opens to the view.

Thus our horizons expand as we progress – horizons of service to humanity or duty as she called it. This is what builds our spirituality in parallel with our understanding of the Cosmic Laws.

Each step is a revelation as Evelyn Underhill explained: 26

The stairs (from material to spiritual) are steep ... but if we do make the effort needed for that ascent, what a revelation!

...which is corroborated by the spirit friend of Helen Greaves who told her that in the Spirit World: 27

The onward path is illuminated with a clarity that surpasses all imagination.

At all times, once we have decided to take the spiritual plunge and develop along the right lines, there are helpers there in numbers. This applies both for us now in each of our lives and for the time that we are in Spirit. Sometimes I feel that my guide is doing just that; metaphorically holding my hand and leading me through the miasma of life. Supporting this, in the book about the spiritual life of Père De Caussade, Richard Whitwell writes: 28

So in the most natural way, and just when it is most needful, step by step, we will find ourselves led, from one point to another, in our heavenly journey.

I think that this is a more appropriate turn of phrase than the more obscure one used by Silver Birch: 29

When you are spiritually ready the door will open.

In fact, it is our guides and helpers that open this door for us – but only when the time is right and we have earned the right to it. Walt Whitman, a 19 th century American poet and humanist, was quoted by Ralph Waldo Trine as saying: 30

I hold it as a changeless law,

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From which no soul can sway or swerve, We have that in us which will draw Whate'er we need or most deserve.

In more prosaic language Henry Thomas Hamblin explained metaphorically: 31

Pilgrims of the Path are like children at school. They have to pass examination after examination in order to test their fitness for promotion to higher classes. .. Is anyone ready to sail the high seas when it fills him with terror to cross the sheltered harbour?

…and more generally later in the same book: 32

...we are all led by the Spirit, and that just at the right time we are taken to the right place where our right work awaits us. There is no conflict in the Spirit. When the time is ripe and all things are ready, the way is opened for us, easily, smoothly and harmoniously; everything falling into its right place, like well-oiled machinery.

Many others have had the same experiences. One such person is Laurie Worger who believed that: 33

...to each one of us comes exactly the right kind of help at exactly the right time and which gives us an opportunity to progress one step at a time.

Escaping from communist Hungary in 1949 and having subsequently studied philosophy and theology at the various Jesuit European universities, Ladislaus Boros in his semi- autobiographical book ‘Open Spirit’, wrote that: 34

All must happen in proper order, neither too early nor too late, in the right relationship to man's capacity to accept and live by it.

…and the communicating spirit whose thoughts were documented by Neale Donald Walsch relayed to us that: 35

...we are all led to the truth for which we are ready.

This seems to be a basic and universal fact; a Cosmic Law. Helen Greaves’ friend Francis Banks, talking to her from the Spirit world, confirmed this by saying: 36

You can't push yourself into heavens beyond you; the Law of Progression is exact.

Here, she was talking about the different spheres in the spirit world, but it equally applies to the degrees of spirituality both on the earth plane and within any one sphere in the Spirit World. That is, we cannot get beyond where we are now until our knowledge and experience and understanding are sufficiently developed to accommodate the change. Dante captured this very well in his Divine Comedy: 37

And the true fruit shall follow on the flower.

Thus progression is one step at a time; never more, never less. And as the healer Jack Angelo wrote: 38

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…there are no short cuts to development. Life is so ordered that the correct stimulus is provided at the correct moment to ensure our spiritual unfoldment.

Martin Israel also used a similar phrase in explaining that: 39

There are no short cuts in our growth into spiritual beings.

I have mentioned above that at each step there needs to be a consolidation of what we already know with what we have just learned or experienced. This means that we must understand and accept where we are on our spiritual pathway and not try to fool ourselves thinking that we are further advanced than we really are, as Imperator, the spirit guide of William Stainton Moses recorded in the excellent book ‘Spirit Teachings’: 40

It is well that you recognise your own ignorance. It is the first step to progress. You are but now standing in the outmost court, far away from the temple of truth. You must walk round and round, until you know the outer precincts, before you can penetrate the inner courts; and long and laborious efforts must precede and fit you for eventual entrance within the temple. Be content. Wait and pray, and keep yourself in silence and patient watching.

And what you must realise is that, as Theophan the Recluse knew: 41

Success will not come suddenly; you must wait, toiling persistently.

As well as being a waiting game, there will be many distractions which we encounter on our journey through life. We have to make sure that we are not deceived into thinking that such avenues are our true spiritual pathway. Simply put, the Spanish Jesuit Baltasar Gracián whose writings were lauded by Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, suggested that: 42

There are certain inessential activities – moths of precious time – and it is worse to busy yourself with the trivial than to do nothing.

This was also the message given by the spirit of Maurice Barbanell through the trance mediumship of Marie Cherrie. During a séance in 1985 he communicated that in a conversation he had with his ‘old guide’ Silver Birch, he had been advised: 43

Do not clutter your mind with trivia.

It is important to remain focussed on your primary goals in life and not to be distracted by the plethora of distractions that are available to us. The psychoanalyst Carl Jung in reflecting on his life wrote: 44

I could well imagine that I might have lived in former centuries and there encountered questions I was not yet able to answer; that I had to be born again because I had not fulfilled the task that was given to me. When I die, my deeds will follow along with me that is how I imagine it. I will bring with me what I have done. In the meantime it is important to insure that I do not stand at the end with empty hands. Buddha, too, seems to have had this thought when he tried to keep his disciples from wasting time on useless speculation.

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So watch out for cul-de-sacs and inessential distractions. Part of realising that we have been diverted is to regularly examine what we are doing and where we are heading. So that at each step of our journey, there is a cycle of events which includes rationalising what we know before we are able to start the next step or regress to the previous step in order to climb in the right direction. Irene Bays was informed by her spirit communicator that: 45

The time is now coming when there will be no downward moves, but a situation that is stationary or a situation of upliftment or sideways. For side moves of understanding are, as it were, a clarifying of a present situation. A teaching which is given at the level of understanding, a teaching which is given simplified, if you like, that can be accepted and understood before the next understanding is given. Before the next happening, before the next realisation. And so you progress upwards, but sometimes a zigzag course.

Accepting where we are in our understanding of spiritual matters is part of the process. By this I don’t mean just knowing about, but accepting as part of our philosophy and living it. William Law gave us a very neat description of this when he wrote: 46

Again, the greatest artist in music can add no sound to his instrument, nor make it give forth any other melody but that which lieth silently hidden in it as its own inward state.

So we can only exhibit what we are; not what we are not or what we would like to be.

An example of the sort of thing I mean by consolidation was referred to by the Welsh born Stephen O’Brien: 47

I maintain that the conviction that life goes on after death only comes gradually as piece after piece of evidence is delivered maybe over months or years, rather as though each fragment was a brick in a rising wall. After a while the wall becomes so high, so overpowering in its immensity, that the seeker can then say with certainty that man does live after he dies.

This consideration and internal reasoning may take many months or even years; acceptance only comes when the weight of evidence is such that the truth is undeniable. Perhaps scientific proof may not be possible for many of the truths, and yet because of our own personal evidence we can accept a truth nevertheless. Each bit of the puzzle has to be searched for through reading, discussion and in particular through inspiration from the Spirit World. In this way we ‘earn’ the next step. On this, Helen Greaves was told by her dear friend talking to her from the Spirit World that: 48

It appears from my observation during my time here, that one has to earn every step of advancement.

This has been corroborated by Silver Birch: 49

Prizes of the spirit must be earned; they cannot be gained in an earthly lottery. The riches of the spirit come as you deserve them. As you unfold so automatically you are equipped to receive a little more than you had before.

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This is our reward for spiritual advancement; the more you deserve, the more you are able to be given. Another spirit communicator, Zodiac, stressed that: 50

…you must do your part; for though God holds out to us treasure unlimited, He can only give in the measure that we can take and hold.

However … there are some things that we will never know. Not because they are deliberately hidden, but because no matter how developed we are as human beings, we would not be able to comprehend them. In religious language, as Julian of Norwich used, we could say that: 51

Some mysteries are hidden from us because God wants them to be hidden...

Supporting this, Winifred Graham’s father, during automatic writing sessions with his daughter, told her that: 52

Your eyes are purposely kept from sights not fit for the limited mind of man…

This is at the extreme of spiritual development. However, in everyday life some may attain a high degree of spiritual enlightenment. The level will depend on our capability to accept and understand. Guidance from Silver Birch showed us that: 53

You cannot receive unless you are ready to receive. This is the way the spirit works. It is so simple when you understand it; qualify and you receive.

Many other writers from many different backgrounds and abilities have stated the same idea but in different words. I’ll give a selection for you to consider. They come from the books relating to the 4 th century bishop Gregory of Nyssa, the 19 th century English cleric and Spiritualist William Stainton Moses, the early 20 th century writer W. H. Dyson, a late 20 th and early 21 st century Islamic writer Reza Aslan, a digester of the teachings of the 18 th century Emmanuel Swedenberg’s teachings George Trowbridge, the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung, and from two renowned teachers from the Spirit World Silver Birch and White Eagle, respectively.

Man does not indeed see God, but always only as much as he can perceive, according to his strength . 54

Indeed, since the conception which each frames for himself is to him his God, it cannot be that revelation can be in advance of capacity. It is in the nature of things impossible . 55

It is a simple truism to say that we receive only what we can receive. Every nature is the measure of its own receptivity . 56

Like most Sufis, Attar considered all souls to be receptacles for God's message. At the same time, he believed there exist varying degrees of receptivity in every individual depending on where he or she is on the Way . 57

The Divine life, as it descends through the spiritual world, is received according to

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the state and capacity of the subject, and thus presents infinite variety. 58

There does seem to be unlimited knowledge present in nature, it is true, but it can be comprehended by consciousness only when the time is ripe for it. The process, presumably, is like what happens in the individual psyche: a man may go about for many years with an inkling of something, but grasps it clearly only at a particular moment . 59

...you must learn to cultivate confidence, trust, faith, peace, tranquillity. In that atmosphere you become recipients of the vast riches that infinity has to offer. That is the law. That is how it works. The power is limited to your capacity to receive and to assimilate. Increase the capacity and you will receive more. It is as simple as that. 60

The answers only come with the unfolding vision that develops in the course of spiritual progress for every soul . 61

This set of quotations form a very powerful set of instructions which we cannot ignore. In order to gain spirituality we must, by our own efforts, extend our capabilities which in turn enhance our receptivity to spiritual enlightenment. We need to persevere, and with the help from our spirit friends we can succeed – the treasures will be ours. Back in the dark days of the 14 th century this was metaphorically expressed by Walter Hilton: 62

For this works the same way as things do for a man who has been in the sun for a long time. If such a man comes suddenly into a dark house where no sun shines, he first reacts as if he were blind, and he is able to see absolutely nothing. But if he will wait a while, he will soon be able to see what's around him, first the big things, then the small, and finally everything in the house. It works the same way spiritually. He who forsakes the love of the world and comes to himself in his own conscience, at first finds it somewhat dark, and his eyes are blind to it. But if he stands still and continues with diligent prayer and frequent meditation, maintaining the same will for the love of Jesus, afterwards he will be able to see great things and small ones which he did not at first recognise.

Another set of similes were used by the 19 th century American essayist, philosopher, and poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson: 63

I know well what a sieve every ear is. Teach me never so much and I hear or retain only that which I wish to hear, what comports with my experience and my desire... Though the world is full of food we can take only the crumbs fit for us. The air rings with sounds, but only a few vibrations can reach our tympanum.

Through all of this advice, remember that we are all individuals and each of us will respond to the same stimulus in different ways. I suppose that is why we each have a unique spirit guide who, having come to know us intimately, can present inspirations in such a way as to be acceptable and understandable by us. Using her poetic turn of phrase, Evelyn Underhill wrote on this point: 64

There is no guarantee as to what any one soul will see out of those windows (at the spiritual level), for there is always far more to see than we can apprehend.

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So chin up, smile, and walk headlong towards your spiritual destiny by small incremental stages or as Thomas Aquinas told his congregation on Sermon for the Feast of S. Martin: 65

If a man would come to some exalted estate, he must ascend little by little...

…and you could be that person …

1 Laurie Worger, My Treasures For You, The Percival Book Company, 1965. Chapter 9: The Practice of Mystical Endeavour, (Pg 98) 2 Walter Hilton, The Stairway of Perfection, Image Books, 1979. Book Two: Chapter Seventeen, (Pg 228) 3 Henry Thomas Hamblin, Divine Adjustment, The Science of Thought Press, 1998. Chapter Thirteen: Growth and Development, (Pg 149 / 150) 4 Anne Dooley, Guidance from Silver Birch, Spiritualist Press, 1966. Chapter Five: The Fog of Matter, (Pg 46) 5 Grace Cooke, The Jewel in the Lotus, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1973. I - Man's Afventure into a New World, (Pg 11) 6 John Edward, After Life - Answers from the Other Side, Princess Books, 2004. Chapter Three: Going Down Under, (Pg 65) 7 Marie Cherrie, The Barbanell Report, Pilgrim Books, 1987. Part I: Ten - Date Unknown, (Pg 59) 8 Madame Guyon, Spiritual Torrents, Christian Books, 1984. Introduction [by Gene Edwards], (Pg IX) 9 William Clemmons, Discovering the Depths, Triangle, 1989. Introduction, (Pg x) 10 Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, Zondervan, 2002. Created to Become Like Christ, (Pg 176) 11 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter XII: Time and Eternity, (Pg 187) 12 William Houff, Infinity in Your Hand, Skinner House Books, 1994. Chapter 1: What's Real? Quantum Theory, walking on fire and telekinesis, (Pg 1) 13 St. Theophan the Recluse, The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to it, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1995. 17 A God-pleasing Life, (Pg 93) 14 Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, Zondervan, 2002. It takes Time, (Pg 221) 15 Therese of Lisieux, The Story of a Soul, Anthony Clarke Books, 1973. Chapter 7, (Pg 90) 16 Algar Labouchere Thorold, The Spiritual Letters of Père De Causade, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1934. Book II - The exercise of the virtue of Self-abandonment, Letter XVII - to Mother Marie-Anne Sophie de Rottembourg, (Pg 71) 17 Deepak Chopra, The Book of Secrets, Rider & Co, 2004. Secret #5 - The Cause of Suffering is unreality, (Pg 80) 18 Gordon Smith, Through My Eyes, Hay House, 2007. Chapter 9: Healing Life and Death, (Pg 178) 19 Roy Dixon-Smith, New Light on Survival, Rider & Co, 1952. Part Two: Chapter X: The Astral Material World, (Pg 175) 20 Brian Leslie Weiss, Same Soul, Many Bodies, Piatkus, 2006. Chapter 10 - John: Free Will and Destiny, (Pg 152) 21 Emanuel Swedenborg, Divine Providence, Swedenborg Society, 1949. Chapter IV: There are Laws of the Divine Providence, and these are unknown to man, (Pg 115) 22 Evelyn Underhill, The School of Charity, Longmans, Green and Co, 1934. Part II - Chapter IV – Incarnate, (Pg 48) 23 The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1947. Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book II. Chapter XII, (Pg 111) 24 A W Austen, Teachings of Silver Birch, Psychic Press, 1993. Why Spirit Guides Return, (Pg 24) 25 Susanna Winkworth, The History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler with 25 of his Sermons, H.R.Allenson, 1906. Introductory Notice respecting Tauler's Life and Times by the translator: (Pg 141) 26 Evelyn Underhill, The House of the Soul, Methuen & Co, 1929. Chapter V, (Pg 70 & 71) 27 Helen Greaves, Testimony of Light, Neville Spearman, 1995. The Scripts, (Pg 110)

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28 Richard Whitwell, J.P. de Caussade - A Spiritual Study, The Instant Publishers, undated. Chapter VIII - The One Royal Way, (Pg 41) 29 Anne Dooley, Guidance from Silver Birch, Spiritualist Press, 1966. Chapter Two: Who Are You? (Pg 19) 30 Ralph Waldo Trine, In Tune with the Infinite, G Bell & Sons, 1931. Chapter VI - Wisdom and interior Illumination, (Pg 112) 31 Henry Thomas Hamblin, The Life of the Spirit, The Science of Thought Press, 1934. Chapter XI - How to meet Life's difficulties and perplexities, (Pg 54 / 55) 32 Henry Thomas Hamblin, The Life of the Spirit, The Science of Thought Press, 1934. Chapter XVIII - The Way of Life III, (Pg 85) 33 Laurie Worger, My Treasures For You, The Percival Book Company, 1965. Chapter 15: Concerning Karma, (Pg 146) 34 Ladislaus Boros, Open Spirit, Search Press, 1974. Irenaeus and Patience, (Pg 45) 35 Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations with God - Book 1 An uncommon dialogue, Hodder & Stoughton, 1997. Introduction 36 Helen Greaves, Testimony of Light, Neville Spearman, 1995. The Scripts, (Pg 60) 37 Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy, Capella, 2008. Paradiso Canto XXVII, (Pg 365) 38 Jack Angelo, Spiritual Healing - energy medicine for today, Element, 1991. 3: The Human Energy Field, (Pg 54) 39 Martin Israel, The Pain That Heals, Hodder & Stoughton, 1981. Chapter 15: The Path to Wholeness, (Pg 178) 40 William Stainton Moses, Spirit Teachings, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Section XXV, (Pg 206) 41 St. Theophan the Recluse, The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to it, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1995. 43 Inner Peace, (Pg 193) 42 Baltasar Gracián, The Art of Worldly Wisdom - A pocket Oracle, Mandarin, 1995. Aphorism 33: (Pg 19) 43 Marie Cherrie, The Barbanell Report, Pilgrim Books, 1987. Part I: Fourteen - 12th July 1985, (Pg 79) 44 Carl Gustav Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Fontana, 1995. XI On Life After Death, (Pg 350) 45 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part Three: Chapter VI – Disciplines, (Pg 322) 46 William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life - The Spirit of Love, SPCK, 1978. The Spirit of Love: The Second Part - The First Dialogue Between Theogenes, Eusebius, and Theophilus, (Pg 409) 47 Stephen O'Brien, Visions of Another World, The Aquarian Press, 1989. 16 Behind the Scenes, (Pg 203) 48 Helen Greaves, Testimony of Light, Neville Spearman, 1995. The Scripts, (Pg 53) 49 Stella Storm, Philosophy of Silver Birch, The Spiritual Truth Press, 1998. Chapter Seven: Healing , The Greatest Gift of All, (Pg 72) 50 Gems of Thought, The Greater World Christian Spiritualist Assn, 1989. A Message for Those Tired or Unhappy, (Pg 17) 51 Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, Penguin Books, 1998. The Long Text – 34, (Pg 88) 52 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. No Limitations, (Pg 69) 53 Anne Dooley, Guidance from Silver Birch, Spiritualist Press, 1966. Chapter Nine: Love is Undying, (Pg 91) 54 Ladislaus Boros, Open Spirit, Search Press, 1974. Gregory and Beauty, (Pg 104) 55 William Stainton Moses, Spirit Teachings, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Section XII, (Pg 94) 56 Dyson, W.H, Studies in Christian Mystics, James Clarke, 1913. Chapter VI - The Seat of Authority, (Pg 70) 57 Reza Aslan, No god but God, Arrow Books, 2006. 8. Stain Your Prayer Rug with Wine: The Sufi Way: (Pg 208) 58 George Trowbridge, Swedenborg - Life and Teaching, Swedenborg Society, 1935. Trowbridge summarises Swedenborg when he writes: (Pg 148) 59 Carl Gustav Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Fontana, 1995. XI On Life After Death, (Pg 339) 60 Anne Dooley, Guidance from Silver Birch, Spiritualist Press, 1966. Chapter Nine: Love is Undying, (Pg 87) 61 White Eagle on the Intuition and Initiation, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 2004. Part One: What the Intuition is, and is not - II: Moving Beyond the Age of Reason, (Pg 23) 62 Walter Hilton, The Stairway of Perfection, Image Books, 1979. Book Two: Chapter Twenty-Seven, (Pg 264) 63 Ralph Waldo Emerson, Natural History of Intellect, Solar Press, 1995. I. Natural History of Intellect - I. Powers and Laws of Thought, (Pg 32) 64 Evelyn Underhill, The House of the Soul, Methuen & Co, 1929. Chapter V, (Pg 71) 65 Father M C D'Arcy, Thomas Aquinas - Selected Writings, J M Dent, 1950. 1. Sermon for the Feast of S. Martin, (Pg 7)

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15.8: Spiritual Development – Trust in God

The four words of hope, belief, faith and trust are often used interchangeably and confusingly. This is a problem which was identified by the English author Aldous Huxley in the middle of the 20 th century: 1

The word "faith" has a variety of meanings, which it is important to distinguish. In some contexts it is used as a synonym for "trust, as when we say that we have faith in Dr X's diagnostic skill … Analogous to this is our "faith" in authority - the belief that what certain persons say about certain subjects is likely, because of their special qualifications, to be true. On other occasions "faith" stands for belief in propositions which we have not had occasion to verify ourselves, but which we know that we could verify if we had the inclination, the opportunity and the necessary capacities. In this sense of the word we have "faith", even though we may never have been to Australia, that there is such a creature as a duck-billed platypus; we have "faith" in atomic theory, even though we may never have performed the experiments on which the theory rests, and be incapable of understanding the mathematics by which it is supported. And finally there is the "faith", which is a belief in propositions which we know we cannot verify, even if we should desire to do so - propositions such as those of the Athanasian Creed or those which constitute the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.

During the first quarter of the 29 th century a spiritual book called ‘Le Milieu Divin’ was written by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. In it, he too expanded the word ‘faith’, and suggested that it be taken: 2

…in a much richer sense to mean belief in God charged with all the trust in his beneficent strength that the knowledge of the divine Being arouses in us.

From Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, an Indian philosopher and statesman who became the first Vice President of India and subsequently the second President of India, we get: 3

Faith means in St. James [Bible] acceptance of dogma; in St. Paul it is the surrender of heart and mind to Christ; but in the Epistle to the Hebrews, faith is defined as that outreaching of the mind by which we become aware of the invisible world. [Acts ix. 1-9].

This ambiguity will apply to the other three words also. Therefore, before delving into any more detail, I would like to offer some of my own definitions.

Hope – A feeling or desire for something and confidence in the possibility of its fulfilment. It is generally about positive outcomes.

Belief – A principle, proposition, idea accepted as true; an opinion or conviction. Acceptance that something exists or is true, especially one without proof.

Faith – A strong belief but without evidence. A conviction of the truth of certain doctrines of religion, especially when this is not based on reason.

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Trust – Reliance on and confidence in the truth, worth, reliability. There is no uncertainty. Complete trust in any thing is the most powerful bond that you can have. It is about a relationship between you and another being or their actions.

You can see from the above that as certainty increase we move from hope to believe and then through faith to trust. It is a linear increasing progression.

In parallel with this line of progress there is another which is a scientific progression. This starts with an idea, passes through formulation of hypothesis and with experimental verification leads to a scientific rule.

Diagrammatically and simplistically the spiritual and scientific progressions can be represented as:

Hope >>>>>>>>> Belief >>>>>>>>>>> Faith >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Trust

Idea >>>>>>>> Hypothesis >>>>>> Experimentation >>>>>>>> Scientific Rule

Thus any concept that we have may fit anywhere along one of the two paths. The top spiritual progression is personal as Mokichi Okada realised: 4

Faith is essentially an individual matter...

…and the bottom line impersonal; that is, science relies on replication; if results of experiments cannot be exactly replicated then it will not lead to a scientific rule. This is probably why those experiments in the fields of psychoanalysis and paranormality have not resulted in explicit and generally applicable rules. Scientific proofs are generally sufficiently well established to be a universal truth believed by everyone. That which lies on the spiritual (or personal) line has not yet been proven, in a scientific sense, and therefore become a part of one’s own personal spiritual system.

Three or four examples may help. • Kepler’s laws of planetary motion are a set of Scientific Rules • The Laws of reincarnation, for me, are real and sufficiently (but not scientifically) proven to become something in which I can trust. • The possibility that each soul is made up of a number of facets only one of which incarnates at any one time, has been postulated by some writers but, for me, it lies at the ‘belief’ point along the top line. I’ve parked this issue. • The Big-Bang theory is a scientific hypothesis which is not yet proven.

Thus all those ‘difficult’ questions you can place somewhere along one of the two lines. Try it with some interesting ones such as: Is there life after death? Am I personally responsible for everything I do? Will I be judged according to my actions? Is telepathy real? Do I have a spirit guide?

…and to help you, from the Trappist monk Tomas Merton, a generalised statement that: 5

You can only believe what you don't know.

In other words, that which is not proven or known must somehow lie along the ‘spiritual

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:10:53 15.8 Spiritual Development – Trust in God Page 3 of 21 line. The problem is that most people do not look beyond what the scientists say or what their particular religion tells them. In an interesting book by the spiritual American author David Gregory, a character known as Nick Cominsky was told, over coffee, by Jesus his dinner companion that: 6

People have all the evidence they need. It’s a matter of the heart. Do they want to trust God and humbly receive the gift he offers, or do they insist on proving themselves good enough and doing it their own way.

I don’t believe that many people even think about embarking upon a spiritual pathway. The decision to follow only the material path is the default as no other way has presented itself. In ‘Precognition and Human Survival’ by C Drayton Thomas he quoted from ‘Essay on Man’ by the 18 th century English poet Alexander Pope, in order to make the same point: 7

So man, who here seems principal alone, Perhaps acts second to some Sphere Unknown, Touches some wheel, or verges to some goal. 'Tis but a part we see, and not the whole.

People plough their material furrow and will not be distracted by other people’s scientifically unproven experiences, for example Near Death Experiences, and consider them ‘off-the-scale’ to even consider. Irrespective of this, there are some who feel that there is more to life than that which is encountered in the material world. That is, there is an implicit need to look for other underlying truths which may impact on their existence. This is the reason for trying to spell out in more detail the words ‘hope’, ‘belief’, ‘faith’ and ‘trust’; it is in order that I can get to the bottom of what I understand to be the essence of my spirituality which is:

Absolute Trust in the perfect applicability of the God created Cosmic Laws

This you could convert into ‘religious’ language and say ‘Trust in God’ – but there is a subtle difference which will become evident later.

This begs the question as to what are the Cosmic Laws, but, again, that’s developed in another section. However, there is one aspect of the Laws which is important to identify here, and that is their complete consistency. This was revealed in the New Testament as: 8

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

What I will do in some of the following quotations is to add a note as to what I understand to be what the author meant when he or she used the words ‘hope’, ‘belief’, ‘faith’ and ‘trust’ as defined above. For example if a person used the word ‘faith’ and I think it should have been belief then I would add [belief ] after the word faith. Anyway, you will see what I mean as you read on.

Often the four words are used as synonyms for religion, which, for me, should be replaced by ‘spiritual development’. Many hundreds of years ago, John Chrysostom, a 4 th century Patriarch of Constantinople, wrote a very practical paragraph: 9

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Do you feel upset when you drop a plate or a pot, and it smashes into tiny pieces on the ground? Do you feel anxious when a strong wind is blowing, and you can hear the tiles on your roof coming loose? Do you feel worried about the crops in your field when it rains so hard that the ground is flooded? Do you feel frightened at night when you hear a door click or squeak, wondering if robbers have come to steal your goods? To feel those things is quite normal. Yet the challenge of our faith [Spiritual Development] is that we become so indifferent to material possessions that nothing of this kind can concern us. .. But if we work hard day by day to the best of our abilities, we can be sure that God will provide what we need.

As you saw in the above quotation, often the word ‘faith’ is used, as it was in the prison diary of Albert Speer, who accepted moral responsibility at the Nuremberg trials and in his memoirs for complicity in crimes of the Nazi regime. He wrote after reading Karl Barth's 'Epistle to the Romans'.

Faith [Spiritual Development ] seems to me like a tremendous mountain range. Tempting from a distance, when you try to climb it you run into ravines, perpendicular walls, and stretches of glaciers. Most climbers are forced to turn back; some plunge to destruction, but almost nobody reaches the peak. Yet the world from on top must offer a wonderfully novel and clear view.

Taking each of the four words separately and consecutively I will try to explain in more detail what I consider the word to mean.

Hope is the most tenuous and perhaps the start of the line of spiritual progression. It is the beginning, a stirring of an idea, a thought inspired, a phrase read, a point made in discussion, an aspiration to achieve, and a desire to be met. Any of these can trigger further thought. It is no use to sit back and ‘hope’ that something will happen or that an idea will develop. You should take steps to make sure that you understand more about the process and strengthen the probability.

Hope is about the future. This notion was expanded by the Austrian-born American sociologist Peter Berger: 10

An essential dimension of this 'futurity' of man is hope. It is through hope that men overcome the difficulties of any given here and now, and it is through hope that men find meaning in the face of extreme suffering.

In the same way, William Ralph Inge, the late Dean of St Pauls cathedral believed that: 11

The strength of every life lies in its expectancy.

That is by following a spiritual development path, everything in life can be considered in that context. This leads us to better understanding of the vagaries of life and particularly allows us to rationalise the mistakes and disastrous events that sometimes overtake us.

Hope is what is ‘sold’ to gamblers.

Hope is speculation or predicted outcome of a future event. It is hope because there is no firm basis for speculation. At this stage we can make little reference to our past to confirm

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:10:53 15.8 Spiritual Development – Trust in God Page 5 of 21 or deny the result. We have not found any firmer basis on which to look to the future. As Morton T Kelsey remarked: 12

Hope and victory almost always have to be imagined in order to be born.

If we do not have a spiritual side to our life, then, other than the proven scientific laws, all we have is imagination and hope. This seems to be the starting point for anyone who begins the spiritual ascent, and perhaps hope expands the more we climb. Maybe it is an expression of a gift from Spirit as the monk and student of comparative religion, Thomas Merton believed: 13

Hope then is a gift. Like life, it is a gift from God.

It is a gift of optimism. Looking at hope in this way as a positive feeling, then it seems to allay pessimism, therefore, according to Christopher Jamison: 14

Sustaining hope is one of the surest ways of keeping sadness at bay and is an important aspect of both mental and spiritual health.

He also understood that hope: 15

…will help you to absorb the best of modern spirituality and ignore the rest.

I’m not sure how to interpret this statement other than to consider every aspect of our spiritual life as a series of parallel lines each starting with hope. This, for each idea or line, presents the starting point for investigation and development of our belief, which may lead to faith and then on to trust.

There seems, also, to be two other parallel pathways for our lives. One is the development and enhancement of our spiritual knowledge, understanding, experience and action. The other is to continue to reduce our view of the importance of ‘self’; that is abandoning the physical in search of the spiritual.

In the early stages of our spiritual progress, when we have not developed any significant degree of absolute trust in the Cosmic Laws, then all we have to sustain us is the hope that we are doing the right thing, or as Evelyn Underhill said: 16

Hope is the bright side of self-abandonment

She also believed that it is hope that keeps us going as we plough further into the corners of our spiritual understanding: 17

Hope gives the spiritual life its staying power. It is the necessary condition of keeping things going and getting things done.

…and just to stress that hope is the starting point, she wrote, in the same book: 18

Hope is supremely the virtue of the incomplete; of the creature stretching out in love and prayer to the complete Reality of God, and the final objective of Hope.

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So hope is the germ of an idea, the start of an investigation and a trigger for our reason. Once we have started to build on an idea, through reading, discussion and with reference to our own experiences, we can begin to make it more real, more acceptable and, unless we reject the idea, it eventually becomes part of our belief system.

That is, for some ideas which are important to us and our improving spiritual perspective, hope mutates into belief. Many ideas, which we may feel are not so important or for which we cannot, somehow, advance our knowledge, may remain as just a hope. This aspect Leslie Weatherhead recognised: 19

Let us never think of faith - as the schoolboy defined it - as 'believing what you know to be untrue'. Let us be content to leave many things in the box of the mind, labelled, "awaiting further light".

However, for most ideas, we often have a need to explore further and until we do then we have trepidation about accepting it as a topic for examination. In the ‘Divine Comedy’, Dante recalled his love, Beatrice, as saying: 20

“Marvel thou not,” she said to me, “because I smile at this thy puerile conceit, Since on the truth [belief ] it trusts not yet its foot”

The French Jesuit priest who died in Toulouse, France in 1751, Père De Caussade, according to Richard Whitwell, felt that he ought to believe what he did not understand: 21

…and like a little child believe where I cannot see.

To my way of thinking, this is a dangerous route. We must always either park or investigate otherwise we start down the slippery slope of blind belief. William Stainton Moses was told that: 22

Blind faith [belief ] can be no substitute for reasoning trust.

Another way of describing this was written by Major J H Webster in his book ‘Through Clouds of Doubt’: 23

Faith is useless to me without knowledge, so was knowledge useless without faith.

So, even though we may be starting to investigate a real truth, at the stage when it is only a belief, then we will be hesitant about it. In his book ‘Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II’ Carl Wickland recorded verbatim many séances of a rescue circle. In one, he was talking to the spirit of a person referred to as Anna H. and he told her: 24

We should learn to know, not be satisfied with blind belief. Learn to understand God in His truest sense.

…and he followed this advice with: 25

Let us all have an understanding of truth. Do not only believe. Belief is all right, but to your belief add knowledge and understanding of God's wonderful love.

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If we don’t then, as Dr Adams said when he returned to talk to us through the trance medium Mrs Wickland: 26

If you only believe, you will be in darkness, with a closed door, because you have only belief, not knowledge, of the other world.

This process of adding knowledge to belief must be the next stage of development of an idea. The Indian philosopher Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, in his ‘An Idealist View of Life’, took this a stage further: 27

We believe because of the immediate certainty which the belief inspires. Often we rely on the testimony of others and such testimony is ultimately traceable to individual belief. We believe when a particular view is shown to be consistent with what we know in other realms or when the results accruing from the assumption of the belief justify our confidence.

Therefore, we can move a belief from something tenuous to a more concrete concept by adding knowledge from any number of sources. John Tauler, in summarising Saint Paul's direct assertions in his Epistles to the Corinthians, wrote: 28

The testimony of so many isolated persons to this fact is on the whole a fair probability for its truth; and we are inclined to believe it, though it transcends our experience, on the same ground that we believe the united testimony of travellers to a hundred natural wonders, which differ as utterly from anything which we ever saw, as do these spiritual wonders from anything which we have ever felt.

The problem of making faith plausible is not new. It was, according to Peter Berger, Augustine who formulated it with the sharpest accuracy when he said: 29

No one, indeed, believes anything, unless he previously knows it to be believable [an extract from ‘De praedestinatione sanctorum’]

In other words, there needs to be some potential for belief before we can even consider our own belief in a particular idea. Taking other people’s experiences is one route to clarifying a belief. Another possibility is through contemplation or meditation. Morton T Kelsey believed this to be a viable mechanism: 30

Through meditating we explore in order to know more and more of God. But before He is discovered, a person only believes; through experiencing a relationship one comes to know.

In this way spiritual development becomes an experiential process. Personal experience is a great stimulus which may be provided through a person’s Out-of-Body or Near-Death Experience. During Dr Eben Alexander’s NDE and his journey into the unknown, he: 31

...had complete faith and trust that I would be taken care of, as my companion on the butterfly wing [his guiding spirit] and the infinitely loving Deity had promised – that wherever I went Heaven would come with me. It would come in the form of the

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Creator ... and it would come in the form of the angel – my angel – the Girl of the Butterfly Wing.

Science too may be a route, as Aldous Huxley, who uses ‘faith’ where I would use ‘trust’, pointed out: 32

Science and technology could not exist unless we had faith in the reliability of the universe... To this general faith in the reasonableness and trustworthiness of the world the searcher after truth must add two kinds of special faith - faith in authority of qualified experts ... and faith in his own working hypotheses, sufficient to induce him to test his provisional beliefs by means of appropriate action.

I use many other routes including reading, discussion and, most importantly, my own personal experience. All must corroborate each other and eventually out of the mist of belief comes the hazy picture of faith. Walter Hilton said: 33

...unless you believe, you cannot understand... Belief goes first and understanding follows after it.

…and the young French mystic Simone Weil begged us not to stop at just belief: 34

In what concerns divine things, belief is not fitting. Only certainty will do. Anything less than certainty is unworthy of God.

Replacing ‘hope’ by ‘belief’ is the start but by adding knowledge and experience to this we can develop a real faith. That is the next stage, which as John M Templeton described: 35

Faith means 'having respect for' or 'standing in awe of'.

…and adding to this from Martin Israel who expressed the famous definition of Hebrews 11.1 as: 36

…faith gives substance to our hopes and makes certain of realities that we do not see.

So we are progressing away from something vaporous and towards an idea that we can grasp without hesitation. We can use our nous and knowledge to start to develop a belief because, in the words of Thomas Merton: 37

Faith is first of all an intellectual assent.

And by thus applying our reasoning ability we can strengthen an idea as Emanuel Swedenborg believed: 38

…reason is the inseparable handmaid of faith.

These go hand in hand. We look at the belief from all angles, much the same way as William Clemmons described: 39

And when there is an unknown area, we rehearse the scene five, six, or even ten

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times, before we get involved. We rehearse all the time: what we will say, what she will say, what we will answer, and how she will reply...

We cannot leave any stone unturned. Every nook and cranny of a concept must be explored. This is because once we have completely examined an idea using all the sources available then, and only then, we can trust the idea. In his book ‘The Mythic Context’, the Buddhist spiritual leader Dharmachari Subhuti agreed: 40

Yes, it [faith ] needs to be questioned, poked into, teased out, differentiated. But it is something that you can rely on as it becomes clearer, stronger, you can stand on it.

…and from the book ‘Thirty Years Among the Dead’ we are told that: 41

To faith, we must add knowledge, and that will make us free...

Within the same book, a spirit known as Dr. Root told us of the importance of using our reason combined with additional knowledge: 42

Belief and faith are only the key. If you have the key in your hand and do not know where it belongs, do not know which door it opens, if you have only faith and belief, and nothing more, you only hold the key but do not use it. Seek for knowledge until you can open the door of Wisdom and Understanding.

In another, yet similar book, the psychic investigator Major J H Webster warns us that: 43

Faith, unsupported by common sense and scientific reason is not enough.

So we must look further afield to support our faith. Up to this point what we believe has no foundation. We are really looking for truths upon which to live our life and exhibit our freedom. According to Thomas Merton, until we reach that point, then we will feel incomplete: 44

Faith is not expected to give complete satisfaction to the intellect.

Once we arrive at ‘trust’ then, as St John of the Cross wrote: 45

Faith [trust ], say the theologians, is a habit of the soul, certain and obscure. And the reason for its being an obscure habit is that it makes us believe truths revealed by God Himself, which transcend all natural light, and exceed all human understanding...

Many use ‘faith’ where they mean ‘trust’. Even in the Bible the words are often confused. Leslie Weatherhead recognised this when he wrote that Christians: 46

...are told to believe 'by faith' that Jesus is the Son of God. But when Jesus praised faith [Matthew 8, 10 & 15,28 and Luke 7,50] and asked for faith [Matthew 17,20 Mark 4,40 & 11,22 and Luke 17,6] He did not mean anything of the kind; He meant trust.

This misrepresentation of the word ‘faith’ was also pointed out by the pastor and Christian

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:10:53 15.8 Spiritual Development – Trust in God Page 10 of 21 author Timothy Keller: 47

The faith that changes the life and connects to God is best conveyed by the word 'trust'.

...or as Gerard Hughes understood: 48

Faith is primarily an attitude of trust in ... God ...

Thus trust is the pinnacle of our achievement, or as Meister Eckhart stated: 49

Nothing that a man can do is so fitting as to have great trust in God.

And this trust has to be developed; it has to be learned as John Punshon realised: 50

I had to learn to put my future in the hands of God.

Trust in God is synonymous with Trust in the Cosmic Laws. If we understand what they are and the implications of each one, then we can live our lives with certainty. There will be nothing that can faze us. John Templeton sought a definition from the Bible where he uncovered in Hebrews 11:1, that: 51

Faith [trust ] gives substance to our hopes and makes us certain of realities we do not see.

Meister Eckhart’s interpretation, as given in his ‘talks of instruction’, also exposed the certainty that trust brings: 52

Thus we raise ourselves up to a great trust in God and gain a great sense of certainty.

Putting the Universal Laws in the context of their Creator, Hildegard of Bingen, an amazing 12 th century Benedictine abbess, mystic, composer and visionary, in a letter to a distraught widow said: 53

...keep faith in God, entrust everything to Him, and he will never desert you.

Because Rick Warren identified that: 54

Trust has to do with future behaviour.

...then as absolute certainty washes over everything that we do, any trepidation that we have about the future is eliminated, or, as New Age writer Diana Cooper stated: 55

When you have absolute, implicit, total trust in the Divine you know that whatever is for the greatest good will happen. Faith [trust ] takes away fear.

Such a path, Therese of Lisieux explained in her autobiography 'Story of a Soul' is, according to Dan Cohn-Sherbok: 56

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…the way of spiritual childhood, the way of confidence and abandonment to God ... It means that we acknowledge our nothingness; that we expect everything from the good Lord, as a child expects everything from its father; it means to worry about nothing…

Another mystic and poet Bhagat Namdev, born in India in 1270 and who became a revered Sikh and Hindu saint, set most of his spiritual messages within the context of family life and it is within this environment that true enlightenment can be found. In one of his poems he is believed to have said: 57

…I am filled with God's love, and doubts are expelled...

I need to stress that this trust in God is not a passive, do nothing, state. Our objectives in life still have to do with balancing our physical and spiritual lives whilst doing all we can for our fellow travellers. Thus through our dedication to life and humanity, and the inspiration that we gain from Spirit, we can have absolute confidence that we are doing what we believe to be right – nothing more can be expected of you. This certainty will carry us through those difficult times in life when personal disturbances are at their height. In a letter to Sister Elizabeth Bourcier de Monthureux, the Jesuit priest Père De Causade wrote: 58

The soul that truly abandons herself to God has nothing to fear from the most violent storms.

These are the storms of life; the trials that we meet every day and which mould our future. If we can look at these situations in the light of them occurring to enhance our spirituality, then we can accept John Punshon’s statement, who at his Quaker meetings: 59

...will be seeking communion and offering up myself in God's service. But over time, and in my continuing daily life, God will be preparing me and forming me for that same service.

And Martin Israel put it just as poignantly: 60

To move in fear and trembling through the dark tragedies that punctuate human life with the inner knowledge that all will be well at an indeterminate future period, is the pinnacle of faith.

…that is trust – it comes as an inherent part of our spiritual development. The spirit communicator, Imperator, who used William Stainton Moses as a channel insisted that: 61

…a perfect truthfulness and absence of fearfulness and anxiety are the steady growth of our teaching. We lead the soul to rest in calm trust on God and His spirit teachers. We infuse a spirit of patient waiting for that which we are permitted to do and teach. This spirit is the very reverse of that fretful, restless querulousness which characterises many souls.

If trust removes fear then it naturally increases our feeling of security, as Meister Eckhart believed that the trusting disciple: 62

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...lifts himself up in great confidence to God, and achieves a great security.

This security provides untold benefits and once realised it will transform our lives as the Jesuit priest Gerard W Hughes accepted: 63

True security enables us to live at peace in insecurity, offers us certainty in uncertainty, comfort in confusion; it helps us to spot creativity in chaos, and to smile even in the tears of things.

Such security is not pie in the sky; it is real and provides significant protection. Henry Thomas Hamblin explained that: 64

...Divine Providence does not lead us into danger, or disease, or accidents, or calamities, but protects us from them, if we do but deal with each event of life aright; and if we do but live every moment in conscious realization of the presence of God.

It all depends on how we live our lives. Whilst travelling along our spiritual journey, we will encounter new challenges and opportunities. Having trust will enable us to meet them with confidence and fortitude. Silver Birch confirmed this when he told us: 65

Where your knowledge cannot take you, you must have faith [trust ], not blind, foolish, credulous faith, but faith founded on knowledge.

And from another teacher from the Spirit World who communicated with Geraldine Pengelly: 66

...all things are possible if you have love and faith [trust ].

Many mystics, both ancient and modern, have entrusted their lives to God; that is trusted the Cosmic Laws and their supporters in the Spirit World. Martin Israel wrote: 67

The true faith is a trust in the love of God...

This trust is generally not something that happens overnight. It develops slowly as more and more facets of truth and the Natural Laws of the Universe unfold. In other words, the more deeply grows our spirituality, the greater our trust in God and the spirit agents. According to the Catholic theologian and Jesuit Ladislaus Boros, the mystic Teilhard de Chardin in his treatise ‘Let Me Explain’ admitted that: 68

Today I believe probably more profoundly than ever in God, and certainly more than ever in the world.

And the Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore writing in the years leading up to and subsequent to the death of the British Queen Victoria declared: 69

Let this be my last word, that I trust in thy love.

From a 17 th century barefooted French Carmelite monk, known as Brother Lawrence, comes the invocation: 70

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Let us put all our Trust in Him.

…and from a teacher in the Spirit World, White Eagle who said that we: 71

…trust in God's love and wisdom.

Thus we can recognise that the ultimate stage of spiritual development is absolute trust in God. Not only did Dean Inge realise this but he also understood that it starts with something very ephemeral to which knowledge is added to form this fantastic bond between you and Spirit. To document this, he recalled the words of Clement of Alexandria who said that: 72

…there are three stages in the spiritual life, Faith, Knowledge and Love...

Using another ancient text, this time from the Old Testament, the ‘Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart’ quotes Solomon who, it is believed, said: 73

They that put their trust in him shall understand the truth…

Here is the vital link between truth and trust. It is through understanding the scope, mechanisms and implementation of the Cosmic Laws that we can have a real basis for trust. I will attempt to articulate what these Laws are in a later chapter, but for now please accept that knowing just one or two of them will change our lives for the better and allow us to have exceptional trust in their application.

This, of course, means that we do not need to understand all the whys and wherefores of the things we do – for we do everything in the context of the Laws and help for humanity. On this point, Sherwood Wirt wrote: 74

True faith [trust ] is full of ingenuity and hearty simplicity. It is free from suspicion, wise and confident, trusting upon generals, without watching and prying into unnecessary or indiscernible particulars. No man carries his bed into his field to watch how his corn grows. He believes upon the general order of Providence and nature, and at harvest he finds himself not deceived.

In more academic parlance, Teilhard de Chardin said: 75

If we believe, then everything is illuminated and takes shape around us: chance is seen to be order, success assumes an incorruptible plenitude, suffering becomes a visit and a caress of God.

As the anonymous author of ‘The Cloud of Unknowing’ wrote: 76

...let that mysterious grace move in your spirit as it will and follow wherever it leads you.

…and Andrew Harvey, writing in ‘The Way of Passion’ showed that he understood that progress is a combination of ‘trusts’: 77

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The great secret of the mystic life is trust absolute. If you trust absolutely, you will always be receptive enough to the signals that life and God and yourself - your deep self - will be giving you.

The reality of it is that trust in God implies trust in our spirit guides, as one of the Universal Laws which apply to us is the Law of the Guiding Spirit. We each, every one of us, have a spirit based guide, set in place by the Law. Colum Hayward, based on the teachings of White Eagle, gave us the following advice: 78

Although I would counsel that everyone (to use John's phrase) 'Try the spirits, whether they are of God' [1 John 4:1] , nevertheless it is one of the aims of this book to promote such a trust of the spirit, this fidelity to the inner wisdom as against the prevailing opinion of the world.

…and the preacher and priest Leslie Weatherhead realised that trusting in spirit has been revealed to us over and over again: 79

I believe in the value of faith [trust ] in the sense of trustful commitment to God whatever happens, using, of course, all available help, which is part of trusting God who revealed to man the ways of help.

Once we have this trust, never let it subside. Don’t waver as Julian of Norwich said: 80

...we should trust Him utterly…

And remember that when Brother Lawrence began his business of the day, he said to God, with a filial trust in Him: 81

O my God, since Thou art with me, and I must now, in obedience to Thy commands, apply my mind to these outward things, I beseech Thee to grant me the Grace to continue in Thy presence; and to this end do Thou prosper me with Thy assistance, receive all my works, and possess all my affections.

Similarly, according to the Venerable Basil Wilberforce, the Irish statesman political theorist and philosopher Edmund Burke noble motto applies: 82

Despise popularity, do your duty to the utmost of your ability, win the approval of your own conscience, and leave the consequences to God.

This is what our lives are about – complete trust in God, represented by the Universal Laws, such that everything that we do is in the divine context. If we do this then our future will change; we will change; our approach to life will change. We will slowly reduce our dependence on the material things of life. Put another way, by the 19 th century French Catholic Carmelite nun Therese of Lisieux: 83

It is the way of Spiritual Childhood, the way of trust and complete self-surrender

Some 500 years earlier, the anonymous author of ‘The Cloud of Unknowing’ has similar thoughts about surrendering to the will of the Creator: 84

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...let that mysterious grace move in your spirit as it will and follow wherever it leads you.

This is a great thing to ask of anyone; to put complete trust in God at the expense of every other relationship. The Belgian academic Emile Cammaerts suggested that we put this above our family and other similar relationships: 85

True marriage is the subordination of self to the love of the family. True faith [trust] is the subordination, not only of self, but of all loyalties and allegiances, particularly that of the family, to the love of One God Almighty…

This does not mean that we abandon our family, it just means that our first loyalty lies in our relationship with Spirit. We must still love our family and do all we can to support and help them whilst at the same time quashing our personal desire for material things. On this, Walter Hilton gave the following advice to any disciple: 86

He must put no kind of trust in the possession of any of the world's goods, nor in the help and favour of any worldly friend. Instead he must trust principally and fully in God.

Thomas Merton, in his meditative book ‘Seeds of Contemplation’, recommended that we should abandon our aspirations: 87

… all to God in the resignation of a perfect love … and pure trust in God, to do His will.

Trust in Spirit is balanced by Spirit’s trust in you. You can’t just sit back and let it happen; you have to be the driver; the one who directs the course of events in your life. No matter what your status in the material life, your spiritual credibility depends upon what you think, say and do during your life. You can be rich or poor, it does not matter. In fact, as John Chrysostom said: 88

The art of being poor is to trust in God for everything, to demand nothing - and to be grateful for all that is given.

That is Love; the highest honour that anyone can give to another. This is a natural progression from trust which was stressed by the healer Christine Page who noted that: 89

Trust develops out of the right relationship ... It comes from unconditional love not because someone tells us to trust!

In this the Bible helps – even in the Old Testament. We can see the trusting relationship that the Psalmist has with God in a couple of the psalms. In the twenty-third Psalm, when you read carefully the words, you see, according to John Edgar McFadyen that: 90

The Psalmist is expressing his faith in the presence of the Divine Companion

And in the spiritual thirty-ninth psalm he confirms his trust in Spirit: 91

And now what wait I for, O Lord?

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My hope [trust ] is in Thee.

The impact of such statements in the Scriptures on those who read them can be very significant. The Anglican Bishop in Iran from 1961 until his retirement in 1990, the Right Reverend Hassan Barnaba Dehqani-Tafti, was one such person, and, recalling the event, wrote: 92

When through the Psalm it dawned upon me that the first step in religion must be a simple trust in God, I could not believe that it was really as simple as all that...

This ‘trust in God’ was also highlighted by Evelyn Underhill: 93

...with humble delight our belief and trust in the most concrete, most rich of all realities - God.

This was a reflection of the words used by John Tauler, centuries before in one of his famous sermons: 94

Now thou shouldest look into the bottom of thy heart, and see whether thou wouldest fain enter into this Kingdom, and partake of this high dignity. Then were all thy cares over and gone for ever! This is the Kingdom which we are told to seek first; and this is righteousness, that we should set God before us, the rightful end of all our purposes in all our doings, and trust in Him.

What should we do? Take the advice of White Eagle: 95

There remains but one thing to do, and we want you to apply this to your present material and spiritual life: 'keep on, with your whole heart in God's keeping'.

Certainly ‘keep on’ not only through this life but through everything to come. The impact will be to strengthen and enhance the trust which we now have into something totally unshakable. Imperator, the spirit guide of William Stainton Moses told us that: 96

You are mistaken in supposing your faith to be as strong as it will be. When enlarged and purified it will be a vastly different power from that cold, calculating, nerveless assent which you now call Faith. The faith you now possess would pale and fade away before real obstacles. It has no hold upon your mind, is no factor in your life. In one way it would be strengthened by opposition, but a severe spiritual attack from the adversaries would well-nigh extinguish it. Faith to be real must be outside the limits of caution, and be fired by something more potent and effective than calculating prudence, or logical deduction, or judicial impartiality. It must be the fire that burns within, the mainspring that regulates the life, the overmastering force that will not be at rest. This is that faith that Jesus spoke of when He said of it that it was able to move mountains. This is that which braves death and torture, braces up the feeble knees for long and hard endurance, and conducts its possessor safe at last through any perils that may assail him to the goal where faith finds its reward in fruition. Of this you know nothing. Yours is not Faith, but only logical assent; not spontaneous living faith, but hard-wrung intellectual assent weighted always with a mental reservation. That which you have would move no mountain, though it might

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suffice to select a safe way round it.

To end this chapter, I’d like to say a few words stressing the need to understand and live by the Cosmic Laws. This is how I interpret trusting in God; I must trust in all the Natural Laws. Evelyn Underhill, in her famous book ‘Mysticism’ published in 1911, said: 97

It is not by sight but by faith [trust ] - faith in a supposed external order which we can never prove to exist, and in the approximate truthfulness and constancy of the vague messages which we receive from it - that ordinary men must live and move. We must put our trust in 'laws of nature’...

This means that we must adopt a way of living which reflects the Cosmic Laws. Red Cloud, the spirit communicator who used the famous medium Estelle Roberts as a channel told us to: 98

Readjust yourselves to the Law by looking within.

…and earlier in the same book stressed that: 99

Religion and science of life are one. I do not mean the science of the scientists of your world. I mean the science of life in the laws operating through the universal worlds controlled by the one great law of all.

Perhaps you may think that by not investigating the Laws which apply to us, then you can avoid their consequences ... not at all. Laurie Worger highlighted this when he wrote: 100

Our wisest course is to remember how little we know of the laws and recall once more that neither knowledge nor ignorance of them makes any difference to their authority and governance over us.

The implication is that we are penalised for breaking or contravening the Laws. Taking more words from Estelle Roberts’ book: 101

I say to you that not by one jot or tittle can you escape the spiritual law that governs you.

…and: 102

If you think you can dodge any of the laws of this world let me tell you you are mistaken. I often say to you, "Thank God, the laws are so just."

Another point worth noting is that the more we know spiritually the more responsibility we have. In particular, the more we know of the Universal Laws the greater the penalty for infringement, as Laurie Worger noticed: 103

Understandably the penalty must be heavier when in full knowledge of the laws we deliberately break them.

The impact of this is much more subtle than you may think. For those who are developing as mediums, then as your sensitivity to the Spirit World increases, so does your sensitivity

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Those who are sensitive to the world of spirit must pay the price of being sensitive to the sorrows of the world of matter. You cannot have it any other way.

Seek out the Natural Laws which govern our lives and live by them in following your spiritual journey. By doing this you will be wholeheartedly supported by Spirit which will, as time goes on, engender more and more trust – trust in God.

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1 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter XVIII: Faith, (Pg 234) 2 Teilhard de Chardin, Le Milieu Divin, Fontana, 1966. The Divine Milieu, (Pg 134) 3 Radhakrishnan, An Idealist View of Life, Unwin, 1980. Chapter III : Religious Experience and its Affirmations - 3. Personal experience of God, (Pg 71) 4 Mokichi Okada, Johrei - divine light of salvation, Society of Johrei, 1984. Part Four: Life and Thought of Mokichi Okada: Commentary on Basic Concepts, (Pg 194) 5 Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation, Hollis and Carter, 1949. Chapter 11 – Faith, (Pg 78) 6 David Gregory, Dinner with a Perfect Stranger, Waterbrook Press, 2005. 8: The Coffee, (Pg 74) 7 C Drayton Thomas, Precognition and Human Survival, Psychic Press, Undated. Second Type of Forecast - The Implication of these Four Incidents, (Pg 34) 8 Bible, New Testament, James 1:17: 9 John Chrysostom - The Golden Voice of Protest, Arthur James, 1996. (Pg 13) 10 Peter Berger, A Rumour of Angels, Pelican Books, 1971. 3 - Theological Possibilities: Starting with Man, (Pg 80) 11 Dean Inge, Goodness and Truth, Mowbray, 1958. Sermon 1: The Kingdom of God, (Pg 30) 12 Morton T Kelsey, The Other Side of Silence, SPCK, 1985. Part Four: The Use of Images in Meditation - 16. Putting Imagination to Work, (Pg 232) 13 Thomas Merton, The New Man, Burns & Oates, 1985. The War Within Us, (Pg 2) 14 Christopher Jamison, Finding Happiness, Phoenix, 2008. Part TWO Eight Thoughts: Sixth Thought Sadness – Hope, (Pg 164) 15 Christopher Jamison, Finding Sanctuary, Phoenix, 2007. PART TWO: STEP 7 – Hope, (Pg 171) 16 Evelyn Underhill, The House of the Soul, Methuen & Co, 1929. Chapter VI, (Pg 87) 17 Evelyn Underhill, The House of the Soul, Methuen & Co, 1929. Chapter Vi, (Pg 88) 18 Evelyn Underhill, The House of the Soul, Methuen & Co, 1929. Chapter VI, (Pg 89) 19 Leslie D Weatherhead, The Christian Agnostic, Hodder & Stoughton, 1966. Chapter X: Prayer and Faith, (Pg 159) 20 Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy, Capella, 2008. Paradiso Canto III, (Pg 294) 21 Richard Whitwell, J.P. de Caussade - A Spiritual Study, The Instant Publishers, undated. Chapter VI - The Alphabet of God, (Pg 33) 22 William Stainton Moses, Spirit Teachings, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Section VII, (Pg 52) 23 Major J H Webster, Through Clouds of Doubt, The Psychic Book Club, 1939. Chapter XIII - The Clouds Disperse, (Pg 148) 24 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XII: Selfishness - Experience, September 22, 1920, (Pg 289) 25 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XII: Selfishness - Experience, September 22, 1920, (Pg 292) 26 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XVI: Philosophy - Experience, October 20, 1920. [Carl Wickland talking to a spirit Dr. Adams through trance mediumship of Mrs Wickland], (Pg 434) 27 Radhakrishnan, An Idealist View of Life, Unwin, 1980. Chapter VI : Matter, Life and Mind - 1. Belief and certainty, (Pg 176) 28 Susanna Winkworth, The History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler with 25 of his Sermons, H.R.Allenson, 1906. Preface, (Pg 32/33) 29 Peter Berger, A Rumour of Angels, Pelican Books, 1971. 4 - Theological Possibilities: Confronting the Traditions, (Pg 98) 30 Morton T Kelsey, The Other Side of Silence, SPCK, 1985. Part Two: The Basic Climate for Meditation - 6: To Whom Do We Pray? (Pg 58) 31 Dr Eben Alexander, Proof of Heaven, Piatkus, 2014. Chapter 20: The Closing, (Pg 103 / 104) 32 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter XVIII: Faith, (Pg 235) 33 Walter Hilton, The Stairway of Perfection, Image Books, 1979. Book Two: Chapter Eleven, (Pg 215) 34 Simone Weil, Waiting on God, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1952. Essays: Forms of the Implicit Love of God, (Pg 138) 35 John M Templeton, The Humble Approach - Scientists Discover God, Collins, 1981. XII. Love and Happiness. The True Test, (Pg 115) 36 Martin Israel, The Pearl of Great Price, SPCK, 1988. 8 - The Dark Night of Faith, (Pg 73) 37 Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation, Hollis and Carter, 1949. Chapter 11 – Faith, (Pg 78)

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38 George Trowbridge, Swedenborg - Life and Teaching, Swedenborg Society, 1935. Trowbridge says that Swedenborg taught that: (Pg 139) 39 William Clemmons, Discovering the Depths, Triangle, 1989. 3 Letting Go My 'Isaacs', (Pg 31) 40 Dharmachari Subhuti, The Mythic Context, Padmaloka Books, 1990. To See with Angels's Eyes, (Pg 4 para 2) 41 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XIII: Orthodoxy - Experience, March 14, 1923. [Carl Wickland talking to a spirit J.O.Nelson, through trance mediumship of Mrs Wickland], (Pg 361) 42 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XVI: Philosophy - Experience, January 1, 1921, (Pg 457) 43 Major J H Webster, Through Clouds of Doubt, The Psychic Book Club, 1939. To Begin, (Pg xii) 44 Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation, Hollis and Carter, 1949. Chapter 11 – Faith, (Pg 78) 45 The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1947. Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book II. Chapter III, (Pg 70) 46 Leslie D Weatherhead, The Christian Agnostic, Hodder & Stoughton, 1966. Chapter X: Prayer and Faith, (Pg 155) 47 Timothy Keller, The Reason for God, Hodder & Stoughton, 2009. EPILOGUE: Where do we go from here? (Pg 234) 48 Gerard W Hughes, God in all Things, Hodder & Stoughton, 2004. Chapter Six: Which Path to Follow? - Guidelines for Distinguishing the Creative from the Destructive, (Pg 107) 49 Stephen J Connor, Everything as Divine, Paulist Press, 1996. Part II: Selections from the Counsels on Discernment - Counsel 14. Of true confidence and hope, (Pg 57) 50 John Punshon, Encounter With Silence, Friends United Press, 1989. An Experience of Unprogrammed Worship - A Witness to the Truth, (Pg 47) 51 John M Templeton, The Humble Approach - Scientists Discover God, Collins, 1981. XII. Love and Happiness. The True Test, (Pg 116) 52 Oliver Davies, Meister Eckhart - Selected Writings, Penguin Books, 1994. The talks of instruction - 13 On Repentance, (Pg 23) 53 The Personal Correspondence of Hildegard of Bingen, Oxford University Press, 2006. Chapter 4: Hildegard's Spreading Reputation. Letter 26 to a Widow, (Pg 61) 54 Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, Zondervan, 2002. Experiencing Life Together, (Pg 143) 55 Diana Cooper, A Little Light on the Spiritual Laws, Hodder & Stoughton, 2000. Chapter Thirty-Four: The Law of Faith, (Pg 189) 56 Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Jewish & Christian Mysticism - An Introduction, Continuum, 1994. Part II The Christian Tradition - 10 Modern Christian Mystics: Therese of Lisieux and Gemma Galgani, (Pg 145) 57 J R Puri & V K Sethi, Saint Namdev, Radha Soami Satsang Beas, 1978. Part II: Selected Poems of Namdev - Spiritual Experience, [Adi Granth, page 657] (Pg 58) 58 Algar Labouchere Thorold, The Spiritual Letters of Père De Causade, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1934. Book I - The esteem and love of Self-abandonment, Letter I - to Sister Elizabeth Bourcier de Monthureux, (Pg 1) 59 John Punshon, Encounter With Silence, Friends United Press, 1989. Silence in the Quaker Tradition - The Cross and the Light, (Pg 12) 60 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 11: The agnosticism of real faith, (Pg 81) 61 William Stainton Moses, Spirit Teachings, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Section V, (Pg 36) 62 Stephen J Connor, Everything as Divine, Paulist Press, 1996. Part II: Selections from the Counsels on Discernment - Counsel 12. Of a twofold repentance, (Pg 55) 63 Gerard W Hughes, God in all Things, Hodder & Stoughton, 2004. Preface, (Pg x) 64 Henry Thomas Hamblin, Divine Adjustment, The Science of Thought Press, 1998. Chapter Two: On Resisting the Temptation to Fear, and the Overcoming of the Sin of Doubt, (Pg 25) 65 Anne Dooley, Guidance from Silver Birch, Spiritualist Press, 1966. Chapter Four: Problem of Suffering, (Pg 40) 66 Geraldine Pengelly, The Red Man Cometh, Athena Press, 2006. Praise from my Guide and a Message for Steve, (Pg 135) 67 Martin Israel, The Pearl of Great Price, SPCK, 1988. 8 - The Dark Night of Faith, (Pg 80) 68 Ladislaus Boros, Open Spirit, Search Press, 1974. Teilhard and Unity, (Pg 191) 69 Rabindranath Tagore, Collected Poems and Plays of Rabinranath Tagore, Macmillan & Co, 1958. Stray Birds, (CCCXXV) 70 Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God with Spiritual Maxims, Spire Books, 2007. Ninth Letter, (Pg 51)

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71 Grace Cooke, The Jewel in the Lotus, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1973. XI - The Interpretations of Meditations, (Pg 121) 72 Dean Inge, Goodness and Truth, Mowbray, 1958. Sermon 19: The Nature of Religious Faith, (Pg 157) 73 Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, Faber & Faber, 1992. Part Two: Hesychius of Jerusalem to Theodulus - Texts on Sobriety and Prayer – 197, (Pg 319) 74 Sherwood Eliot Wirt, Exploring the Spiritual Life, Lion Books, 1985. 14 - From The Rules and Exercises of Holy Living by Jeremy Taylor, (Pg 198) 75 Teilhard de Chardin, Le Milieu Divin, Fontana, 1966. The Divine Milieu, (Pg 136) 76 The Cloud of Unknowing and The Book of Privy Counselling, Doubleday, 1973. The Cloud of Unknowing: Chapter 34, (Pg 91) 77 Andrew Harvey, The Way of Passion, Souvenir Press, 2002. Chapter 5 - Springtime of Eternity, (Pg 146) 78 Colum Hayward, Eyes of the Spirit, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1987. Chapter One - The teacher and his channel, (Pg 23) 79 Leslie D Weatherhead, The Christian Agnostic, Hodder & Stoughton, 1966. Chapter XV: Heaven and Goal, (Pg 255) 80 Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, Penguin Books, 1998. The Long Text – 10, (Pg 57) 81 Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God with Spiritual Maxims, Spire Books, 2007. Conversations - Fourth Conversation, (Pg 29) 82 Ven. Basil Wilberforce, D.D, The Secret of the Quiet Mind, Elliot Stock, 1916. The Secret of the Quiet Mind, (Pg 113) 83 Therese of Lisieux, The Story of a Soul, Anthony Clarke Books, 1973. Chapter 11, (Pg167) 84 The Cloud of Unknowing and The Book of Privy Counselling, Doubleday, 1973. The Cloud of Unknowing: Chapter 34, (Pg 91) 85 Emile Cammaerts, The Flower of Grass, The Cresset Press, 1944. Chapter v - Liberalism and Christianity, (Pg 93) 86 Walter Hilton, The Stairway of Perfection, Image Books, 1979. Book Two: Chapter Twenty-Seven, (Pg 261) 87 Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation, Hollis and Carter, 1949. Chapter 3 - Pray for Your Own Discovery, (Pg 37) 88 John Chrysostom - The Golden Voice of Protest, Arthur James, 1996. (Pg 7) 89 Christine R. Page, Spiritual Alchemy, C W Daniel Co, 2004. Chapter Eight - Becoming Present: Living in the Now, (Pg 174) 90 John Edgar McFadyen, Studies in Psalms, Student Christian Movement Press, 1936. The twenty-Third Psalm, (Pg 40) 91 John Edgar McFadyen, Studies in Psalms, Student Christian Movement Press, 1936. The thirty-ninth Psalm, (Pg 42) 92 Hassan Dehqani-Tafti, Design of My World, United Society for Christian Literature: Lutterworth Press, 1962. Chapter Three: With Christ through Despair: Adversity and Trust, (Pg 53/54) 93 Evelyn Underhill, The School of Charity, Longmans, Green and Co, 1934. Part I - Chapter I - I believe, (Pg 8) 94 Susanna Winkworth, The History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler with 25 of his Sermons, H.R.Allenson, 1906. Sermon for the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity, (Pg 393 / 394) 95 White Eagle on the Intuition and Initiation, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 2004. Part Two: Developing the Intuition - VII: Accepting a Higher Power, (Pg 71) 96 William Stainton Moses, Spirit Teachings, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Section XXX, (Pg 248) 97 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part ONE: The Mystic Fact: Chapter I - The Point of Departure, (Pg 15) 98 Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud Speaks, Tudor Press, 1992. Chapter Nineteen: Questions and Answers, (Pg 93) 99 Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud Speaks, Tudor Press, 1992. Chapter Three: The Science of Religion, (Pg 15) 100 Laurie Worger, My Treasures For You, The Percival Book Company, 1965. Chapter 4: Three Aspects of Christ, (Pg 46) 101 Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud Speaks, Tudor Press, 1992. Chapter Four: World Birth, (Pg 19) 102 Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud Speaks, Tudor Press, 1992. Chapter Nineteen: Questions and Answers, (Pg 94) 103 Laurie Worger, My Treasures For You, The Percival Book Company, 1965. Chapter 3: Our God-directed Lives, (Pg 39) 104 A W Austen, Teachings of Silver Birch, Psychic Press, 1993. Repressing Spiritual Gifts, (Pg 193)

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15.9: Spiritual Development – A Mirror of God

The greatest honour that we can show for the love that God has given to us is to reflect that love for the benefit of everyone. You must know by now, that when I refer to the love of God I refer to the Cosmic Laws that this Being has given to us for our individual and collective benefit. These Laws dictate the environment within which we live including the invaluable support we get from our guides, helpers and friends in the Spirit World. It is through understanding and following these Laws that our spirituality expands to an extent that it has an impact on other people.

Encapsulating this idea, the founder of the Cambridge Platonists group, Benjamin Whichcote, who, according to Gerald Bullett, has been attributed with the phrase: 1

The Spirit of man is the candle of the Lord.

Realising this, Baltasar Gracián who was a Spanish Jesuit and baroque prose writer and philosopher, converted the statement into an action and wrote: 2

Let the person who has light give it to others...

Our spirit shines through whatever we do and however good or bad we are. We reflect what we are! It is our important role, during our lifetime on earth and possibly beyond, to spiritually grow in such a way as to have a positive impact on our fellow travellers. There are many obvious ways to achieve this, in particular the help and support that we directly give to those in need. However, there is a much more subtle way and that is through our general attitude to everything we do – how we live our life.

We live our life reflecting the truths that we have come to recognise and accept. This colours our approach to everything and, based on these truths, our spirituality develops. During a séance in 1918 the spirit of Mary Baker Eddy spoke through the trance mediumship of Mrs Wickland and gave the following advice: 3

When you find the truth do not deny it but give it out to the world.

This is the direct approach; this chapter is about the indirect where people can ‘see’ what we are like through our attitude, demeanour, and approach and it is this which we mirror, as Thomas Merton realised: 4

We are most truly ourselves when our souls 'reflect as in a mirror the glory of the Lord'.

I cannot remember where I read the following two quotations but they give the essence of what I am trying to convey. The first is an entreaty by the French mystic Elisabeth Leseur:

I will ask of God such an enlargement of soul, that I may love Him with ardour, serve Him with joy, and transmit His radiance to the world.

…and the second a blessing from Catherine Fieschi of Genoa:

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Let God be in your heart, Eternity in your spirit, the world under your feet, the Will of God in your actions, and let the Love of God shine from you.

Let your heart be on your sleeve; don’t be afraid to show your love of God through your love of humanity. Andrew Harvey, taking inspiration from the Qur’an, wrote: 5

In one of his sacred sayings, Muhammed proclaimed, "The heart of the believer is the place of the revelation of God. The heart of the believer is the throne of God. The heart of the believer is the mirror of God."

Thus to develop our spirituality such that this can be a factor in our life ought to be everyone’s goal and was certainly the hope of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross whose book ‘On Life After Death’ has been a great comfort to many. She wrote: 6

My wish is that you pass on to many people a little more love.

We are all individual beings and, therefore, we reflect our love of God in our own unique way. If you can imagine God’s light passing through a prism and emerging as an infinite array of different colours, then this will give you a view of the individuality of each of us as we reflect our spirituality. The 20 th century British-born Benedictine monk who lived in ashrams in South India, Bede Griffiths, I’m sure, had something similar in mind when he wrote: 7

The creature is a limited, finite being in which the infinite being of God is reflected. It is as though the one divine light were received into each of these 'capacities', each reflecting in its own way and breaking it up into innumerable colours, each a unique reflection of the one light.

And in the words of the spiritual healer and mystic Joel Goldsmith: 8

That is why in this work one individual can become a light...

So when someone sees us as a reflection of the Divine Good then their perception will also be unique as Martin Israel realised: 9

...the unconditional love of God brings with it a call to service so that all other creatures may also know that love, mediated by the particular person who has received the divine love. God's love operates through our own particular personalities, each of which is of unique value no matter how unprepossessing we may appear in the world.

Thomas Merton articulated this more from a religious perspective: 10

Because God's love is in me it can come to you from a different and special direction that would be closed if He did not live in me...

Our very existence on earth means that when other people see us then we may have an

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:11:19 15.9 Spiritual Development – A Mirror of God Page 3 of 19 impact upon them. If we touch their souls in a positive and beneficial way, then we could consider that this is one of the main reasons for our life. Dannion Brinkley, in his book ‘Secrets of the Light’ certainly believed, based on his Near Death Experiences, that this is the case: 11

...I understood that we are on earth for only one reason: to act as the living reflection and expression of divine love.

This is echoed by the spiritual author Andrew Harvey: 12

This is what we have to be: the mirror of the Divine so that those looking at us can see the Divine in them mirrored.

This does not stop when we move into the Spirit World. A spirit known as Dr Root channelled his thoughts through the trance medium Mrs Wickland and commented: 13

When there is love in your heart you are like a sun to others. You have found God in your heart and this shines forth just as the sun shines on all.

This action is passive; it happens because of what we are. Abbé Henri de Tourville also believed that we can be active in our reflection of the Good. Robin Waterfield in ‘Streams of Grace’ tells that this 19 th century French priest implored us, in one of his letters, to: 14

...live then like the Sower in the Gospels, our hands full of seeds of life, letting them be spread abroad freely, but not expecting any return from others.

Another, yet very simple way, of affecting others is to look at how we present ourselves and our total approach to people and life. It is noticeable that, in many situations when you smile at someone, they smile in return. In the book ‘Unto Thee I Grant’ this was documented: 15

The Soul of the cheerful forceth a smile upon the face of affliction; but the despondence of the sad deadeneth even the brightness of joy.

…and from the advice given by a communicator from the Spirit world and recorded by Carl August Wickland: 16

It is a great pity that men cannot understand God. When they have that understanding they cannot live for themselves; they will want to work for others and give every one of their happiness.

This seems to be the way of human nature and we can capitalise on it. If we can show our goodness than maybe others will ‘catch it’ and develop their own goodness in return. This notion of being able to ‘catch’ love has not been lost on many mystics and religious writers. From the anthology written by Lumsden Barkway, we can see that Evelyn Underhill (see ‘Concerning the Inner Life’. 17 ) also understands this idea: 18

By the quality of our inner lives I do not mean something characterised by ferocious intensity and strain. I mean rather such a humble and genial devotedness as we find in the most loving of the saints. I mean the quality which … makes people 'catch' the

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love of God from you.

Being a source of spiritual infection is a rather interesting notion. In another of her books, ‘The Life of the Spirit’, Evelyn Underhill also refers to what history teaches us, which is that: 19

…God most often educates men through men. We most easily recognize Spirit when it is perceived transfiguring human character, and most easily achieve it by means of sympathetic contagion.

…and Cecil Rose believed it too: 20

The vital element in this work of life-changing is, of course, an infectious experience of God - an experience real enough for other people to catch from us.

People are always influenced by the attitude and approach of those with whom they consort. This notion of ‘catching’ or ‘infecting’ is very real. Jonathan Sacks, a British Orthodox Rabbi, and philosopher took this a stage further and recognised that through having an impact on others we also shape the environment in which we all live: 21

All of us, by the decisions we make about how we live and work and travel and consume help to shape the environment. To think and act morally, to do what is right because it is right, influences others; it begins to create a climate of opinion; good, like evil, is infectious.

Does it depend on immediate proximity or about the ‘magnetic’ influence that we have? This was proposed by Julie Soskin: 22

When one soul has a truly open heart it is infectious to those who are within range.

Could this be about our Human Energy Field or Aura? This energy is, in reality, a physical manifestation of the soul within. Because of this those who are spiritually sensitive can often ‘see’ the aura of creatures and objects. Theophan the Recluse, when he was in St Petersburg in the 1840s, happened to: 23

...receive a monk in whom perceptible actions of grace had already begun to manifest themselves. We began speaking about spiritual things. The more he entered within himself and the more his thought deepened, the brighter his face became, until he became as white as snow, with his eyes gleaming. It is said that Father Seraphim of Sarov quite often displayed this light, especially when at prayer in full view of everyone.

It is also said that the aura of The Buddha extended for 9 miles. What influence this has is difficult to estimate but I’m sure that it does have an effect. This radiation, according to Andrew Harvey is real and we ought to have: 24

...complete faith that everything and everyone you pass will be made subtly happier by the light radiating from you.

Try it. The next time you are in the high street, stop, lean against a wall and try to extend

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:11:19 15.9 Spiritual Development – A Mirror of God Page 5 of 19 your aura so that those walking close to you pass through it. You never know, it may have some effect. In order to do this you have to give of yourself or as Joel Goldsmith says – share your gifts: 25

...every quality, every thought, and every thing that you possess are yours by the grace of God, but because they are yours by the grace of God, you can share them liberally.

Certainly we can share this with others who are unaware of what we do. However, most of the time it is a more direct or face-to-face contact that we have. In this way we can have a more immediate consequence of our help for others. The best way to achieve this is by living our lives according to our Philosophy of Life. On this, Colum Hayward wrote: 26

Therefore, when the soul seeks divine illumination and endeavours to express the qualities of God, it is reflecting the heavenly in everyday Life.

We are known by what we do or as Dean Inge said in one of his sermons: 27

The tree is known by its fruit; its roots are underground and cannot be seen. It is known by its fruit; and the fruit of the Spirit is 'love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance'.

…and in more simple terms from the actor William Roache: 28

We show forth the divinity within ourselves simply by the way we live.

Ralph Waldo Trine, an American mystic and philosopher, thought that if we understood and enacted the Cosmic Laws then living our life according to them was the best way to convince others of their applicability. He wrote: 29

...and in no way can we so effectually hasten this dawning [of knowledge of higher laws] in the inner consciousness of another, as by showing forth the divinity within ourselves simply by the way we live.

In more religious terms, from Leslie Weatherhead: 30

Jesus, if one may be allowed so to express the matter reverently, was a vessel full of God. Any man, to the extent to which he is good, reveals the nature of God.

According to Jonathan Fryer, such an exemplar was the Quaker pioneer George Fox. In his personal journal he recorded, in typical 17 th century terms, that he: 31

...never feared death nor sufferings in my life, but I was known to be an innocent, peaceable man, free from all stirrings and plottings...

So if we live according to the right principles then we can be infectious. Again, using the words of Julie Soskin: 32

Laugh and enjoy that Perfect Light, sharing it with the world. You will be amazed at the effect!

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This knock-on effect will result in an improvement in the members of your community; be it your family, friends or neighbourhood. On this Winifred Graham wrote some words given to her by her late father communicating from the Spirit World: 33

It is the soul-force that makes the home happy, and all have the power of brightening or depressing those around them. Never let this slip your memory. Remember you are full of a power you cannot measure or understand.

You can also awaken sleeping souls. In ‘The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell’ his Sonnet IV tries to capture this: 34

Be noble; and the nobleness that lies In other men, sleeping, but never dead, Shall rise in majesty to meet thine own; then shalt thou see it gleam in many eyes; Then shall pure light around thy path be shed, And thou shalt never more be sad or lone.

When the communicator who channelled his training through Irene Bays, was talking to a group of spiritual healers, he gave them the following advice: 35

But in your healing you will help, and by your healing those who come in contact with you will receive greater understanding. A greater understanding that there is more within you and therefore there must be something within them also. For from your eyes will shine the Love of God and they will see.

It is through your actions, therefore, that you can make a great contribution to the people you meet, help and support. In probably his greatest work ‘Gitanjali’, the mystic Rabindranath Tagore made a number of affirmations which concluded in one of action: 36

Life of my life, I shall ever try to keep my body pure, knowing that thy living touch is upon all my limbs. I shall ever try to keep all untruths out of my thoughts, knowing that thou art that truth which has kindled the light of reason in my mind. I shall ever try to drive all evils away from my heart and keep my love in flower, knowing that thou hast thy seat in the inmost shrine of my heart. And it shall be my endeavour to reveal thee in my actions, knowing it is thy power gives me strength to act.

Through acting in this way we reflect our love for humanity and our environment. Therefore we must always reach out to those in need of succour or help and let our actions speak for our spirituality. Evelyn Underhill spoke of this in her book ‘The Essentials of Mysticism’: 37

It is the double, simultaneous outstretching that matters; this only can open the heart wide enough to let God in and so make of each person who achieves it a mediator of His reality to other people.

It is the inner you that is implicitly seen in what you do. It is your divinity that shines as

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:11:19 15.9 Spiritual Development – A Mirror of God Page 7 of 19 spirit teacher Zodiac, talking to us from the Spirit World said: 38

...see in the mundane tasks sweet opportunities to demonstrate the Divinity that is within...

We are conscious that in many of our deliberate actions we are demonstrating what we believe. It is this which bubbles up in our conversations and actions – we can’t help it; we reflect what we are. This was expressed in one of John Tauler’s recorded sermons: 39

Moreover, thou shalt let thy love shine forth before men, so far as in thee lies, imparting to them of thy substance, and giving them comfort, help, and counsel.

It is not just in the ‘big’ tasks that we undertake but in those everyday, apparently innocuous things we do that we mirror our belief. Christine Davis, in typical Quaker mode, confirmed these thoughts: 40

Though I do not often speak about this love, I try to let it speak through me; in my actions, in my willingness to do things, sometimes things which others find strange or boring; in my silences; as I sit alongside people whom I know and whom I do not know; as I try to hold people, situations, events big or small in the Light and in that love

This shows that our inner spirituality and understanding does not have to be preached from the pulpit or broadcast by speech but is part and parcel of the life we live. People see that we ‘walk the talk’ as in the 12 th century Bernard of Clairvaux recognised: 41

Charity loves because it sees. It is itself the eye by which God is seen.

And about three centuries later another mystic Teresa of Avila advised that: 42

…we must all try to be preachers by our deeds...

I suspect that we will never be able to match the saintliness of these two famous people but we can, as suggested by Silver Birch, allow: 43

…the Great Spirit to shine through your life, so that you achieve as much of perfection in daily life as you can reach whilst you are in the world of matter.

We have to do the best we can whilst we live on the earth and one way of doing this is within our relationship with others. This was the topic of one of the chapters in the book ‘Letters of Direction’ by Abbé Henri de Tourville. In it he wrote: 44

...and let all your qualities of goodwill, frankness, and simplicity shine forth in your dealings with everyone you meet.

It is, in particular, important that we do not forget those whose hearts and minds are closed to spiritual progress; those whose lives are focussed totally on the material to the exclusion of all else. In this situation we can help. We can demonstrate that thinking less about ‘self’ provides a good basis for life. Relative to this, Aldous Huxley argued that: 45

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The selfless and God-filled person can and does act as a channel through which grace is able to pass into the unfortunate being who has made himself impervious to the divine by the habitual craving for intensifications of his own separateness and selfhood.

Associated with this is a rather nice description given by Winifred Graham’s father when, through automatic writing, he wrote: 46

Remember to spread love abroad, as you sow seeds of beautiful flowers in gardens you care for. Then, when summer is here, and you see the result of your sowing you will be the first to enjoy it. The garden of God is worth tending. Never neglect the beautiful chances He gives you.

Certainly we have to take the opportunities as they present themselves. This may not always be easy particularly if we come up against doubters. We must maintain our stature as Beatrice Russell suggested: 47

Having this faith and holding it, and defending it against all who would try to destroy it, there is nothing in life that you will not be able to accomplish, and this faith will shine through you to inspire others.

For such people, you do not need to get into intense discussion about your beliefs, but act them out; do as you believe. The total sceptic you will never convince by verbal argument, only by reflecting your Philosophy of Life in all that you do. Of course, you will never know what impact you have had on another human being. Again quoting from Evelyn Underhill’s ‘Concerning the Inner Life’: 48

And ... all that you do, feel and think as you move through this changing life, is going to affect all other souls whom you touch, and condition their relation with that unchanging Real.

This process is what I have, in other chapters, called ‘being an exemplar’. Many Christians take the words of the New Testament as their template rather than the essence of what Jesus the Nazarene taught. What a great shame that this supreme Master’s example is not being followed. He really did reflect our Creator, and we can also try to do our little bit. Leslie Weatherhead captured this when he wrote: 49

...if one looked at Jesus one saw God.

That is, not at the man but at his actions. Like Jesus the Nazarene we can become examples to others. I hope that these words that I write will be used by others for their spiritual benefit. When writing this I can recall the Siphonaptera 50 nursery rhyme which goes something like:

Big fleas have little fleas, Upon their backs to bite 'em, And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so, ad infinitum.

In the spiritual context, a Master can help me and I can help others, etc. It is a cascade of

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...each [angel] receives the Divine Light according to the measure of their worthiness, as they are turned towards God. Each receives and passes it on to the others, and the others pass it on to those who are lower down. [see Dionysius the Areopagite's 'Celestial Hierarchy' III,2] Thus we too should always gaze into the mirror of the Godhead, and should pass on what is revealed to us to others...

In other words, spiritual knowledge can be passed on by everyone according to their ability and understanding. We can all reflect the Divine Light, and the more we absorb, the more we can mirror to others. The English monk Aelred Graham, who spent time as superior of the Portsmouth Priory in Rhode Island, believed that every breathing moment we naturally reflect what we have received: 52

Moment by moment we are recipients and should be transmitters...

From a communicator from the Spirit World we have been told that we should: 53

Learn the truth, give it to others and serve others. Be a master in learning, but humble in serving.

Thus we should continue to do both – to never stop learning and to effuse the essence of that learning in what we do in life. Some people find that such development can be served by going into retreat; distancing themselves from the world for a short while. This seems to be more prevalent with those serving in religious organisations. Mère Ignace Goethals, the Third Mother-General of the Sisters of Notre-Dame de Namur, was one such cleric. After her retreat at Jumet, her mentor, Father Delcourt wrote to her saying that God: 54

...has chosen you as an instrument to show forth the grandeur of God; in order that you may reach very high perfection, cultivate in your heart gratitude, humility and courage. Have an immense trust in God, a big heart, wide views; be docile to grace; practice close union with God...

It is a long and interesting learning process through which we reflect the consequences of what we have been taught and experienced. White Eagle considered that this could be achieved through following the example of Jesus the Nazarene: 55

We tell you that the greatest work of all is to develop the Christ light within your soul. For the Son is born in you, in all humanity; and your special work, and ours, is to learn how to project that light into the darkness of ignorance on earth.

...and White Eagle also emphasised that we: 56

...are spirit first and body last. Let your spirit so shine before all that they may see their Christ in you.

There is a reason for this as the Quaker Christine Davis recorded: 57

I am in love with life and with God; I can only do with that love what I do with other love, which is to warm myself with it as I give it to others; it is not mine to

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possess but to pass on, and if I try to hold it only to myself, it becomes cold.

So what we have to do, as recognised by George Fox, is to: 58

...let your light shine before men...

Thus it is beholden to us to give what we can to others. Perhaps this is part of one of the Natural Laws of the Universe – I don’t know – but it does seem reasonable that if we are given something then we ought to share it. I came across an interesting paragraph in Theophan the Recluse’s ‘The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to it’ He was comparing the qualities of those baptised with those who have not, but I think it could also apply to those who reflect better their spiritually developed qualities: 59

...take a bell in which silver has been added to the copper. A similar copper bell without silver may outwardly resemble the bell with silver, but their composition is different, their sound is different, and they are regarded differently with respect to quality and value.

It also seems obvious that the more our spirituality expands the better will be our reflection of it to the world. Expanding this analogy of Light, Zodiac told us that: 60

Little children of the Light, the lantern of the body must be cleaned so that the pure Spirit within can shine through and illuminate the ways for others; and there are many 'ways' and many souls to tread thereon.

By spiritually developing we will ‘clean our lantern’ and be able to reflect the light of God just as is highlighted in the ‘Kena Upanishad’: 61

...and by constant thought of Him [Brahman; God] the mind becomes purified, then like a polished mirror it can reflect His Divine Glory.

This notion of thinking about God can be viewed as trying to understand and live the Cosmic Laws. If we know more about these laws then our improved enlightened state gives us a greater ability to mirror God. In trying to convey this Ralph Waldo Trine used the words of Plotinus: 62

It was Plotinus who said, 'The mind that wishes to behold God must itself become God'. As we thus make it possible for these higher laws and truths to be revealed to us, we will in turn become enlightened ones, channels through which they may be revealed to others.

The path of development is a difficult one to tread. Notwithstanding that the road is tortuous and steep, when we think of a journey we tend to externalise the pathway. However, part of our spiritual progress is self appraisal and change; looking within as Christine Page called it: 63

If God is omnipotent then the obvious place to start to explore Its presence and to see its reflection is within our own core and not within the mind of others.

So we have to work at all aspects of improvement; of making ourselves ‘good’. The more

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Strive so that even a greater measure of power flows through you and brings strength, guidance and love to those who need your service.

Where this power comes from to us or where our power is received by others, I do not know. White Eagle has suggested that our chakras are involved in some way. This has been referred to by both Colum Hayward 65 and his grandmother and channel for White Eagle, Grace Cooke: 66

The higher self is composed of very fine ether and is pulsating with light, which as you develop will begin to shine through the chakras of your being or the 'windows of your soul.

Irrespective of the mechanism, it appears that love is the control. Our love for our Creator in terms of expressed gratitude and love for humanity which is the focus of our service. This love is hard to express. However, Colum did attempt to provide a description: 67

You won't have the passion which earth people think is love, but something superior: a light, a gentleness, a sweetness, a kindness which without words will flow from you. That is real love.

...and what is it about? Grace Cooke knew: 68

Where earthly love exists we see the reflection of the divine.

But we can see it, if we open our eyes, in everything around us. If we really look we can see the Cosmic Laws at work in all creatures. John Moorman, when writing about St Francis of Assisi, wrote: 69

But the mainspring of his [Francis’] life was not compassion for his fellow men but an intense love of God from which naturally flowed not only love for man but for all creatures.

And the anonymous author of the 14 th century texts which comprise ‘A Study of Wisdom’ wrote: 70

Therefore clean your mirror (soul) and light your candle (passion for God). Then when it is clean and burning, and you are aware of the fact, there begins to shine in your soul something of God’s light and brightness, and a sunbeam, as it were, appears before your spiritual vision, through which the eye of your soul is opened to behold God and godly things, heaven and heavenly things, and all manner of things spiritual.

The more spiritual we are, the more spiritual we see, and the more spiritual we reflect. So we can become a mirror of the Divine and the consequences of this, for other people, are legion. In his ‘Natural History of Intellect’ the American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson expounded the effect that one person may have on another: 71

And if one remembers how contagious are the moral states of men, how much we

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are braced by the presence and actions of any Spartan soul, it does not need vigour of our own kind, but the spectacle of vigour of any kind, any prodigious power of performance wonderfully arms and recruits us.

Those who have close relationships with us perhaps don’t notice the gradual changes in us which are commensurate with spiritual development. Perhaps even we do not see the gradual and imperceptible changes in ourselves. We physically change as we spiritually change. Again from the teachings of White Eagle: 72

The law of Correspondences is also the law of externalisation, whereby the state of our inner consciousness gradually and inevitably externalises itself in the physical body...

The implication is that as you positively travel your spiritual pathway, your lives change for the better. St Cuthbert was seen, according to Douglas Dales, as a living embodiment of: 73

…the truth he proclaimed and its power to change lives and values in society.

On this ability to change your local community, Gregg Braden in his book ‘The Divine Matrix’ calculated that when a small percentage of it – around the square root of 1% of it – has achieved peace, then: 74

…that peace was reflected in the world around them.

So we can change the environment within which we live and work. It just needs dedication and devotion to spiritual development and as this occurs then to make sure that you can reflect this in your life. It is not only you who has this ability but all those striding along their spiritual pathway as Ralph Waldo Trine suggested: 75

There are people all around us who are continually giving out blessings and comfort, persons whose mere presence seems to change sorrow for joy, fear into courage, despair into hope, weakness into power. It is the one who has come into the realisation of his own true self who carries this power with him and who radiates it wherever he goes.

You can be such a person who mirrors parts of the life of one of the greatest Masters the world has seen. His commandment to us, according to Walter Hilton, is that: 76

…you love each other as I have loved you, for in that men shall know you for my disciples - not because you work miracles, not because you cast out devils, not because you preach, not because you teach - but because each of you loves the others in charity.

This is a difficult act to follow. Not only do we have to climb the steep spiritual slopes but do so in a seemingly hostile environment. Referring to Walter Hilton again, he wrote: 77

In all your concerns, guard your heart, for out of it comes life.

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We have to ignore the external pressures of doubters, cynics and mischievous people who do not have our view of life, as Andrew Harvey realised, we ought to: 78

Live your life for God, and they [the doubters] will be convinced. Only actions convince.

We should not engage others in argument but state our case as best we can. Sooner or later they will ponder on what we have said and it may lead them to move a little way towards Spirit. I’d like to give you four quotations from the same book which typifies what I’m trying to convey which is that we must shine even though events around us are not as we would like them to be or perhaps we are not feeling ‘on top of the world’ ourselves. Winifred Graham, through automatic writing, received a whole range of spiritual teachings from her deceased father and recorded them in two books – ‘My Letters from Heaven’ and ‘More Letters from Heaven’. The four quotes below are from her first book.

The way to be happy is to collect sunshine round you with cheery thoughts and smiles of loving welcome and goodwill. Even if your heart is sad, you can try and make others brighter with giving out inner radiance from a secret store . 79

When the mind is depressed the soul cannot radiate light through dark clouds of despair . 80

To show the world you are at peace with God, and in touch with spiritual elements, move about with a radiant countenance, and keep happy even when worried by adversities . 81

Go about shedding radiance of a quiet spirit on the noisy world, so full of cares and troubles. Be a ray of light instead of a cloud . 82

The nice thing, of course, is that as you become more and more attuned to Spirit then, by definition, you become less and less affected by the material world as the communicator to Beatrice Russell said: 83

...no suffering, no pain, no griefs, calamities or disasters can, if they come, have any power over you. Know this, realise it, absorb the glory of it into your Being; then give - give these riches to others, not necessarily by speech, but by the shining of your souls.

The implication of this ‘outpouring’ is that you cannot control what impact it has on others – somewhat like the sun or the rain which affect everyone as was written in the Gospel of the Essenes where Jesus said: 84

...Let thy love be as the sun Which shines on all creatures of the earth, And does not favour one blade of grass For another. And this love shall flow as a fountain From brother to brother, And as it is spent, So shall it be replenished.

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Certainly all can receive and potentially in different ways. On this point the 19 th century French priest Abbé Henri de Tourville suggested that we: 85

…devote our whole strength to drawing on this life within us, pouring it out, or rather allowing it to overflow on everything, to produce whatever results it can.

…and Martin Israel realised that as he became more and more enlightened: 86

The less concerned I am about my attributes and the more I flow out from the soul to the world, the richer I am.

Forget yourself; free yourself from the shackles of the material world and give your love to all you meet. John M Templeton expressed this as: 87

If we free ourselves of self-will and surrender to God's will, we can become channels for God's love and wisdom to flow to others.

…and, later in the book, he added an overwhelming statement: 88

This is the law of love. If we radiate love, we will receive back joy, prosperity, happiness, peace, and long life.

If, then we can do more when we don’t think of ourselves, then, I reckon, we can do better if we concentrate on the feelings and cares of others. Again using an aphorism from Winifred Grahams’ second book: 89

Don't forget to make it a great effort of love when you entertain. You are always giving out an aura in your life, and the love in your heart should pour forth like sunshine. It is as healing as the sun's rays are to the sick and depressed. The way to radiate is to forget self in others, and be interested in all they say or do.

This is basic living; we must care about others whose lives we touch. We can lighten their burdens and help to open their eyes and lives to Spirit. Silver Birch once commented about the impact of your spiritual development: 90

You will develop the gifts of the spirit yourself and when you have done so you will become a little lighthouse that sheds the beams of truth to weary souls still in the darkness.

Thus we must continue to spiritually develop because until we have received knowledge and experience then we cannot reflect it to others. Evelyn Underhill, on this particular theme, said that: 91

We can only give what we have received; we only receive in order to give.

Continuing on this theme, Bede Griffiths informed us that the more we receive then the more we can receive: 92

But we have the capacity to respond to the divine life, our capacity to receive

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actually grows with the receiving. But it must be received without appropriation. Everything has to be received from God and returned to God, not appropriated.

…and, through Natural Law, the more we give then the more we receive. There is also an old adage which says that we ought to treat others as we expect to be treated ourselves. In the context of this, Thomas Merton said: 93

We can have the mercy of God whenever we want it, by being merciful to others: for it is God's mercy that acts on them, through us, when He leads us to treat them as He is treating us.

Dannion Brinkley was more forceful when he expressed the view that we can, through small or large selfless acts, be a mirror to the Divine: 94

Most people think only God can dispense grace, but I am here to tell you that I know we have been given divine access to it. Acts of selfless love and kindness reconnect us with grace because we are spiritual beings capturing the uniqueness of a human experience.

Perhaps we act as a conductor or an intermediary to allow Spirit to reach others. This thought was in Thomas Merton’s mind when he wrote: 95

When the love of God is in me, God is able to love you through me and you are able to love God through me.

Our contact with God through His agents does not need to be shouted from the roof-tops. Our development should be without pomp; it should have the objective of touching the lives of people we meet in our everyday life; we should reflect our spirituality. The researcher into past life regression, Brian Weiss, when talking about our own personal enlightenment, reminded us that: 96

True self-love doesn't need to be broadcast or publicly displayed. It is an inner state, a feeling, a strength, a happiness; it is security. Remember, souls are part of the One, which is love. We all have souls. We are always loved. We can always love in return.

Express yourself spiritually, be kind to all you meet and don’t hide away your love for humanity. A communicator, known only as F.W. and speaking through the trance mediumship of Mrs Wickland, understood that: 97

Now that you have found the truth do not put your light under a bushel. Helping others will strengthen you. You will receive strength and power to keep well…

We can say, with Winifred Graham, that: 98

Many people have a marvellous gift that they are quite unconscious of. It makes life, for them, a rare and beautiful thing. Quite unknowingly they brighten and heal those with whom they associate. When they meet strangers they do them good by their mere presence. It is a glorious gift to possess and use.

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We should aim to reach this height where we can do the maximum of good to all that we encounter. Clement of Alexandria believed that we can only achieve this if we have ‘God’ in our hearts: 99

…the true image of God is the man who does good.

This is one of the few ways in which humans can see God – through the actions and presence of the Godlike. From a Christian perspective, Evelyn Underhill wrote: 100

Every real Christian is part of the dust-laden air which shall radiate the glowing Charity of God; catch and reflect His golden light .

So, what we should aim to be is the person of whom Henry Thomas Hamblin wrote: 101

No wonder that to meet such a man as this makes one say: "This surely is not an ordinary man such as we, but a great soul come specially to earth to comfort and bless erring, suffering humanity, and lead them to higher and better things."

You can be that person...

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1 Gerald Bullett, The English Mystics, Michael Joseph, 1950. Benjamin Whichcote, (Pg 115) 2 Baltasar Gracián, The Art of Worldly Wisdom - A pocket Oracle, Mandarin, 1995. Aphorism 68: (Pg 39) 3 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XIV: Christian Science - Experience, February 24, 1918, (Pg 390) 4 Thomas Merton, The New Man, Burns & Oates, 1985. The Second Adam, (Pg 114) 5 Andrew Harvey, The Direct Path, Rider & Co, 2000. Two: Practicing the Path - Eighteen Sacred Practices for Transformed Spiritual Living, (Pg 136) 6 Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, On Life After Death, Celestial Arts, 1991. Living and Dying, (Pg 19) 7 Bede Griffiths, Return to the Centre, Collins, Fount Paperbacks, 1978. 5. The One and the Many, (Pg 43) 8 Joel S Goldsmith, The Contemplative Life, L N Fowler & Co, 1963. Chapter SEVEN - The Dice of God are Loaded, (Pg 112) 9 Martin Israel, The Pearl of Great Price, SPCK, 1988. 4 - The Cloud and the Fire, (Pg 33) 10 Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation, Hollis and Carter, 1949. Chapter 4 - We are One Man, (Pg 50) 11 Dannion Brinkley, Secrets of the Light, Piatkus, 2012. Part 1: There and Back Again - 5 Let's Synchronise Our Watches, (Pg 45) 12 Andrew Harvey, The Way of Passion, Souvenir Press, 2002. Chapter 7 - Apocalypse and Glory, (Pg 211 / 212) 13 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XVI: Philosophy - Experience, March 23, 1921, (Pg 456) 14 Robin Waterfield, Streams of Grace, Fount, 1985. (Pg 54 / 55) 15 Unto Thee I Grant, Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, 1966. Book Ten: Of the Affections of Man, Which Are Hurtful to Himself and Others. Chapter V- Heaviness of Heart, (Pg 78) 16 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XVI: Philosophy - Experience, October 27, 1920, (Pg 431) 17 Evelyn Underhill, Concerning the Inner Life, Oneworld, 1999. Part One- The Heart of Personal Religion, (Pg 18) 18 Lumsden Barkway, An Anthology of the Love of God (from the writings of Evelyn Underhill), Mowbray, 1953. VIII Service, The Activity of Love: Contagious Christians (Concerning the Inner Life), (Pg 220) 19 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter II: History and The Life of the Spirit, (Pg 46) 20 Cecil Rose, When Man Listens, Blandford Press, 1956. Chapter Four: Remaking Men, (Pg 54 / 55) 21 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 4 - Control: The Imperative of Responsibility, (Pg 86) 22 Julie Soskin, Transformation, College of Psychic Studies, 1995. Chapter 7 - The Crazy God is You, (Pg 60) 23 St. Theophan the Recluse, The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to it, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1995. 27 Inner Concentration, (Pg 131) 24 Andrew Harvey, The Direct Path, Rider & Co, 2000. Three: Embodiment and Integration - Physical Exercise, (Pg 197) 25 Joel S Goldsmith, The Contemplative Life, L N Fowler & Co, 1963. Chapter FOUR - The Esoteric Meaning of the Easter Week, (Pg 69) 26 Colum Hayward, Eyes of the Spirit, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1987. Chapter Six - The Principles of the Lodge, (Pg 127) 27 Dean Inge, Goodness and Truth, Mowbray, 1958. Sermon 4: The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, (Pg 48) 28 William Roache, Soul on the Street, Hay House, 2007. Part III: On The Street. 16: Moving Forward, (Pg 264) 29 Ralph Waldo Trine, In Tune with the Infinite, G Bell & Sons, 1931. Chapter V - The Secret, Power, and effects of Love, (Pg 96) 30 Leslie D Weatherhead, The Christian Agnostic, Hodder & Stoughton, 1966. Chapter II: Agnosticism and Doubt, (Pg 12) 31 Jonathan Fryer, George Fox and the Children of the Light, Kyle Cathie, 1991. The Journal: The Organiser - A Happy Man, (Pg 176) 32 Julie Soskin, Transformation, College of Psychic Studies, 1995. Chapter 3 - The Responsibility of Knowledge, (Pg 26) 33 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Your Inner Force, (Pg 65) 34 James Russell Lowell, The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell, Sonnet IV 35 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part One: Chapter IV - Healing (Ancient Healing), (Pg 68) 36 Rabindranath Tagore, Collected Poems and Plays of Rabinranath Tagore, Macmillan & Co, 1958. Gitanjali, (IV)

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37 Evelyn Underhill, The Essentials of Mysticism, Oneworld, 1999. Some Implicits of Christian Social Reform, (Pg 149) 38 Gems of Thought, The Greater World Christian Spiritualist Assn, 1989. Tasks Can Be Sanctified, (Pg 68) 39 Susanna Winkworth, The History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler with 25 of his Sermons, H.R.Allenson, 1906. Second Sermon for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity, (Pg 384) 40 Christine A M Davis, Minding the Future, Quaker Books, 2008. Chapter 2 - What is this 'Stewardship' anyway? (Pg 24) 41 St Bernard of Clairvaux, The Love of God, Pickering & Inglis, 1983. Chapter IV - The Nature and Dignity of Love, (Pg 78) 42 Teresa of Avila, Way of Perfection, Sheed & Ward, 1984. Chapter XV, (Pg 62) 43 A W Austen, Teachings of Silver Birch, Psychic Press, 1993. Creeds v. Truth, (Pg 99) 44 Abbé Henri de Tourville, Letters of Direction, Mowbray, 1939. VIII - Our Relationship with Others: Education, (Pg 50) 45 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter XVII: Suffering, (Pg 232) 46 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Cheer up your Sad Friends, (Pg 24) 47 Beatrice Russell, Fragments of Truth from the Unseen. Unknown Publisher, 1951. Faith, (Pg 16) 48 Evelyn Underhill, Concerning the Inner Life, Oneworld, 1999. Part One- The Heart of Personal Religion, (Pg 17) 49 Leslie D Weatherhead, The Christian Agnostic, Hodder & Stoughton, 1966. Chapter V: Christ and His Achievement, (Pg 88) 50 Fleas are small flightless insects that form the order Siphonaptera. As external parasites of mammals and birds, they live by consuming the blood of their hosts. 51 Oliver Davies, Meister Eckhart - Selected Writings, Penguin Books, 1994. Selected German Sermons: Sermon 29, (Pg 240) 52 Dom Aelred Graham, Christian Thought in Action, The Catholic Book Club, 1958. Chapter Six: The Interior Life of the Christian Humanist, (Pg 101) 53 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XV: Theosophy - Experience, November 8, 1922, (Pg 410) 54 Mère Ignace Goethals - Third Mother-General of the Sisters of Notre-Dame de Namur, A Member of the Same Congregation, Alexander Ouseley Limited, 1934. Chapter IX: Mother-General (1838 - 1842), (Pg 168) 55 White Eagle, The Quiet Mind, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1984. The Master Soul is Constant: .. is Strong to Serve: The Son is Born in You, (Pg 54) 56 White Eagle, The Quiet Mind, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1984. The Master Soul is Constant: True Values, (Pg 14) 57 Christine A M Davis, Minding the Future, Quaker Books, 2008. Chapter 2 - What is this 'Stewardship' anyway? (Pg 24) 58 Jonathan Fryer, George Fox and the Children of the Light, Kyle Cathie, 1991. The Epistles: To Friends (1652), (Pg 218) 59 St. Theophan the Recluse, The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to it, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1995. 24 Renewal and Self-cleansing, (Pg 122) 60 Gems of Thought, The Greater World Christian Spiritualist Assn, 1989. The Body As a Clear Lantern, (Pg 161) 61 Swami Paramananda, The Upanishads, Grange Books, 2004. Kena - Upanishad - Part Four: V, (Pg 99) 62 Ralph Waldo Trine, In Tune with the Infinite, G Bell & Sons, 1931. Chapter XII - Realisation of the Highest Riches, (Pg 218) 63 Christine R. Page, Spiritual Alchemy, C W Daniel Co, 2004. Chapter One - The Purpose of our lives on a Soul Level, (Pg 24) 64 Stella Storm, Philosophy of Silver Birch, The Spiritual Truth Press, 1998. Chapter Six: The Responsibility of Mediumship. (Pg 57) 65 Colum Hayward, Eyes of the Spirit, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1987. Chapter Seven - The Lodge ideals and vision: the sixth principle, (Pg 144) 66 Grace Cooke, The New Mediumship, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1994. VII. The Way of Meditation, (Pg 84) 67 Colum Hayward, Eyes of the Spirit, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1987. Chapter Five - The creative power of thought, (Pg 102) 68 Grace Cooke, The Jewel in the Lotus, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1973. V - The Lotus Pool and the Elder Brethren, (Pg 41)

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69 John R H Moorman, Saint Francis of Assisi, SPCK, 1979. 2 Imitatio Christi, (Pg 39) 70 Clifton Wolters, A Study of Wisdom, Fairacres, 1985. (Pg 20) 71 Ralph Waldo Emerson, Natural History of Intellect, Solar Press, 1995. I. Natural History of Intellect - I. Powers and Laws of Thought, (Pg 23 / 24) 72 Colum Hayward, Eyes of the Spirit, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1987. Chapter Six - The Principles of the Lodge, (Pg 128) 73 Douglas Dales, Called to be Angels, Canterbury Press, 1998. Cuthbert, (Pg 28 & 29) 74 Gregg Braden, The Divine Matrix, Hay House, 2009. Part II: Chapter Four: Once Connected, always Connected: Living in a holographic Universe, (Pg 116) 75 Ralph Waldo Trine, In Tune with the Infinite, G Bell & Sons, 1931. Chapter VII - The Realisation of Perfect Peace, (Pg 139) 76 Walter Hilton, The Stairway of Perfection, Image Books, 1979. Book One: Chapter Fifty-One, (Pg 132) 77 Walter Hilton, The Stairway of Perfection, Image Books, 1979. Book One: Chapter Eighty-Eight, (Pg 181) 78 Andrew Harvey, Hidden Journey, Rider & Co, 1994. DOLPHIN CHILD – EIGHT, (Pg 186) 79 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Make Others Happy, (Pg 17) 80 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Don't be Sad! It Closes the Door, (Pg 48) 81 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Be Cheerful, (Pg 49) 82 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Unseen Wounds, (Pg 59) 83 Beatrice Russell, Beyond the Veils through Meditation, Lincoln Philosophical Research Foundation, 1986. The Finding of the Divine within You, (Pg 42) 84 Edmond Bordeaux Szekely, The Gospel of the Essenes, C W Daniel Co, 1976. From the Essene Book of Jesus: The Sevenfold Peace, (Pg 59 / 60) 85 Abbé Henri de Tourville, Letters of Direction, Mowbray, 1939. VII - On Beginning with Ourselves, (Pg 47) 86 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 1: The measure of a man, (Pg 14) 87 John M Templeton, The Humble Approach - Scientists Discover God, Collins, 1981. VI. Benefits from Humility, (Pg 44) 88 John M Templeton, The Humble Approach - Scientists Discover God, Collins, 1981. X. Earth as a School, (Pg 99) 89 Winifred Graham, More Letters From Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, 1943. Pour Forth Sunshine, (Pg 59) 90 Anne Dooley, Guidance from Silver Birch, Spiritualist Press, 1966. Chapter Two: Who Are You? (Pg 19) 91 Evelyn Underhill, The Fruits of the Spirit; Light of Christ; Abba, Longmans, Green and Co, 1957. Light of Christ: IV Christ The Healer, (Pg 62) 92 Bede Griffiths, Return to the Centre, Collins, Fount Paperbacks, 1978. 6. Sin and Redemption, (Pg 46) 93 Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island, Burns & Oates, 1997. 11. Mercy, (Pg 187) 94 Dannion Brinkley, Secrets of the Light, Piatkus, 2012. Part 3: The Seven Lessons from Heaven - 15 Lesson One, (Pg 135) 95 Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation, Hollis and Carter, 1949. Chapter 4 - We are One Man, (Pg 50) 96 Brian Leslie Weiss, Same Soul, Many Bodies, Piatkus, 2006. Chapter 9 - Patrick: Security, (Pg 138) 97 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XI: Materialism and Indifference, (Pg 253 / 254) 98 Winifred Graham, More Letters From Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, 1943. Human Magnets, (Pg 62) 99 Thomas Merton, The New Man, Burns & Oates, 1985. Image and Likeness, Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, 2:19. (Pg 44) 100 Evelyn Underhill, The School of Charity, Longmans, Green and Co, 1934. Part II - Chapter IV – Incarnate, (Pg 45) 101 Henry Thomas Hamblin, The Life of the Spirit, The Science of Thought Press, 1934. Chapter XII - Serving Others, (Pg 59)

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15.10: Spiritual Development – Using Exemplars

Spiritual development is often, apparently, a lonely process. In reality however, you are never alone. Your spirit guides and helpers are for ever supporting you on your spiritual quest. These teachers from the world of Spirit are the most important source of inspirational knowledge and guidance but there are other sources which you need to look at. For most, books are the primary source, but, for the very fortunate few, the best of all is an experienced teacher; one who has been there and who has experienced the ups and downs of expanding awareness and enlightenment. As a 4 th century B.C. mystic Chuang Tzu mused: 1

The purpose of a fish trap is to catch fish, and when the fish are caught the trap is forgotten. The purpose of a rabbit snare is to catch rabbits. When the rabbits are caught, the snare is forgotten. The purpose of the word is to convey ideas. When the ideas are grasped, the words are forgotten. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words? He is the one I would like to talk to.

Swami Paramananda, one of the early Indian teachers who came to the United States, also placed great importance on the value of a teacher or mentor: 2

The Scriptures give three stages in all spiritual attainment. The aspirant must first hear about the Truth from an enlightened teacher; next he must reflect upon what he has heard; then by constant practice of discrimination and meditation he realises it; and with realisation comes the fulfilment of every desire, because it unites him with the source of all.

I was very fortunate; I was led to a mentor who spiritually guided me for about 6 years. In parallel with this weekly meeting of fellow travellers I was, and still am, an avid reader of spiritual literature. This sits well with the advice of the 14 th century English hermit and mystic Richard Rolle: 3

And you, a lover of God (or at least desperately anxious to be one!) must study always as best you know how.

The essence of study, for me, is to determine the laws which govern spiritual life – both here and in the hereafter. I call these the Cosmic Laws because I believe that they are true, in the generic sense, for all creation no matter where they are in the Universe. Baron Von Hügel, after undertaking a critical analysis of the records of the life of Catherine of Genoa, believed that this process: 4

…would, in any case, help to train my own mind; and it would, if even moderately successful, offer one more detailed example of the laws that govern such [spiritual] growths, and of the critical method necessary for the tracing out of their operation.

This objective of seeking the Laws seems to be a rational one and one endorsed by Red Cloud, the spirit guide of Estelle Robert’s, who said of Jesus the Nazarene: 5

He was one of the many masters. There is only one universal law, whether it be that of the Nazarene, Mahomet, or Confucius. I simply use the Nazarene as an

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illustration.

This spirit teacher also said that he has: 6

…lived in this world of spirit many, many thousands of years. I know that he [Jesus the Nazarene] taught you the truth because he taught you law.

You and I are all bound by the same Law, or set of laws. The young French Simone Weil had a more religious way of putting it: 7

As one has to learn to read, or to practise a trade, so one must learn to feel in all things, first and almost solely, the obedience of the universe to God.

As God created the Universe and the Laws that govern it, then, by obeying the Laws, we are naturally obeying God. This is a fundamental part of my understanding; one of the laws, you may say. I have not seen this explicitly stated elsewhere although all that I have read seems to lead up to this conclusion.

This brings me to an important point. Apply your reason; always be critical of what you read and only accept that which, in your heart and mind, you can come to terms with. The opposite of this was recognised by Osbert Burdett when he studied the life of William Blake, of whom Osbert said: 8

…read only to confirm, never to correct, his own intuitions. The result was that his intellect ceased to grow, and, like the prisoner in Carisbrooke Castle, it continued round and round in its revolving wheel and showed no development because no modification.

Don’t let this happen to you. Open your mind and allow your Philosophy of Life to flex according to what you have understood. Aristotle had a view on this which, according to the philosopher and priest Father D'Arcy, was that: 9

When studying any particular class of things, the first thing to do, as Aristotle indicates [De Part. Anim. 645 b. 10-22] , is to study separately those qualities which are held common by all the members of that class, and afterwards to study special qualities of each individual in it.

In many respects, this is the process which I have followed. Of course, the real difficulty is that it is impossible, á priori, to determine what is common in what you are reading. Therefore, the only way that I have found it possible to achieve this is by recording those interesting pieces of knowledge and then having a stab at the class to which they belong. This is a long process. At the time of writing this chapter (October 2017), I have recorded just under 17,000 quotations from 427 books referring to 1080 writers, mystics, masters, saints, etc., and broadly classified them into just over 300 topics, and each topic has developed into a chapter.

Out of all this I have been able to determine that which, I believe, is useful and important to my spiritual development. What this has helped me to achieve is a robust, yet flexible, philosophy of life. This should be the object of the readings that you undertake, as Joel Goldsmith informed us: 10

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The object of turning to a spiritual teaching is to enable us to release ourselves from the strain of modern day life to living "not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit" [Zechariah 4:6]

What Joel is trying to convey is that through learning we can change the balance of our lives and change the emphasis from material to spiritual.

This is all very well but how do we choose the books to read? I do believe that we don’t really have to because, if our intentions are pure, then we will be led to the right book at the right time for our spiritual progression. I feel that this has happened to me, and, interestingly enough, I feel that I too am part of the process because when I have read a book I give it to others to read or give it away. Swami Vivekananda, in ‘The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali’ also believed that we should be selective in choosing our material to study: 11

Books are infinite in number, and time is short; therefore the secret of knowledge is to take what is essential. Take that and try to live up to it. There is an old Indian legend that if you place a cup of milk and water before Raja Hamsa (swan), he will take all the milk and leave the water. In that way we should take what is of value in knowledge, and leave the dross.

The Rev. George Vale Owen, in his book ‘The Life Beyond the Veil’ was informed by a discarnate spirit, through automatic writing, that they have a mechanism for making decisions. They said: 12

In order to help you in this matter, therefore, we will try to tell you of a system which we have here of separating and discerning between things that matter and those of lesser importance. Whenever we are perplexed about anything - and I speak just of our own immediate circle - we go up to the top of some building, or hill, or some high place where the surrounding country may be viewed from a distance. Then we state our difficulties, and when we have made the tale complete, we preserve silence for a time and endeavour to retreat into ourselves, as it were. After a time we begin to see and hear on a higher plane than ours, and those things which matter, we find, are those which are shown to us, by sight and hearing, as persisting on that higher plane, in those higher spheres. But the things which do not matter so greatly we do not see nor hear, and thus we are able to separate the one class from the other.

We could use a similar mechanism; ask for help from Spirit and then use contemplation to ‘listen’ to the answer. In a similar context, Irene Bays wrote: 13

Do not place your books of words away, but read them from time to time, and you will be guided to read those which will be of assistance to you.

The first book that I know that I was led to, in a café which was selling second hand books, was Arthur Waley’s translation of the Tao Te Ch’ing entitled ‘The Way and the Power’. This poetic and well presented ancient Chinese philosophical work turned me towards the mystical way of thinking, and, for which, I will be ever thankful.

In times gone by, people had a different way of looking at life. It was not as material as it is

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A book written in a monastery where the traditions and rites of a more contemplative age are still alive and still practised, could not help but remind men that there had once existed a more leisurely and more spiritual way of life - and that this was the way of their ancestors.

We could never recreate this environment, but we can learn a lot from the messages that were written about spiritual matters in the past. In her book ‘The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today’, Evelyn Underhill stressed this approach: 15

Yet this personal inward life of love and prayer shall not be too solitary. As it needs links with cultus and so with the lives of its fellows, it also needs links with history and so with the living past. These links are chiefly made by the individual through his reading ; and such reading such access to humanity's hoarded culture and experience has always been declared alike by Christian and non-Christian asceticism to be one of the proper helps of the spiritual life.

Learning through reading and experience is the way forward. I’ll cite an example of one person’s advice. One of the fundamental laws of the universe is that your soul is eternal, which implies that there is life after death. This is one important Law to acknowledge. In communicating this to humanity through the trance mediumship of Mrs Wickland, a spirit said: 16

So you see, friends, how necessary it is that we should all learn to know these things before we pass to the spirit side of life. Let us be wise and learn all we can while here. The more we learn here about the other side of life, the better and happier we shall be. The spirit body is only a counterpart of the physical body. As we progress in mind we grow. If we intended going abroad we would do all we could to find out about the places we were going to visit and what hotels to stop at. How much more important it is that we should find out all we can about the next world. You will all be there some day. Find out all you can, then when you are ready to go you will just say goodbye and wake up in the spirit world. You only say goodbye to the physical body and find yourself in your spiritual body. If you have lived only for self, as I did, you will stay right where you have been, just where you left off, as I did, and suffer. This is a lesson and you can profit by my experience.

This is just one simple example. The more you read the more examples of the Cosmic Laws you will find, and whilst any one of the bits of knowledge may not be totally convincing, the cumulative effect and the weight of evidence will slowly persuade you of the right elements for your own philosophy. In the ‘Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart’ a comparison is made between this spiritual journey and a trip to an unknown place: 17

Setting out on a long, difficult and trackless journey and fearing to lose his way

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home, a wayfarer sets up signs to mark the route, and so help him to find his way back. A man journeying on the path of sobriety and likewise afraid, must use the words of the fathers as marks showing him the way (lest he go astray or turn back).

If we are to achieve a reasonable amount of understanding from reading then we must be prepared to devote time to it, this is on top of any time for contemplation. We have to put effort into everything that we wish to achieve – we don’t gain knowledge without putting time into it. This reminds me of Malcolm Gladwell’s book ‘Outliers’ in which he suggested that “ten thousand hours is the magic number of greatness”. He went on to explain that, based on studies of elite performance, it is: 18

...an extraordinarily consistent answer in an incredible number of fields ... you need to have practiced, to have apprenticed, for 10,000 hours before you get good.

The real message from this is that if we are to become spiritually ‘good’, it will take a lot of effort and take many years. So don’t prevaricate. Get on with it, time is of the essence. Therefore, do take the advice of the spirit who channelled his advice through the medium Irene Bays: 19

…put the teachings that have been given to you away in a dark corner. Do not 'intend' to read them, but not have time. There is always time to do those things that are of the most value to this experience of your life.

Another warning in a slightly different direction comes from the priest and theologian Peter Toon: 20

Holy things have to be received in holy ways: otherwise that which is holy can become a snare. Study in which there is a search for information and insight for its own sake (not for the sake of the glorifying of God) can so easily feed imperfect, sinful human nature and thus feed pride and vanity instead of humility and holiness.

Never make light of spiritual investigation – it should be a major plank in your day-to-day life. This means that our search should have the right motives and we, for our part, must accept any knowledge we get with humility and with the express desire, eventually, to use it for the benefit of ourselves and humanity. Therefore we must, as Winifred Graham was inspired to write: 21

A real child of Christ must be like Him and copy his humility of spirit, not minding if ill-used by the ignorant or unkind.

There will always be detractors, those that scoff and who have no interest in our spiritual development. Ignore them; let their disparaging words pass by you, and don’t be like others who, as Leslie Weatherhead observed, would say: 22

We would follow Christ, but we do not want to do so openly lest our friends should think we are queer.

Don’t be put off your spiritual journey by such people. That is not to say that we should not listen to others as commented by Peter Spink: 23

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Respect all knowledge whilst remembering that controversy never gives birth to spiritual growth.

We should do this as everyone’s views are important to them and they may be important to us. You just don’t know where you will discover a gem or two of wisdom. Aldous Huxley wrote: 24

"Lift the stone and you will find me" affirms the best known of the Oxyrhinchus Logia of Jesus... 25

All the ancient mystics did this. They discussed their beliefs with others and so developed their own. Of them Lumden Barkway wrote from Evelyn Underhill’s books: 26

The difference between them and us is a difference in degree, not in kind.

However, their primary documents were the Scriptures of the day and they provided all they (or in fact us if we read them with the right insight) needed to extend their spirituality. Referring again to knowledge of eternal life, Red Cloud, teaching us from the Spirit World, helped us to realise that: 27

...in the Book, especially the New Testament, are lessons from the lives of those who are in contact with the spheres beyond death, and who hear the voices of the masters, of the angels, speaking, not only yesterday, today as well, to all men.

In looking at the contents of the Bible, particularly the New Testament, we must try to understand what are the intentions and motives of Jesus’ activities rather than just taking the words at their face value. Meister Eckhart realised that: 28

Many of his works Christ performed with the intention that we should imitate him spiritually, not physically.

This is because, like Laurie Worger, I realise that the man Jesus was a veritable Master who tried to nudge humanity along the right pathway: 29

At the present stage of my spiritual unfoldment it is my clear belief that Jesus of Nazareth was the Master, entrusted with the task of earthing or bringing the DIVINE LOVE aspect of the Cosmic Christ to earth’s humanity.

Margery Kempe, too, took this very simple view and because of that urged us to take: 30

All the works of our Saviour are for our example and instruction...

We have to be careful not to take the wrong view of Jesus’ messages and life. White Eagle, communicating from the Spirit World, advised: 31

Some people think that humanity depends upon the saving grace of Jesus Christ and without Jesus Christ crucified on the cross humanity cannot save itself. This is not so. It is not our Christ that humanity is seeking, except as an example and demonstration.

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So let us take the advice of the heretic and ex-Anglican priest Anthony Freeman who was brave enough to commit his beliefs to paper. He suggested that the figure of Jesus will indeed help as a role model: 32

...proving an example, a symbol, a focus for our efforts...

Oliver Lodge, another unconventional person, who rocked the scientific boat when he spent many years as a psychic researcher, declared that it is the life and teaching of Jesus the Nazarene: 33

...that we shall do well to study diligently when we wish to disentangle and display some of the secrets of the spiritual universe...

And appealing to those who nurture the Christian tradition, Leslie Weatherhead wrote: 34

The way of Jesus is surely the way for us.

To some extent I agree. However, whilst my background would suggest that I use Jesus the Nazarene as one of my templates, there is no reason why any of the major prophets cannot be similarly used. The spark of God is in all of us and is demonstrated through the lives of the great spiritual leaders. As if to confirm this, Vida Reed Stone who was a pioneer of the New Age movement, channelled the thought provoking poem ‘Behold My Song’ in which Jehovah, the God of Abraham, said: 35

Are you seeking Jesus, Buddha, Mahomet, Masters, Adepts, Teachers, Leaders? I am within them all; yet I am ever I, the light within the darkness, the Sound within the silence.

So use whichever exemplars you feel at home with. Sift through the words of the Scriptures, no matter of what religion, and find golden nuggets which when assembled together form the focus of our life. Be careful not to take the teachings of the Bible as knowledge only and not put them into practice. This warning came from Dr. Root, a spirit communicating through the trance mediumship of Mrs Wickland: 36

Christ was a great teacher, but do people carry out His teachings? They believe, but they do not do what he told them.

This must not be your approach. Vow to be as Christ-like as possible and through examination with the right ‘glasses’ we can positively progress. In the book ‘The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart’ is an entreaty to those following a mystical pathway: 37

The sun, passing over the earth, produces daylight; and the holy and worshipful name of our Lord Jesus, constantly shining in the mind, produces a measureless number of sunlike thoughts.

This we can have if we take the Biblical quotations and contemplate on their meaning. In the era before the advent of Jesus the Nazarene, spiritual thinking was quite constrained. Subsequent to his teachings the windows of spiritual opportunity were suddenly thrown wide open, and the constraints are minimal as Steve Chalke understood: 38

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One of the most controversial aspects of Jesus' message was that it moved all the fences. He redrew the boundaries of the Kingdom of God to include very definitely those who previously had been excluded.

…and Aldous Huxley wrote of Jesus’ works: 39

That he came to be thought of as the Christ was due to the fact that he had passed beyond selfness and had become the bodily and mental conduit through which a more than personal, supernatural life flowed down into the world.

The Nazarene had not only moved beyond his ego and beyond any materialistic tendencies but he had also grown out of the constraint imposed by his Jewish religion. We should be able to do the same. That is to follow the spiritual example of Jesus and not be tied down by the man-made straitjacket of most religions. Leslie Weatherhead, an English Christian theologian in the liberal Protestant tradition, understood this and wrote that Jesus: 40

...asked them to follow a way of life, not to subscribe to an intellectual creed, and any church is wrong which demands allegiance to a creed as a condition of membership.

Breaking away from any religion is often difficult but not nearly so hard as to follow Jesus’ spiritual directions. Similarly, the underlying principles of a spiritual life are not difficult to appreciate. What I have found in all my research is that spiritual things are, in essence, not over complicated. If we look back through the ages at what was revealed in all of the Scriptures from all the religions, then we probably have all that we need to become ‘perfect’. In a 19 th century treatise entitled ‘The Influence of Scepticism on Character’, William Watkinson wrote that Jesus the Nazarene: 41

…gave to ethical science no new principle...

The implication, therefore, is that spiritual things are basically simple, as Beatrice Russell wrote: 42

...have simplicity of faith. Search the sayings of Christ, and you will find only simplicity...

It is through this simple guidance that we can live a better life. The activities of Jesus are not complicated to follow but are we able to emulate Him? That is the hard bit. We can read all we can, be taught with the best and by the best, but at the end of the day how we assimilate the guidance given and use it in our lives is the important point. Silver Birch, one of the well respected teachers from the Spirit World, told us that we: 43

…cannot be taught spirituality by a teacher. You have to earn it by your own life, by your deeds. Spirituality is the burgeoning of divinity within the individual.

…and from Père De Caussade in more religious language: 44

Perfection does not consist of knowing about the order of God, but in submitting to it.

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A couple more quotations which stress the importance of ‘doing’ as opposed to ‘reading’; firstly from ‘The Gospel of the Essenes’: 45

Holy Wisdom, the understanding that unfolds for ever, Continually, without end, And is not acquired through the holy scrolls.

And secondly from Shankara's Viveka-Chudamani, ‘The Crest-Jewel of Wisdom’: 46

The nature of the one Reality must be known by one's own clear spiritual perception; it cannot be known through a pundit [learned man]

These are ancient words, but which are still applicable today and in our own context. Going back to the 14 th century in England, in Richard Rolle’s treatise 'The form of Perfect Living' is written: 47

…if thou hast other thoughts, that thou hast more sweetness in and devotion than in those that I teach thee, thou may'st think them. For I hope that God will put such thoughts in thine heart as He is pleased with, and as thou art ordained for"

Another important point is that whilst we can take advice from books and other sources, we must be careful not to walk in other’s shoes. Our pathway is unique to us. As the Quaker Christine Davis remarked: 48

We will not see clearly or travel safely if we try to travel by another's light, or attach ourselves to the beam from someone else's lantern.

The analogy of ‘light’ was replaced by ‘songs’ when Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows wrote about it: 49

Each person should learn not to sing the songs others have sung but write instead of the splendour he himself has perceived. Music which flows from one's lips must be written by the beating heart...

…and Thomas Merton’s analogy was travelling: 50

How do you expect to arrive at the end of your own journey if you take the road to another man's city?

Thus we must not only take responsibility for our own spiritual journey but make sure that, whilst we can be supported by others and their experiences, we develop our own route. Taking this a little further, your pathway can not be taken by another also. No one person can carry another’s spiritual burden. Laurie Worger highlighted this and stressed that our role is to help others but not carry them: 51

No soul can vicariously bear the burden of another, but may be able to help them with it or to inspire and encourage through personal experience and example.

This latter point, that is, helping others, was stressed by a couple of discarnate spirits who communicated within Carl Wickland’s home circle. Firstly a spirit known as William Y.

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Snr: 52

We must act; we must work for humanity. We must learn the first lesson that Christ taught, to serve others, and to love God above all things and our neighbour as ourselves.

…and from Ralph S: 53

When we have learned to serve others we have learned the lesson Christ taught.

There is a hidden yet golden thread running through all that has been said about using exemplars. That is, we must not just learn but act in accordance with the teachings of all our exemplars and the principles that we uphold. Again, turning to Laurie Worger’s ‘My Treasures For You’, he emphasised the need for us to emulate Jesus the Nazarene and: 54

We must strive, not in an airy-fairy manner but by just trying to put into actual practice what He taught.

…and perhaps the use of Jesus as an exemplar was His Creator’s purpose all along, as Thomas Merton thought: 55

God who is infinitely rich became man in order to experience the poverty and misery of fallen man, not because He needed this experience but because we needed His example.

Whilst Jesus may be the shining light of mentors, there have been, and certainly will be more, exemplars available to us as Ladislaus Boros believed: 56

But there are people - God has created them so and given us them as an example in our lives - for whom joy, bravery, pleasure in existence and honour, are all one. .. he stands firm, and goes quietly onwards.

However, we have to be very careful in deciding who to use as our exemplars; there are many people about who profess spirituality but who are nothing of the sort. In a talk given in 1934 the spiritual leader and philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti warned everyone against such people: 57

With your beliefs, your creeds, dogmas and authorities, you push fear into the background. To ward off fear you seek guides, masters, systems, because you hope that by following them, by obeying them, by imitating them you will have peace, you will have comfort. They are the tricksters who become priests, exploiters, preachers, mediators, swamis and yogis.

Of course, it does not include everyone who falls into these categories but it does highlight the dangers of using unsuitable exemplars. Another warning came from the chaplain and counsellor Joseph Sharp who was similarly scathing of many spiritual teachers: 58

The experts and spiritually enlightened all fall into the same old traps the beginner does. I’ve seen it happen time and time again. There are no gods among men. Imperfection is a perfect part of our nature. Without exception, every teacher ...

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falls into their own traps. Not only is the light in each of us, but so too is the human ego. The difference between the great enlightened ones of our history and the rest of us is not that the enlightened ones have no egos. The difference is, the awakened mind is not as mastered by its ego as is the unawakened. To the awakened mind, the ego is a servant, a tool – much of the time, but not all the time.

So examine your exemplar’s ego and make sure that it does not distort their spirituality nor the advice that you can read into their lives. However, there also seems to be more to really spiritual people than initially meets the eye. Their whole approach to life is different and the confidence that they exude and engender is, I’m sure, partly because of the real help from the Spirit World. With this as a background, George Trowbridge quotes from Swedenborg's theological teachings when he says that Jesus: 59

…declared that the Father dwelling in Him was the doer of His beneficent works.

With this sort of help how can we fail? The spiritual path is open to all of us if we make sure that we use the right exemplar and our own reasoning ability. As Sophy Burnham commented, none of us are saints – far from it – and yet we can all be partakers of the help that is available when we continue on our pathway: 60

The good news is that saintliness is not a requirement for God's love, or for starting on the spiritual journey, or for the ecstatics that are so generously poured over us to encourage us on the path…

Some, like Richard Rolle, tell us that we can go even further: 61

For, my brothers, you are wrong if you suppose that people today cannot be as holy as the prophets and apostles were.

This is confirmed by a spirit communicator via the medium Ronald Vowles: 62

The Masters say that all without exception can reach the highest Spiritual Attainment whilst on the earth plane...

Certainly we can achieve much in this life but I believe that we will still be in the infancy class of our spiritual education. A rather nice way of putting it came to the charismatic American pastor who remarked: 63

The only good disciple you will ever see is a bad one who didn't give up.

This typifies how I feel about myself. Nevertheless, it is really satisfying to know that, provided we stay on the pathway, help will continue. At least according to Steve Chalke’s view of the life of Jesus: 64

As far as Jesus was concerned, it wasn't how close someone was to him at any given stage in their life that mattered as much as the direction in which they were travelling.

Your path will not be easy; there will be bear traps to avoid, chasms to breach, steep hills to climb and briar patches to avoid. It is through the lives of the exemplars that we can, in

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:11:50 15.10 Spiritual Development – Using Exemplars Page 12 of 16 some way, be supported; their advice and experiences may provide the necessary guidance. In her book ‘The Ecstatic Journey’ the American spiritual writer and teacher Sophy Burnham recognises the help that such people can give us: 65

I write in case others have had such experiences and want to know that they are not alone. I write to note some landmarks on the path, point out the avalanche slopes, the food caches, and the cairns left by others long before.

Using exemplars, therefore, will help us to identify the types of difficulty that we may encounter and, often, how to overcome them. Morton Kelsey understood this and wrote: 66

Following where others have gone before gives us a real advantage. We are not only aware that this is a dangerous way, but we recognise at least some of the dangers to expect.

Evelyn Underhill, based on her own mystical research, tells us that dotted along our pathway, are points of intense joy and happiness interspersed with difficult times: 67

Commonly, however, if we may judge from those first-hand accounts which we possess, mystic conversion is a single and abrupt experience, sharply marked off from the long, dim struggles which precede and succeed it.

As with all media journalism, the worse the incident the more eagerly it is reported. Joy and happiness do not seem to make good news. In the spiritual context, happiness comes as part and parcel of the journey as Timothy Keller knows: 68

We were designed, then, not just for belief in God in some general way, nor for a vague kind of inspiration or spirituality. We were made to centre our lives upon him, to make the purpose and passion of our lives knowing, serving, delighting and resembling him. This growth in happiness will go on eternally, increasing unimaginably [see 1 Corinthians 2:7-10].

Because exemplars can ‘give us a bunk up’ some of the steep slopes of our pathway, don’t forget that our friends and colleagues can often be classed as exemplars. We all have our good points and these can be used by others, in particular our earthy friends and acquaintances, to boost one of their failing characteristics. We can be exemplars for them, and they can do similar for us. Most of these people will be on a similar journey although not necessarily at the same level. This was corroborated by Thomas A Kempis who believed that: 69

Yet holy communing about the things of God leads us no little way along the spiritual road, And most of all when man meets man Like to himself in heart and mind, like to himself - in God.

Whilst this may be true, I also believe that we can learn from the least likely people. We just have to keep an open mind and not be prejudiced because of what people believe a person to be.

Not long ago I encountered a phrase which puzzled me. I now realise that it fits well here.

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If I maintain a very flexible perspective on life and with those I casually encounter, then I can be very innovative in what I understand and what can help me on my spiritual journey, each stage of which is ‘discard the wrong, and renew with the truth’. This is my interpretation of Jean Leclercq’s phrase: 70

There can be no renewal without innovation

Because of this, the term uniqueness keeps on bubbling up to the surface. You and I can never travel the same pathway for long. Certainly we can for a short while but in the long term you will walk your own pathway, as Evelyn Underhill stressed: 71

We cannot promise that you shall see what we have seen, for here each man must adventure for himself

We travel a unique pathway in part as a consequence of our personal experiences and individual background. Born in London, the author Jack Joseph lived through the depression of the 1930s, eventually training as communication engineer and served as a radar technician with the Royal Air Force. Subsequently in the 1970s he became a yoga teacher. From all that he experienced he was able write ‘The Omano Oracle’ within which he recognised each person’s uniqueness and advised: 72

To worship footprints in the sands of time is to miss your own way. Look not downward towards the sand, ... turn your head upwards towards the light.

If we don’t do this then we will tend to follow the route to materialism or spiritual stagnation. This warning comes from the Spanish mystic and poet St. John of the Cross: 73

He that clings to the letter, or to a locution or to the form or figure of a vision, which can be apprehended, will not fail to go far astray, and will forthwith fall into great confusion and error, because he has guided himself by sense according to these visions, and not allowed the spirit to work in detachment from sense.

So far we have been using others as examples of spiritual development. However, we too can be, for others, a guiding light. We really do this, not by teaching or acting as a mentor, but by just living the balanced life; where the balance of physical to spiritual is right. This is as Aldous Huxley understood: 74

Only those who manifest their possession, in however small a measure, of the fruits of the Spirit can persuade others that the life of the spirit is worth living.

Using exemplars is only part of the solution to spiritual development. In the 14 th century anonymously written German mystical treatise ‘Theologia Germanica’ using exemplars is put in context: 75

Yet there be certain means thereunto, as the saying is, "To learn an art which thou knowest not, four things are needful." The first and most needful of all is, a great desire and diligence and constant endeavour to learn the art. And where this is

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wanting, the art will never be learned. The second is, a copy or example by which thou mayest learn. The third is to give earnest heed to the master, and watch how he worketh, and to be obedient to him in all things, and to trust him and follow him. The fourth is to put thy own hand to the work, and practise it with all industry. But where one of these four is wanting, the art will never be learned and mastered. So likewise is it with this preparation.

As a ‘parthian shot’, I will leave you with the following thought. Perhaps it is not us who have decided to seek the spiritual path but that we have been naturally drawn to it by other and external forces as Simone Weil suggested: 76

In the great symbols of mythology and folk-lore, in the parables of the Gospel, it is God who seeks man. .. Nowhere in the Gospel is there question of a search being undertaken by man.

Maybe this drive towards spiritual perfection is inherent within us; our spark of God spurring us on. Irrespective of the reason, we are travelling a road which leads to enlightenment and, to help us along this stony road, are the guiding influences of those who have travelled a similar way before us – our exemplars.

1 XXVI.II. Chuang Tzu, Downloaded from https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/160203-the-purpose-of-a-fish- trap-is-to-catch-fish 2 Swami Paramananda, The Upanishads, Grange Books, 2004. Katha - Upanishad - Part Two: XIII, (Pg 46 / 47) 3 Richard Rolle, The Fire of Love, Penguin Books, 1972. Chapter 10, (Pg 74) 4 P. Franklin Chambers, Baron Von Hugel: Man of God. An introductory Anthology compiled with a biographical preface, Geoffrey Bles: The Centenary Press, 1946. An Introduction Anthology - Part One: Personal - The Genesis of a Masterpiece, (Pg 70) 5 Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud Speaks, Tudor Press, 1992. Chapter Nineteen: Questions and Answers, (Pg 105) 6 Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud Speaks, Tudor Press, 1992. Chapter Seventeen: Problem of Time, (Pg 84) 7 Simone Weil, Waiting on God, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1952. Essays: The Love of God and Affliction, (Pg 74) 8 Osbert Burdett, William Blake, Macmillan & Co, 1926. Chapter X - 1810 – 1818, (Pg 171)

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9 Father M C D'Arcy, Thomas Aquinas - Selected Writings, J M Dent, 1950. 7. Commentary on Aristotle's 'De Anima', (Pg 55) 10 Joel S Goldsmith, The Contemplative Life, L N Fowler & Co, 1963. Chapter FIVE - Steps on the Path of Illumination 11 Swami Vivekananda, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Watkins Publishing, 2007. Chapter II - Concentration: Its Practise, (Pg 69 / 70) 12 Rev. G. Vale Owen, The Life Beyond the Veil, Thornton Butterworth, 1929. Chapter I: The Lowlands of Heaven - Monday, September 29, 1913. (Pg 39 / 40) 13 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part Three: Chapter X -Thoughts of Love (Overcoming Aggression), (Pg 353) 14 Thomas Merton, Reflections on My Work, Collins, Fontana Library, 1989. Preface to the Japanese edition of 'Seeds of Contemplation', (Pg 95) 15 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter VI The Life of the Spirit in the Individual, (Pg 164) 16 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XIII: Orthodoxy - Experience, July 19, 1922, (Pg 342) 17 Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, Faber & Faber, 1992. Part Two: Hesychius of Jerusalem to Theodulus - Texts on Sobriety and Prayer – 133, (Pg 306) 18 Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success, Little, Brown and Company, 2008. 19 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part Three: Chapter XV - The Final Chapter (Discipline), (Pg 384) 20 Peter Toon, Meditating as a Christian, Collins, 1991. Part Four: Hpow it Develops. 15 Bible Study and Meditation, (Pg 157 / 158) 21 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. After an Ill-natured Attack, (Pg 68) 22 Leslie D Weatherhead, How Can I Find God?, Hodder & Stoughton, 1965. Prologue: Do we really want to find Him? (Pg 12) 23 Peter Spink, Beyond Belief, Judy Piatkus, 1996. 9: Illusion and Reality, (Pg 135) 24 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter IV: God in the World, (Pg 60) 25 a saying which is not recorded in the Gospels 26 Lumsden Barkway, An Anthology of the Love of God (from the writings of Evelyn Underhill), Mowbray, 1953. IV The Spiritual Life: II Saints and Mystics, the exponents of Love: The Differentia of the Saints (Concerning the Inner Life), (Pg 115) 27 Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud Speaks, Tudor Press, 1992. Chapter Sixteen: The Parables of Jesus, (Pg 80) 28 Stephen J Connor, Everything as Divine, Paulist Press, 1996. Part II: Selections from the Counsels on Discernment - Counsel 17. How a man should preserve himself... (Pg 65) 29 Laurie Worger, My Treasures For You, The Percival Book Company, 1965. Chapter 4: Three Aspects of Christ, (Pg 48) 30 Margery Kempe, The Book of Margery Kempe, Penguin Books, 2004. The Proem, (Pg 33) 31 White Eagle on the Intuition and Initiation, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 2004. Part One: What the Intuition is, and is not - V: The Nature of the Intuition, (Pg 46 / 47) 32 Anthony Freeman, God in Us. SCM Press, 1994. 3: Our Saviour Jesus Christ, (Pg 41) 33 Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S., Man and the Universe, Methuen & Co, 1912. Section III - Science and Christianity: Chapter IX - The Divine Element in Christianity: V. Varieties of Christianity, (Pg 180) 34 Leslie D Weatherhead, How Can I Find God?, Hodder & Stoughton, 1965. Part II: How may we find Him? - II: Where shall I begin? (Pg 74) 35 Vida Reed Stone, Behold My Song, Willing Publishing Company, 1947. Behold My Song, (Pg 20 / 21) 36 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XVI: Philosophy - Experience, January 1, 1921, (Pg 457) 37 Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, Faber & Faber, 1992. Part One: Callistus and Ignatius of Xanthopoulos - Directions to Hesychasts – 53, (Pg 228) 38 Steve Chalke, The Lost Message of Jesus, Zondervan, 2003. Chapter 2 - the kingdom has come! (Pg 30) 39 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter III: Personality, Sanctity, Divine Incarnation, (Pg 48) 40 Leslie D Weatherhead, How Can I Find God?, Hodder & Stoughton, 1965. Part I: Are we hiding from Him? - II: In Intellectual Quest? (Pg 22) 41 William L Watkinson, The Influence of Scepticism on Character, Charles H Kelly, 1898. The Influence of Scepticism on Character. Chapter II, (Pg 52)

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42 Beatrice Russell, Fragments of Truth from the Unseen. Unknown Publisher, 1951. Simplicity, (Pg 42) 43 Anne Dooley, Guidance from Silver Birch, Spiritualist Press, 1966. Chapter Nine: Love is Undying, (Pg 91) 44 Richard Whitwell, J.P. de Caussade - A Spiritual Study, The Instant Publishers, undated. Chapter 1 - The overshadowing Love of God, (Pg 17) 45 Edmond Bordeaux Szekely, The Gospel of the Essenes, C W Daniel Co, 1976. Lost Scrolls of the Essene Brotherhood: The Angel of Wisdom, (Pg 162) 46 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter I: That Art Thou, (Pg 5) 47 Dyson, W.H, Studies in Christian Mystics, James Clarke, 1913. Chapter IV - The Mystic Way, (Pg 48) 48 Christine A M Davis, Minding the Future, Quaker Books, 2008. Chapter 6 - Discerning priorities: the thoughtful road, (Pg 48) 49 Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows, Pathway of the Immortal, International Publications Inc, 1980. Chapter VII: Stairway to the Stars, (Pg 137) 50 Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation, Hollis and Carter, 1949. Chapter 8 – Integrity, (Pg 67) 51 Laurie Worger, My Treasures For You, The Percival Book Company, 1965. Chapter 12: A Heavenly Experience, (Pg 122) 52 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XVI: Philosophy - Experience, October 27, 1920, (Pg 428) 53 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XV: Theosophy - Experience, November 8, 1922, (Pg 410) 54 Laurie Worger, My Treasures For You, The Percival Book Company, 1965. Chapter 4: Three Aspects of Christ, (Pg 53) 55 Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island, Burns & Oates, 1997. 11. Mercy, (Pg 190) 56 Ladislaus Boros, Open Spirit, Search Press, 1974. Dante and Vision, (Pg 155) 57 Krishnamurti, Authentic Report of Twelve Talks given by Krishnamurti, The Star Publishing Trust, 1934. Seventh talk in The Oak Grove (June 24, 1934), (Pg 53 / 54) 58 Joseph Sharp, Living Our Dying - A Way to the Sacred in Everyday Life, Rider & Co, 1996. Part IV: Living Our Dying – Chapter 10: Intimacy with All Things, (Pg 214) 59 George Trowbridge, Swedenborg - Life and Teaching, Swedenborg Society, 1935. (Pg 130) 60 Sophy Burnham, The Ecstatic Journey, Ballantine Books, New York, 1997. Chapter 3 - Drunks and Bums and Saints, (Pg 66) 61 Richard Rolle, The Fire of Love, Penguin Books, 1972. Chapter 14, (Pg 89) 62 Ronald F Vowles, The Greater Truth, Harmony Press, 1987. Chapter 7 - Spiritual Practices - The Audible Life Force, (Pg 43) 63 Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, Kingsway Publications, 1994. Chapter 12 - Pursuing the Gifts with Diligence. (Pg 166) 64 Steve Chalke, The Lost Message of Jesus, Zondervan, 2003. Chapter 8 - just one story, (Pg 142) 65 Sophy Burnham, The Ecstatic Journey, Ballantine Books, New York, 1997. Introduction, (Pg 5) 66 Morton T Kelsey, The Other Side of Silence, SPCK, 1985. Part Two: The Basic Climate for Meditation - 8. A Word of Warning and Encouragement, (Pg 76) 67 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part TWO: The Mystic Way: Chapter II - The Awakening of the Self, (Pg 178) 68 Timothy Keller, The Reason for God, Hodder & Stoughton, 2009. Part 2: The Reasons for Faith. FOURTEEN The Dance of God, (Pg 219) 69 Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Elliot Stock, 1891. The First Book - Warnings, useful for a spiritual life…Chapter X(III) 70 Jean Leclercq, Contemplative Life, Cistercian Publications, 1978. Tradition and Evolution, (Pg 20) 71 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part ONE: The Mystic Fact: Chapter I - The Point of Departure, (Pg 24) 72 Jack Joseph, The Omano Oracle, Medicine Bear Publishing, 1997. Part I - The Oracles, (Pg 97) 73 The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1947. Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book II. Chapter XIX, (Pg 151) 74 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter VII: Truth, (Pg 140) 75 Susanna Winkworth, Theologia Germanica, Macmillan & Co, 1874. Chapter XXII, (Pg 70) 76 Simone Weil, Waiting on God, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1952. Essays: Forms of the Implicit Love of God, (Pg 127)

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15.11: Spiritual Development – Search for Understanding

Some fortunate people start their search for understanding of life in their teenage years. Most, like me, begin their exploration once their material life is relatively stable, which for me, that commenced when I was in my autumn years – an apparent waste of 50+ years. According to Evelyn Underhill, who, in the English-speaking world, was one of the most widely read writers on mysticism in the first half of the twentieth century, St Augustine felt the same: 1

It was of this underlying reality - this truth of things - that St. Augustine cried in a moment of lucid vision, "Oh, Beauty so old and so new, too late have I loved thee!"

However, no one is ever too late to join the search party. Everyone at some stage in their eternal life must move forward, so you may as well do it now. Before reading these few words you have somehow been stimulated to inquire about spiritual matters – maybe even without knowing why.

For some people the trigger may be dissatisfaction with existing religions or for those who are more mature (a synonym for being over 50) then perhaps a desire to know what really happens when you die. This was the advice given at Carl Wickland’s home circle by a discarnate spirit referred to as J. O. Nelson: 2

Investigate, and find out what the life beyond is.

For me, this was only one aspect of my search. I wanted to know all the Laws that govern the whole of life; both the physical and the spiritual. As I have said before, if God created the Universe and the Laws that govern it, then by knowing the Laws I come to know God. I know that this is my primary goal in life and because of this I am starting to scratch the surface of spiritual knowledge trying to discover, for myself, the Cosmic Laws. I believe that Thomas Merton, a monk who wrote over 70 books mainly on spiritual matters, had something similar in mind when he wrote: 3

We cannot find Him unless we know we need Him.

If I am searching for the Laws, what are you looking for? You must be able to answer this, at least in part; otherwise you will never know whether you have found what you are looking for. The New Age writer Diana Cooper believed that: 4

When you are ready to formulate the question you are ready to know the answer.

This means that the question must be quite specific. The spirit communicator who used Beatrice Russell as a channel gave us an all embracing target which was that: 5

Your life should be a search for Divinity within and without...

I believe that our own targets ought to be quite specific and emerge out of our existing Philosophy of life – however vague that may be. Perhaps you could put to one side those areas where you feel some degree of confidence and open up the ‘can of worms’ that

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:12:17 15.11 Spiritual Development – Search for Understanding Page 2 of 10 comprise your doubts. This approach was hinted at by the American preacher and author Timothy Keller who wrote: 6

A person's faith can collapse almost overnight if she has failed over the years to listen patiently to her own doubts, which should only be discarded after long reflection. Believers should acknowledge and wrestle with doubts - not only their own but their friends' and neighbours'. It is no longer sufficient to hold beliefs just because you inherited them. ... All doubts, however sceptical and cynical they may seem, are really a set of alternative beliefs.

It is in searching for the truth, that such alternative beliefs can be rationally dismissed. Reading must form a significant part of this search for truth. Alphonsus (Alonso) Rodriguez, a 16 th century Spanish Jesuit priest and spiritual writer of renown, understood the inextricable link between study and spiritual development: 7

Reading is the sister of prayer and a great help to it. That is why the Apostle St. Paul advises his disciple Timothy [I Timothy 4:13] that he should give reading his attention. Spiritual reading is of such great importance for him who is trying to serve God that St. Athanasius says in an exhortation he makes to his religious: 'You will not see anyone who is really striving after his advancement who is not given to spiritual reading, and as to him who neglects it, the fact will soon be observable in his progress.' St Jerome, in his letter to Eustochium, strongly recommends her to devote herself to this holy reading, saying: 'Take your sleep reading, and when, over come by sleep, you begin to nod, let your head fall on the sacred book.' All the saints highly recommend spiritual reading and experience clearly shows how profitable it is, for history is full of great conversions which the Lord wrought by this means. It is because reading is such a fundamental and important means for our advancement that the founders of religious Orders, basing themselves on the teaching of the apostle and on the authority and experience of the saints, came to ordain that their religious should do some spiritual reading each day.

There is, however, one whole raft of books which I believe ought to be examined; those which concentrate on providing a good understanding of what I call the Spirit World. Use them to demonstrate to yourself that it exists or not and, if it does, what impact that may have on how you live your life. There have been many spirits who, during communications through mediums, regretted that they did not investigate life after death before they died. An example of this was given by Michael E. Tymn in his book ‘The Articulate Dead’. He wrote that Mayor Augustus P. Martin, communicating through the famous medium , stated that his biggest regret: 8

...was not learning more about it [the Spirit World] when he was alive as this hindered his progress once he made his transition to the other side of the veil.

In order to achieve this you could do worse than take the advice of Arthur Conan Doyle who suggested that: 9

Above all read the literature of this subject. It has been far too much neglected, not

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only by the material world but by believers. Soak yourself with this grand truth. Make yourself familiar with the overpowering evidence. Get away from the phenomenal side and learn the lofty teaching from such beautiful books as After Death or from Stainton Moses' Spirit Teachings. There is a whole library of such literature, of unequal value but of a high average. Broaden and spiritualize your thoughts. Show the results in your lives. Unselfishness, that is the keynote to progress. Realise not as a belief or a faith, but as a fact which is as tangible as the streets of London, that we are moving on soon to another life, that all will be very happy there, and that the only possible way in which that happiness can be marred or deferred is by folly and selfishness in these few fleeting years.

Powerful stuff! And of course, the more we learn about the Spirit World the more will we, as individuals, change the direction of our lives. In ‘The School of Charity’ Evelyn Underhill put this very succinctly: 10

...what we believe about that Reality will rule our relation to it.

Perhaps initially we have all taken tentative step on the spiritual path without any understanding of the reality of the Spirit World. However, as we delve deeper into what a spiritual life entails, we will feel the need to open the door which leads to understanding of this realm to which we will all eventually travel. One of the most renowned Russian monks and mystics in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Seraphim of Sarov, according to the spiritual author Iulia de Beausobre, went through this stage during his life: 11

There had been a time long ago, when Serafim's interests were multiple and varied. His thirst for knowledge was then all-embracing. More recently, in his flight Godward, he experienced the vastness of the immutable, all-comprising world of spirit.

On this, Estelle Roberts’ spirit guide, Red Cloud, said: 12

Do not go searching for the kingdom of heaven here and there, but know that at this very moment, as you count time, it is here with you.

Another teaching spirit, White Eagle, suggested that we use our emerging spiritual insight and: 13

Endeavour as you look on any physical form to look into that form and on the spirit. See it in the very roots of the trees, in the trunk, branches and leaves. See the white light rising as the sap rises. See this phenomenon taking place in the flowers and bushes and trees and all nature. Look always for the spirit behind or within all form. Become ‘en rapport’ with this God-life in everything. Realise it in the air you breathe, in the water you drink and bathe in; see it in the sky, in the winds, in the air; see it in the fire. Cultivate this inner gift; call it, if you like, imagination, but remember that imagination is the bridge which will take man across physical matter into the etheric and indeed into the celestial world.

The implication that this world of spirits is around us brings many other additional questions around our, so called, sixth sense and psychic awareness. But beware of getting hooked up on the phenomena – clairvoyance, etc. - which surround investigation into the

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Spirit World. Stephen Hobhouse, whose early years were influenced by his family of reformers and progressive politicians, warned us all against wanting to develop our psychic powers: 14

It would indeed be wonderful to have a trustworthy psychic sense of the unseen. But on the whole I am glad to be without it. Its presence may be a severe strain on the nervous system and its fascination might lessen one's capacity to share in the duties, joys and sorrows of everyday life.

I don’t agree completely with Stephen’s reticence, but I do recognise that development of psychic skills for their own sake will divert anyone from their true spiritual pathway. Being wary of psychic (as opposed to spiritual) development was considered by the medium Alan Crossley, who wrote: 15

With regard to the development of the psychic faculties, it is important to decide and ascertain the purpose which motivates the desire for such development. If the intention is a good one, it is essential that the individual acquires as much knowledge of the powers and forces involved as possible.

...and by ‘good’ intentions Alan is warning the reader against making the acquisition and enhancement of psychic skills the objective of their life.

I will refrain from suggesting other avenues for research and investigation but leave it up to you to discover the right pathway for you. I will offer one word of advice; look for those who have experienced the thing that you are looking for rather than those who are just knowledgeable about it; spiritual development is experiential.

What you will soon realise is the inner urge to ‘know’ and to ‘experience’. Somehow this seems to be inherent within our psyche; our soul. It creates in us innovative ways of discovery as the British theoretical physicist and author Stephen Hawkins recorded in his book ‘The Universe in a Nutshell’: 16

Our quest for discovery fuels our creativity in all fields, not just science.

Of this desire for spiritual enlightenment, Evelyn Underhill remarked of the mystics: 17

"Finite as we are," they say - and here they speak not for themselves, but for the race - "lost though we seem to be in the woods or in the wide air's wilderness, in this world of time and of chance, we have still, like the strayed animals or like the migrating birds, our homing instinct. … we seek. That is a fact. We seek a city still out of sight. In the contrast with this goal, we live. But if this be so, then already we possess something of Being even in our finite seeking. For the readiness to seek is already something of an attainment, even if a poor one."

There is restlessness in our soul which emerges as a need to know about life and all spiritual matters. This was confirmed by Silver Birch in one of his points of guidance: 18

The spirit is restless because it is part of the creative power of all life, always seeking new outlets, and thus it cannot feel content.

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This perhaps is just a way of reiterating what has already been documented over the millennia. The New Testament (Eccl. 3:11) tells us, as noted by John Eldredge, that: 19

...God has 'set eternity' in our hearts.

This latent drive to understand comes to the fore in some but not all people. I have no idea what brings it to the surface, but some, like the Jesuit Gerard W Hughes, believe it to be an inherent religious spirituality: 20

People with a truly religious spirit are always searching and are sufficiently confident to question, because the strength of their religion lies in the living God, their rock, refuge and strength, rather than in any particular views they may hold.

…and Morton Kelsey, an Episcopal priest, Jungian therapist, counsellor and religious writer, believed that: 21

People do not set out to explore new territory unless they are convinced something is there to set foot on. ... Exploring the inner world is not very different.

The problem is that the questions to which we would like to know the answers are often way beyond our ability to understand them. Because of this, some of the ‘truths’ we discover will only be revealed in their sketchiest outline. However, this does not mean that we can give up the search. We must never stop looking and searching as the Gospel of Thomas suggests: 22

Permit whoever seeks never to cease from seeking until he finds.

The quest is never ending. Once you have found what you feel is a sufficient answer to a question, another question will emerge. It is similar to crossing a mountain range when once you have reached one summit, another looms before you. In fact you will never cross the range whilst on earth; it is an eternal journey. Of ‘The Secret Oral Teachings in Tibetan Buddhist Sects’ Alexandra David-Néel understood that these teachings advocate that we have a: 23

…strong will to know all that is possible to know, never to halt on the road to investigation which extends infinitely far before the feet of the explorer.

The 14 th century mystic Meister Eckhart believed that this way: 24

…like any authentic spiritual way, is one of continual searching.

The well respected teacher of spiritual knowledge, Silver Birch, also gave us a word of warning regarding our spiritual quest: 25

If you ever become satisfied with the progress you are making, then you are making no progress. If you are discontented, searching, seeking for new fields to conquer, then you are evolving.

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However, because of the limitations of human intellect and the current state of our evolved ability to understand, we can never wholly comprehend even one of the Cosmic Laws in its entirety. We can scratch the surface and arrive at a situation where we have ‘sufficient’ knowledge and experience to recognise the existence of one of the Laws and probably appreciate the impact that it may have on our life. I think this was the essence of Evelyn Underhill’s comment: 26

...showing us that these truths are many-levelled, and will only yield up their unspeakable richness and beauty to those who take the trouble to dig below the surface, and seek the Treasure which is still hidden in the field.

We can only discover those truths which we are able to comprehend. It is no use trying to understand calculus if you do not understand algebra. Therefore our quest may involve learning the basics before we are able to accept further knowledge. Discarnate entities from the Spirit World have been trying to tell us this for years. For example, in 1913 the Rev. G. Vale Owen through automatic writing was told that: 27

No doubt some there could see more clearly than I, because we are able to see, and also to understand, in proportion to our stage of advancement.

…and Major J H Webster from a similar source wrote: 28

It has been truly said that man cannot grasp anything nobler than the age in which he lives enables him to do; it must always be in proportion to his mentality.

The greatest revelations seem to be made at times when we least expect it. I can only liken it to when you are trying to remember someone’s name and are unable to do so, no matter how hard you try. Then, minutes, hours or days later, when not thinking about it at all, the name comes to you. This seems to be how much inspirational knowledge arrives in our minds. Evelyn Underhill wrote in her book ‘The Spiritual Life’: 29

It is because of our own limitations that we seem only to receive Him in the trickles. Thus an attitude of humble and grateful acceptance, a self-opening, an expectant waiting, comes next to adoration as the second essential point in the development of the spiritual life. In that life, the spiritually hungry are always filled, if not always with the precise kind of food they expected…

…and the 14 th century hermit and mystic Julian of Norwich explained that we must approach our spiritual development in a tranquil and peaceful way and not try to force the issue: 30

And we must pray to be like our brothers and sisters who are saints in heaven and who only want what God wants, then all our joy will be in God and we shall be content both with what is hidden and with what is shown; for I saw our Lord's purpose quite clearly; the more anxious we are to discover his secret knowledge about this or anything else, the further we shall be from knowing it.

Of course, when revelation comes in this way sometimes it is difficult to accept. Often we have to ponder and use our reason before we are able to assimilate this new knowledge. The founder of Theosophy, Madam Blavatsky (who died in 1891), in 1922 appeared

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:12:17 15.11 Spiritual Development – Search for Understanding Page 7 of 10 through trance mediumship and said: 31

I do not know why, but when truth comes to us we shut it out. Truth is always hidden. We have to search to find it. Theories and dogmas seem to have more chance in the world than truth. Every one has some manifestations but hides them instead of acknowledging them.

We must not do this; we must have a mind open to new ideas. We must use our logic and reason to assess them. In The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, this 16 th century mystic refers to St Paul on this point who said: 32

Faith is not knowledge which enters by any of the senses, but is only the consent given by the soul to that which enters through the ear.

…where I interpret the words ‘consent given by the soul’ as the application of reason to the new idea. Although Alan Crossley used the following words around the development of psychic faculties, it will also apply to spiritual development: 33

Like the acquisition of knowledge, it is constantly necessary to maintain progress and advance in understanding of the many new revelations man is subject to in his evolvement. An open mind is a receptive mind.

Thus, when we do find a new truth or the germ of a new idea, what a joy we experience. It is as though, as described in the Sacred Tibetan Teachings on Death and Liberation, a light was switched on: 34

Just as when a lamp is raised up one can see things that could not be seen before, with these esoteric doctrines it is as if one had been raised up the lamp of self- originated wisdom.

We can all get to this point provided we stick to the search for understanding. Within ‘The Gnostic Gospels’, the Gospel of Thomas stressed the need for this tenacity: 35

He who earnestly and persistently seeks, shall find! To him who knocks hard, the door will be opened.

But this depends not just on the search but on how you live your life and how you are striving to meet your Life’s Objectives. There is a balance to life that we must not forget which will determine our progress, as Evelyn Underhill remarked: 36

The progress of man depends both on conserving and on exploring: and any full incorporation of that life which will serve man's spiritual interests now, must find place for both.

The search for understanding will take many turns and sometimes will lead us into blind alleys or cul-de-sacs. We must be sufficiently flexible to realise this and return to our main spiritual pathway. We have to accept that our Philosophy of Life will change, often dramatically when new concepts are understood. For example, if, through experience, you

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:12:17 15.11 Spiritual Development – Search for Understanding Page 8 of 10 come to accept the fact that a spirit world does exist you must weigh this new knowledge against all that you currently know – you don’t start from a clean sheet of paper. Morton Kelsey described it as: 37

While this [knowledge of the existence of a spirit world] comes by experience, still one does not start from scratch, any more than a scientist would blindly forget everything in textbooks and try to reconstruct it all every time an experiment is performed. The scientist and the explorer in the spiritual world both need the accumulated wisdom of the past, even when it has to be questioned and sometimes brought up to date.

This search is the only way to gain understanding. There are no shortcuts. Each of us has, as Dharmachari Subhuti, who achieved a lot in terms of support for Western Buddhism, explained, we have to stimulate: 38

…the unwinding of the spring of meaning in our lives.

…and remember that in order to attain an appreciation of life’s underpinning truths, according to the Belgian academic Emile Cammaerts, we must realise that: 39

There was no short cut possible.

And the way each of us goes about the learning process will be different. You can use teachers, mentors, books, discussion, and inspiration from the Spirit World but, at the end of the day, the responsibility to pursue these cosmic truths is yours and yours alone. Of course, we must bear in mind the advice that the 13th century Persian poet and Sufi Jalal- ud-Din Rumi gave to us: 40

There are many ways to search but the object of the search is always the same.

Finally we will arrive. I don’t know where, or when or how but rest assured that once we start the process we will be helped all the way. How will we know when we have arrived? Julie Soskin suggests that: 41

...when there are no questions there is stillness, and only when your questions cease do you truly understand.

I will again quote from Robert Louis Stevenson:

To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive and the true success is to labour

Bon Voyage …

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1 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part ONE: The Mystic Fact: Chapter I - The Point of Departure, (Pg 21) 2 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XIII: Orthodoxy - Experience, November 18, 1919, (Pg 357) 3 Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island, Burns & Oates, 1997. 13: "My Soul Remembered God", (Pg 207) 4 Diana Cooper, A Little Light on the Spiritual Laws, Hodder & Stoughton, 2000. Chapter Three: The Law of Request, (Pg 15) 5 Beatrice Russell, Beyond the Veils through Meditation, Lincoln Philosophical Research Foundation, 1986. Divine Living, (Pg 33) 6 Timothy Keller, The Reason for God, Hodder & Stoughton, 2009. Introduction, (Pg xvii) 7 Kathleen Pond(ed), The Spirit of the Spanish Mystics, Burns & Oates,1958. Alonso Rodriguez - Of the Importance of Spiritual Reading, and some ways of performing it well and with profit. (Pg 117 / 118) 8 Michael E. Tymn, The Articulate Dead, Galde Press, 2008. Part II: The Mediumship of Leonora Piper - Nine: Boston Mayor Communicates through Mrs Piper, (Pg 106) 9 Arthur Conan Doyle, The New Revelation, Hodder & Stoughton, 1918. Chapter IV Problems and Limitations, (Pg 136 / 137) 10 Evelyn Underhill, The School of Charity, Longmans, Green and Co, 1934. Part I - Chapter I - I believe, (Pg 6) 11 Iulia de Beausobre, Flame in the Snow - A Russian Legend, Fount, 1979. Part Two: Return Manward - The Other Face, (Pg 119) 12 Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud Speaks, Tudor Press, 1992. Chapter Seventeen: Problem of Time, (Pg 83) 13 White Eagle, Spiritual Unfoldment 2, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1994. VIII: In Harmony with Life, (Pg 101) 14 Stephen Henry Hobhouse, A Discourse on the Life to Come, Independent Press Limited, 1954. Chapter I: The Experience of Dying: The Angels, (Pg 9) 15 Alan E Crossley, The Enigma of Psychic Phenomena, Alan E Crossley, 1974. Chapter 5 Psychic Development, (Pg 81) 16 Stephen Hawking, The Universe in a Nutshell, Bantam Press, 2001. Foreword, (Pg viii) 17 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part ONE: The Mystic Fact: Chapter I - The Point of Departure, (Pg 23) 18 Anne Dooley, Guidance from Silver Birch, Spiritualist Press, 1966. Chapter Five: The Fog of Matter, (Pg 52) 19 John Eldredge, The Journey of Desire - Searching for the Life We've Only Dreamed Of, Thomas Nelson, 2001. Chapter Seven: The Great Restoration - More than Church Forever, (Pg 111) 20 Gerard W Hughes, God in all Things, Hodder & Stoughton, 2004. Chapter Two: What is Holiness? Hunger for Knowledge and Truth as a Sign of Our Holiness, (Pg 23) 21 Morton T Kelsey, The Other Side of Silence, SPCK, 1985. Part Four: The Use of Images in Meditation - 13. Exploring the Nature of the Spiritual World. (Pg 163) 22 Alan Jacobs, The Gnostic Gospels, Watkins Publishing, 2006. The Gospel of Thomas, (Pg 19) 23 Alexandra David-Néel, The Secret Oral Teachings in Tibetan Buddhist Sects, City Lights Books, 1981. Chapter VII, (Pg 123) 24 Cyprian Smith, The Way of Paradox [spiritual life as taught by Meister Eckhart], Darton Longman and Todd, 1996. 9 Echoes, (Pg 129) 25 Anne Dooley, Guidance from Silver Birch, Spiritualist Press, 1966. Chapter Five: The Fog of Matter, (Pg 52) 26 Evelyn Underhill, The School of Charity, Longmans, Green and Co, 1934. Preface, (Pg xi) 27 Rev. G. Vale Owen, The Life Beyond the Veil, Thornton Butterworth, 1929. Chapter I: The Lowlands of Heaven - Tuesday, September 23, 1913. (Pg 20) 28 Major J H Webster, Through Clouds of Doubt, The Psychic Book Club, 1939. Chapter XI - At Grips with the Problem, (Pg 128) 29 Evelyn Underhill, The Spiritual Life, Mowbray, 1984. Part Two: The Spiritual Life as Communion with God, (Pg 66 / 67) 30 Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, Penguin Books, 1998. The Long Text – 33, (Pg 88) 31 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XV: Theosophy - Experience, November 1, 1922, (Pg 420) 32 The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1947. Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book II. Chapter III, (Pg 72) 33 Alan E Crossley, The Enigma of Psychic Phenomena, Alan E Crossley, 1974. Chapter 3 Clairvoyance and Precognition, (Pg 52)

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34 Sacred Tibetan Teachings on Death and Liberation, Prism Press, 1999. III The Doctrine Of The Six Lights, (Pg 79) 35 Alan Jacobs, The Gnostic Gospels, Watkins Publishing, 2006. The Gospel of Thomas, (Pg 46) 36 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter V Institutional Religion and the Life of the Spirit, (Pg 133) 37 Morton T Kelsey, The Other Side of Silence, SPCK, 1985. Part Two: The Basic Climate for Meditation - 4: The Spiritual World as the Soul's Soil, (Pg 38) 38 Dharmachari Subhuti, The Mythic Context, Padmaloka Books, 1990. The World in a Grain of Sand, (Pg 3 para 3) 39 Emile Cammaerts, The Flower of Grass, The Cresset Press, 1944. Chapter iv - Mediaevalism and Humanism, (Pg 75) 40 Andrew Harvey, The Way of Passion, Souvenir Press, 2002. Chapter 1 - Journey to Love, (Pg 11) 41 Julie Soskin, Transformation, College of Psychic Studies, 1995. Chapter 13 - The Union of Spirit and Matter, (Pg 114)

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15.12: Spiritual Development and Fate

How much control do we have over our destiny, or what is the relationship between predestination and free will?

There does seem to be a plan in place but not the sort of plan that we are used to. Most plans can be sequenced, enabled and will have a specific outcome that we can understand. I do not believe that the ‘plan’ for the Universe, and hence for humanity, and for us as individuals is like this. The plan of which we are part was conceived billions of years ago. How or why it started I do not know, but I do believe that, for some reason, something began and a number of Cosmic Laws were created at the same time. It is these laws that the Universe has to follow. That is the overall plan and it cannot be thwarted. The Creator of it, I refer to as God; you may have other names for. Malcolm Muggeridge, a tart-tongued agnostic for most of his life who converted to Catholicism at 80, agreed with the overall concept of a plan and wrote: 1

Thus, reality sorts itself out, like film coming into sync, and everything that exists, from the tiniest atom to the illimitable universe in which our tiny earth revolves, everything happens, from the most trivial event to the most seemingly momentous, makes one pattern, tells one story, is comprehended in one prayer: Thy will be done.

Islam has a similar perspective on the all comprehending, all acting Allah. Margaret Smith in her book ‘Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East’ summarised the ideas behind the Qur’an and wrote: 2

Therefore, all who have wealth should treat it only as a trust and should be generous in giving to the poor and needy, while those who suffer affliction should bear it patiently; the believer should be concerned neither with prosperity nor adversity, but only with the Will of his Lord.

If this is the case then we can agree with the sentiment behind the words of the 16 th century Italian Protestant Reformation clergyman Jerome Zanchius, who, in his book ‘Absolute Predestination’, wrote: 3

Whatever comes to pass, comes to pass by virtue of this absolute omnipotent will of God, which is the primary and supreme cause of all things.

…and he went on to add: 4

The purpose of God does not seem to differ at all from predestination, that being, as well as this, an eternal, free and unchangeable act of His will.

Whilst I accept the premise of Christine Page: 5

For remember, everything is part of the Greater Plan.

I think that Jerome Zanchius goes too far; it assumes a rigid plan where every infinitesimal element is set in advance. Everything cannot be so predetermined – we are neither

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:12:44 15.12 Spiritual Development and Fate Page 2 of 10 marionettes nor automata. The discarnate being who used John Scott as a channel, said: 6

Reject the belief that all is laid down, fixed and predetermined in the mind of the Ruler and Administrator of the universe. That theory, besides being sterile from your point of view, virtually transforms the Great Power into a machine.

In a similar vein, part of a conversation recorded in the book ‘Out of the Body’ by John Oxenham confirms what part free will has to play: 7

"Isn't it amazing?" "What?" I asked. "That it's allowed to go on at all. We've made such a horrible mess of things. One cannot help wondering at times why He doesn't make an end of it all, and start afresh." "That is surely amazing enough to us ... but we've got to remember that He sees the whole matter from beginning to end, while we see very little, and understand less .. Besides," I went on, as I thought it out. "all this mess has come about through Him entrusting Man with the mighty adventure of free will. I don't see how he could have done otherwise, unless we were all to be just puppets, dancing on strings as He pulled them. ..

And in the book ‘Destiny of Souls: New Case Studies of Life Between Lives’, Michael Newton used the same analogy: 8

Fate does not decree that a certain situation has to come out a particular way. We are not puppets on a string.

…and he also added: 9

Reincarnation would mean nothing if all life was predetermined.

However, many mystics seem to believe that their God controls everything and has a direct influence on every aspect of our lives. The Trappist monk Thomas Merton gave this impression when he wrote: 10

Therefore each particular being, in its individuality, its concrete nature and entity, with all its own characteristics and its private qualities and its own inviolable identity, gives glory to God by being precisely what He wants it to be here and now...

In line with this, the 18 th century mystic and visionary Emanuel Swedenborg informed us that: 11

There cannot be in any man a grain of will and prudence that is his own. They [angels] say that if there were such a grain in any man neither heaven nor hell would continue to exist, and the whole human race would perish. ... Another reason, they [angels] say, is that to think and to will from self is the essential Divine principle, while to think and will from God is the essential human principle; and what is essentially Divine cannot be appropriated to any man, for in that case man would be God.

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I do not believe this to be the case. Certainly there is a set of events to experience and lessons to be learned for each of us which seem to dovetail with similar outline plans for others. So how does the plan work – to what degree is our life planned? Keep in mind the point that Beth Collier reminded us of: 12

The master plan is not revealed. We are only required to do our part.

Although we can agree with Michael Newton’s conclusion that : 13

...there is a grand design to life and afterlife.

Our part in this design is set in the context of two factors. Firstly, we act through the existence of the Cosmic Laws which apply to everything in the universe, and secondly to the fact that before we were born on earth, we agreed to some major elements in the life that we were to be born into. In summary of this, another past life regression researcher Brien Weiss discovered that: 14

Just as the soul does a review at the end of a life, so it seems to make a life preview before we are born. It plans the life. I'm going to work on compassion or empathy or nonviolence, for example. It sees how the life is set up, whom we are going to meet, who will help us along the spiritual path, and how we are going to help them. (It's complicated because there is an interaction with other souls, and they have their plans, too.) The people we meet and the experiences that are set up help us to learn - this is destiny.

So many books that I have read around the subject of spiritual progress and, in particular, life after death, have also expressed a belief in life before death within which the learning plans for the soul were established and agreed. The Lancashire ex-social worker Pamela Young, based upon her own spiritual experiences, understood that: 15

Everyone has their own unique path, planned before they returned to this material world. Along the path you will awaken to the divine light within.

I can certainly see evidence of this if I look back over my life and see that everything seems to happen for the best. Robert Graham, talking to us from the Spirit World through his daughter, noted that: 16

Your dear ones in this side of the river have perfect faith in Him, and know that all is planned for your good.

…and the insight that a retrospective look at one’s life provides was observed by the medium Stephen O’Brien: 17

Right along my young pathway, as I look back over my shoulder, the pieces of some inexplicable plan seem to have all fallen into their rightful place.

I’m sure that we can all, with hindsight, agree with Stephen’s observation and those of the Christian agnostic Leslie Weatherhead: 18

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Reaching various cross-roads in my life I have often been uncertain which way to take, and I have just had to follow what light I had from common sense, good advice and careful thought, and then make a decision and hope for the best. It is only as I look back that I feel there was a "Hand that guided and a Heart that planned".

Another interesting point is to look at those situations where spiritual healing has little apparent effect. The Welsh healer Jack Angelo recognised this: 19

Another factor which healing cannot work against is the patient's destiny.

An example of this was given by Martin Israel who, talking about three dear friends, said that they all: 20

...had to undergo a prolonged test of physical disease before they were relieved by death. Had their lives not been prolonged they could not have worked out what they came into the world to achieve.

Another example, away from the healing context, was provided by the Jungian analyst Harry Wilmer in ‘Quest for Silence’. At the time he was trying to understand why he had developed a ‘writer’s block’, and he concluded that: 21

...the writing silence that had struck me was the hand of fate: a warning to stop trying to do so many things, and stop trying to do too much for other people.

This sort of event is not uncommon. I have known people to be stopped in their tracks by their friends in spirit in order to force them to redirect their energies or to conserve them. So follow your planned path carefully and you will maximise your progress. Our development as a spiritual being ought, therefore, to be in accordance with this overall plan for us. However, we have to be careful not to let the idea of destiny result in us leaving our life in ‘fate’s hands’. We must not sit back and let this idea take over our lives. We have an active role to play in shaping our own lives. Thus, whilst, as the American academic and theologian William Clemmons commented: 22

Abandonment is a vulnerability to life, believing that the Father knows our needs, our capabilities, and the direction in which our lives should go, even better than we do.

…we are the active component and instrumental in shaping our spiritual future. Carl Jung in his autobiography ‘Memories, Dreams, Reflections’ recognised the importance of destiny: 23

It was only after the illness that I understood how important it is to affirm one's own destiny. In this way we forge an ego that does not break down when incomprehensible things happen; an ego that endures, that endures the truth, and that is capable of coping with the world and with fate. Then, to experience defeat is also to experience victory. Nothing is disturbed neither inwardly nor outwardly, for one's own continuity has withstood the current of life and of time. But that can come to pass only when one does not meddle inquisitively with the workings of fate.

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That is OK as far as it goes; we ought not to try to affect our destiny. But, how does this interact with our free will? There seems to be a balance between this deterministic aspect and our ability to decide what we ought to do in any one given situation. In ‘Life Between Lives’, the American Michael Newton described the results of his regression therapy which revealed that: 24

…there is no certainty of any event in future time on Earth because then our lives would be totally deterministic, with no free will. The laboratory of Earth would be a poor testing school if we were governed by fate.

If we consider that not all events in our life are predestined but only those few from which we should learn our lessons, then we could agree with the 11 th century Sufi Al Ghazzali, who expressed the belief that: 25

...whatever has been preordained will befall the individual.

Drayton Thomas also believed that part of our life is planned with our consent: 26

Part of our lives is planned, but we are free co-operators. If we do not interfere, the plan outworks for us. There is no forcing, but instinct guides us to co-operate with it. One is free to fall in or to step aside.

Based on her knowledge gained from her guides and others in the Spirit World, the medium Laura Lynne Jackson recognised that: 27

Our existence is mapped out by a dazzling array of destination points that are in place before we are born. These are the points of fate – a continuum of all the crucial events decisive moments, and significant people that constitute our time here. I think of them as stars in the night sky, a collection of beacons spread across a broad canvas. The Other Side has shown me that we create the actions that move us from one point of fate to the next. We are the ones who connect the dots. We make the decisions that move us from one point to another, and in the process we shape and create the picture of our lives.

Many authors and theological commentators have tried to reconcile fate and free will. I will give you three quotations from the book ‘Same Soul, Many Bodies’ by Brian Weiss which may help you to realise my own take on this dilemma. Firstly that there may be a link, however tenuous, between fate and free will: 28

It is free will that lets us choose what we eat, our cars, our clothes, our vacations. Free will allows us to select our partners as well, though it is probably destiny that draws us to them and they to us.

Secondly, our free will can lead us to advance or regress spiritually: 29

The correct application of our free will could carry us along the path of our destiny. On the other hand, free choices that are not correct could carry us away from our destiny, delaying our spiritual progress and complicating our lives.

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And thirdly, that we must allow and recognise that both free will and destiny must walk hand in hand: 30

Destiny and free will seem to exist together. There is an intelligence, a wisdom, or a consciousness that knows how events and relationships will turn out. Hamlet calls it a destiny "that shapes our ends." We on earth don't know how they will end, but we can affect how they will turn out for us both later in our life and in our lives to come by our present actions and behaviours - by our free will.

Ian Lawton, another spiritual researcher, put this same point very simply: 31

Our lives are not predetermined, and we have complete free will to depart from our 'plan'.

It is worthy to note that our individual lives fit into a greater whole. The relationship between you and the lives of all those people around you is very complicated but very real nonetheless. The implication is that you, through your application of free will, can affect your community. Roy Dixon-Smith, a British career military officer serving in the Indian army as Lieut.-Colonel, hinted at this when he stated that: 32

The fate that befalls us is the fate caused by our own selves, collectively and individually.

…and, more dramatically, from Silver Birch: 33

The universe is one in which every aspect blends and harmonises and merges into the other.

If there is an element of a plan for each of us then perhaps someone with psychic abilities could be able to ‘see’ into the future. Stephen O'Brien warned against this: 34

I maintain that survival is best proven by relating past events and present circumstances mainly - the future is not really the job of a public medium.

I think this is based mainly on the fact that those discarnate beings who provide messages through mediums are our loved ones and not necessarily those who have great spiritual knowledge. With this in mind Stephen went on to add: 35

The more evolved souls in the afterlife may have developed this ability [to see the future] , but I don't think many ordinary folk we have loved and known may be able to foresee events ..

This prognostication ability may be there in some spirit beings, as Harry Emerson identified: 36

...the inhabitants of the spirit world can see a little further ahead than we can...

One of the avid researchers using past life regression, Helen Wambach, has learned a great deal about the Spirit World which resulted in the following view of knowing our future: 37

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Although all of us occasionally have glimpses of the future, I feel very strongly that it is wiser to live in the here-and-now. If the future is preordained, what is the value of knowing it ahead of time? If the future can be changed by our own free will, there is no way to 'foresee' it, because it is not yet set.

I agree with the conclusion; I believe that we should not even attempt to look into our future as it somehow negates our ability to be spiritually effective and our use of our free will. We should try, at all times, to do our best. We should, as far as possible, attempt to discover our Life’s Objectives and try to achieve these goals whilst at the same time living within the overall objective of helping humanity as best we can within the auspices of the Cosmic Laws that govern us. Beth Collier described life in an interesting way: 38

Sometimes the inner journey is like a thriller story where sealed orders are given as each stage is reached, but where only the masterminding boss can see the whole picture and the participants are only expected to follow the orders at each stage and be confident that the whole plan will, in fact, work.

If we can accept that some of our significant events in our life are pre-planned then we ought to accept whatever life throws at us with resignation. The Norwegian intellectual Jostein Gaarder in his excellent introduction to philosophy ‘Sophie's World’ provided us with a Stoical view of the world which: 39

...emphasized that all natural processes, such as sickness and death, follow the unbreakable laws of nature. Man must therefore learn to accept his destiny. Nothing happens accidentally. Everything happens through necessity, so it is of little use to complain when fate comes knocking at the door. One must also accept the happy events of life unperturbed, they thought. ... Even today we use the term 'stoic calm' about someone who does not let his feelings take over.

Therefore we must look at all occurrences as being beneficial even though they may initially appear to be detrimental or inconsequential to our spiritual progression. Much of what happens to us may be more for the benefit of our community rather than ourselves. Our lives, being part of something much bigger, must develop not just the individual but much more, as Evelyn Underhill realised: 40

...and that the spiritual life of man does not consist in mere individual betterment, or assiduous attention to his own soul, but in a free and unconditional response to that Spirit’s pressure and call, whatever the cost may be.

As usual, this interconnectedness of everything that happens can be described using a metaphor. Laurie Worger’s simile was that of a carpet: 41

The overall pattern or plan resembles that for a silk carpet of infinite beauty and size, hand-woven from millions of different coloured threads of every conceivable hue. Each correlated, each in exactly the right place to create and produce that which is of inconceivable beauty. God's plan for humanity in all its complexity wherein each individual has his rightful place and purpose.

In all of this, we are not alone. If our objectives and aspirations are of the right order, then we can rely on the support and help of our guides and friends in the Spirit World. Some

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:12:44 15.12 Spiritual Development and Fate Page 8 of 10 people have momentous events in their lives, often ‘Damascus events’, which change their whole future. Not long after this happened to the writer Hazel Courteney, the spirit of Diana, Princess of Wales said to her: 42

We are trying to protect you, everything that has happened in your life until now has prepared you for this moment.

For most of us, however, changes to our lives are much more subtle and often infinitesimal. Nevertheless, our guides and helpers from the Spirit World are working just as hard to support us on our spiritual journey. And it is not just our individual lives that are influenced by Spirit. Silver Birch has, in the past, stressed the guiding light of Spirit in the lives of mankind: 43

The power of the spirit operates as part of a plan. For ages, it tried to be expressed through the religions of the day. Here and there a receptive instrument was found. The result was what the ignorant regarded as miracles, but which were vital demonstrations of spiritual laws at work. These were the same phenomena that you have witnessed in the presence of powerful mediums today, the same healing, due to the same spirit of which you are instruments. It is the same spirit because it all emanates from an unchanging Great Spirit. It is as simple as that.

…or as Stephen O'Brien put it: 44

For many years, elder discarnate minds had been quietly at work behind the scenes, carefully studying and planning certain events.

The influence of the Spirit World is limited. It cannot, according to Cosmic Law, change the decisions of any person on earth. They can influence but not directly act. Thus there is a balance in what Spirit can achieve which is expressed in words by Roy Dixon-Smith: 45

It is as absurd to imagine that we are puppets of the so-called astral world as that we are entirely cut off from its influence.

Finally, remember that your soul has been placed on the earth to learn certain lessons. These are planned in advance and you can use your free will to help or hinder this process. You are the one that determines your future, as Red Cloud said through the mediumship of Estelle Roberts: 46

...for you are individuals, each one seeking your own pathway, each one working out your own destiny.

...and as Nona, a spirit who last lived on earth over 3000 years ago in ancient Egypt, acknowledged: 47

I follow the line of my destiny, as you, I hope, will follow yours.

God speed your journey …

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1 Malcolm Muggeridge, A Third Testament, The Plough Publishing House, 2002. 2 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 2: Chapter VII - Asceticism and Mysticism in Orthodox Islam, (Pg 129) 3 Jerome Zanchius, Absolute Predestination, Sovereign Grace Book Club, Undated. Observations on the Divine Attributes; Position 6. (Pg 30) 4 Jerome Zanchius, Absolute Predestination, Sovereign Grace Book Club, Undated. The Doctrine of Absolute Predestination; stated and asserted. - Chapter I, (footnote Pg 61) 5 Christine R. Page, Spiritual Alchemy, C W Daniel Co, 2004. Chapter Nine - The Liberation of Energy, (Pg 176) 6 John Scott, I Lent a Hand to a Ghost, Psychic Press, 1950. Religion: (Pg 110 / 111) 7 John Oxenham, Out of the Body, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter VII, (Pg 44) 8 Michael Newton, Destiny of Souls: New Case Studies of Life Between Lives, Llewellyn Publications, 2005. 9: The Ring of Destiny, (Pg 361) 9 Michael Newton, Destiny of Souls: New Case Studies of Life Between Lives, Llewellyn Publications, 2005. 9: The Ring of Destiny, (Pg 371) 10 Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation, Hollis and Carter, 1949. Chapter 2 - Things in their Identity, (Pg 25) 11 Emanuel Swedenborg, Divine Providence, Swedenborg Society, 1949. Chapter X: The Divine Providence is equally with the wicked and with the good. (Pg 235 / 236) 12 Beth Collier, Beyond Words, Triangle, 1987. 9 You and me, (Pg 99 / 100) 13 Michael Newton, Journey of Souls, Llewellyn Publications, 2009. Introduction, (Pg 3) 14 Brian Leslie Weiss, Same Soul, Many Bodies, Piatkus, 2006. Chapter 10 - John: Free Will and Destiny, (Pg 151) 15 Pamela Young, Hope Street, Coronet, 2011. Part Four: The Work, (Pg 216) 16 Winifred Graham, More Letters From Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, 1943. The Most Abused Virtue, (Pg 28) 17 Stephen O'Brien, Visions of Another World, The Aquarian Press, 1989. 3 Whispering Voices, (Pg 50) 18 Leslie D Weatherhead, The Christian Agnostic, Hodder & Stoughton, 1966. Chapter IX: Providence and Care, (Pg 145) 19 Jack Angelo, Spiritual Healing - energy medicine for today, Element, 1991. 2: What Spiritual Healing Can Do for You, (Pg 26) 20 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 8: Strength in weakness, (Pg 62) 21 Harry Wilmer, Quest for Silence, Diamon, 2000. 8 Patience - The Great MAW, (Pg 155) 22 William Clemmons, Discovering the Depths, Triangle, 1989. 3 Letting Go My 'Isaacs', (Pg 32) 23 Carl Gustav Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Fontana, 1995. X Visions, (Pg 328 / 329) 24 Michael Newton, Life Between Lives, Llewellyn Publications, 2005. Part Five: Life Between Lives - Life and Body Selection, (Pg 177) 25 Al Ghazzali, The Book of Knowledge, SH. Muhammad Ashraf, 1991. Section VI On the evils of Knowledge .. (Pg 198) 26 C Drayton Thomas, Precognition and Human Survival, Psychic Press, Undated. Second Type of Forecast - Liverpool Street Station, (Pg 28) 27 Laura Lynne Jackson, The Light Between Us, Arrow Books, 2016. Part Three: 28 The Bonsai Tree, (Pg 211) 28 Brian Leslie Weiss, Same Soul, Many Bodies, Piatkus, 2006. Chapter 1 – Immortality, (Pg 16 / 17) 29 Brian Leslie Weiss, Same Soul, Many Bodies, Piatkus, 2006. Chapter 9 - Patrick: Security, (Pg 149) 30 Brian Leslie Weiss, Same Soul, Many Bodies, Piatkus, 2006. Chapter 10 - John: Free Will and Destiny, (Pg 151) 31 Ian Lawton, The Wisdom of the Soul, RSP (Rational Spirituality Press), 2007. Introduction, (Pg 9) 32 Roy Dixon-Smith, New Light on Survival, Rider & Co, 1952. Part Two: Chapter VII: Philosophy, (Pg 137) 33 Anne Dooley, Guidance from Silver Birch, Spiritualist Press, 1966. Chapter Five: The Fog of Matter, (Pg 47) 34 Stephen O'Brien, Visions of Another World, The Aquarian Press, 1989. 16 Behind the Scenes, (Pg 198) 35 Stephen O'Brien, Visions of Another World, The Aquarian Press, 1989. 17 Questions and Answers, (Pg 210) 36 Harry Emerson, Listen My Son, The Psychic Book Club, 1945. Chapter Nineteen: "A Great Clairvoyant", (Pg 101) 37 Helen Wambach, Reliving Past Lives, Arrow Books, 1980. 2. More Strange Adventures, (Pg 28) 38 Beth Collier, Beyond Words, Triangle, 1987. 4 Silence, (Pg 36) 39 Jostein Gaarder, Sophie's World, Phoenix, 1995. Hellenism, (Pg 103)

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40 Evelyn Underhill, The Spiritual Life, Mowbray, 1984. Part One: What is Spiritual Life? (Pg 30) 41 Laurie Worger, My Treasures For You, The Percival Book Company, 1965. Chapter 5: Concerning the Cosmic Christ, (Pg 60) 42 Hazel Courteney, Divine Intervention, Cico Books, 2002. Chapter 3: The Death, (Pg 33) 43 Stella Storm, Philosophy of Silver Birch, The Spiritual Truth Press, 1998. Chapter Eight: Religion - As seen by Silver Birch. (Pg 82) 44 Stephen O'Brien, Visions of Another World, The Aquarian Press, 1989. 1 The Spirit Calls, (Pg 15) 45 Roy Dixon-Smith, New Light on Survival, Rider & Co, 1952. Part One: Chapter II: Outline of Mental Mediumship, (Pg 49 / 50) 46 Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud Speaks, Tudor Press, 1992. Chapter One: What Follows Death? (Pg 5) 47 A. J. Howard Hulme and Frederic H. Wood, Ancient Egypt Speaks, Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XI - The Truth of Life, (Pg 169)

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15.13: Spiritual Development and Wisdom

Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.

…as the Jesuit priest Gerard Hughes stated.1 Wisdom underpins our ability to think right and act right. It is an understanding which is based upon knowledge, experience and insight. In its full form it is a very rare characteristic. Agnes Sanford in her book ‘Healing Gifts of the Spirit’ told us of Webster’s unabridged dictionary definition of wisdom: 2

The ability to judge soundly and deal sagaciously with facts.

I would rather use an expanded version from the on-line Wikipedia which states that wisdom: 3

…involves an understanding of people, things, events, situations, and the willingness as well as the ability to apply perception, judgment, and action in keeping with the understanding of what is the optimal course of action. It often requires control of one's emotional reactions so that the universal principle of reason prevails to determine one's action. In short, wisdom is a disposition to find the truth coupled with an optimum judgment as to what actions should be taken in order to deliver the correct outcome.

Many other people have offered their own, often religious, description of wisdom. Philo of Alexandria who was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher born in Alexandria about 20 BC, according to Aldous Huxley, set wisdom as the highest virtue: 4

The rout and destruction of the passions, while a good, is not the ultimate good; the discovery of Wisdom is the surpassing good.

Frederic W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research, through the automatic writing of Geraldine Cummins, gave a very brief definition of wisdom which was: 5

…right judgment concerning truth…

The sinologist Arthur Waley, in discussing the life of the Chinese philosopher, Chuang Tzu, recorded an ancient Chinese rustic saying: 6

The crowd cares for gain, The honest man for fame, The good man values success, But the Wise Man, his soul.

Thus wisdom is a fundamental goal for each of us; it should stand tall with all the other aspirations that we have. Wisdom should inform all our actions, as identified in The Serenity Prayer. This is the common name for an originally untitled prayer by the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. The best-known form is:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

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Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference.

Wisdom is not easy to come by and whatever degrees of it that we manage to gain during this life, it will be our personal task to extend it in the next. This aspect of spiritual development was discussed by the partial founder of the newspaper and the International Institute for Psychical Research, : 7

It is therefore the duty of each one, individually, to live here on earth so that this next stage on the journey may be in truth a further step on the road to the fullness of wisdom which, however many the by-paths we traverse in error, we should, if we have the desire, reach in the end.

The greater truths that we understand and live by in our lives, the greater wisdom we will exhibit. This notion was captured within the book ‘Unto Thee I Grant’: 8

Learn to esteem life as it ought; then art thou near the pinnacle of wisdom.

I have always believed that knowledge, for its own sake, is not relevant to our lives. John Blofeld, a writer on Taoism and Chinese Buddhism, dismissed the relationship of knowledge to wisdom: 9

Every step along the path brings an increase in wisdom - which has nothing whatever to do with knowledge.

I have a slightly different view. Knowledge needs to be gained for a purpose. It is, therefore, only when we use knowledge in our lives that we gained experience from its use. Thus, it is from combining the two elements of knowledge and experience that we will develop wisdom. This is true in both the physical and spiritual contexts. Of this Agnes Sanford wrote: 10

Let us therefore seek the gift of wisdom not that we shall be like someone else, not that we shall forsake our work and seek something more 'spiritual' - but that we shall do a better job in whatever our kind of work is according to our temperament, our natural gifts, and our opportunities.

In the spiritual aspect of our lives, the 18 th century visionary and mystic Emanuel Swedenborg realised that the more we develop spiritually the greater will become our wisdom. He did not put it in so basic terms; he articulated that the closer we got to our Lord and the less importance we paid to material ideas then wisdom will be ours: 11

I have sometimes conversed with angels about wisdom; and they said that wisdom is conjunction with the Lord, because the Lord is Wisdom itself; and that a man attains that conjunction who casts hell out from himself, and that he attains it so far as he casts out hell.

About 200 years before Emanuel, the Spaniard St John of the Cross recommended that we should spurn acquisition of knowledge and rely on our intuitive link with Spirit. He realised that academic wisdom, that is, knowledge for its own sake, is not useful in our spiritual quest. He paraphrased St Paul from I Corinthians iii, 18-19 which says: 12

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If any man among you seems to be wise, let him become ignorant that he may be wise; for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. So that, in order to come to union with the wisdom of God, the soul has to proceed rather by unknowing than by knowing; and all the dominion and liberty of the world, compared with the liberty and dominion of the Spirit of God, is the most abject slavery, affliction and captivity.

This idea of ‘union with God’ is so far ahead of where any of us are now, that it only something that we can strive towards over the next series of lives we have. It was through the automatic writings of the medium Geraldine Cummins that we learned of the contents of the ‘Scripts of Cleophas’ which were writing contemporary with those of the Acts of the Apostles and in which was written: 13

...all wisdom of man is but as a grain of sand when ye liken it to the Wisdom Eternal.

So we have to be realistic in our objectives. What we can do is to look towards help from God’s agents - our spirit guides and helpers - as we try to develop our spirituality. As part of this we need to strike a realistic and practical balance between the physical and spiritual aspects of life. A discarnate spirit communicating through Irene Bays said: 14

But the wisdoms that are within each one of you are for you to seek and to find. As you work in service to mankind and to God, so wisdoms will be given to you. You will be told where to seek, and the wisdoms come to you only when you are of service. For it is that way that you walk along your path of spiritual enlightenment and progression.

I think in this paragraph, the spirit is perhaps using wisdom instead of truth. Whilst knowing of and understanding truths are important, wisdom is the application of them to the events which we experience. Thus our spiritual development proceeds through the application of our wisdom to service to others. That is, one facet is service to humanity in all its possible forms. In conjunction with this, the need to develop one’s intuition was highlighted by the 19 th century American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson: 15

To make a practical use of this instinct in every part of life constitutes true wisdom, and we must form the habit of preferring in all cases this guidance, which is given as it is used.

In a more religious phraseology from the Japanese healer Mokichi Okada: 16

Wisdom is not acquired; it is granted by God to those who believe and try to hear Him and improve their lives.

And from a psychoanalytical perspective, Carl Jung declared that the wise mind: 17

…which springs from natural sources, and not from opinions taken from books; it wells up from the earth like a natural spring, and brings with it the peculiar wisdom of nature

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...and from 1930’s when there seemed to be a greater understanding of the link between Spirit and humankind, Harry Earnest Hunt wrote: 18

When hearts are wise: may we praise God for the wisdom that cometh not from books nor from the earnest teaching of didactic men, but from the golden gleam of inspiration from the Lord.

Inspirational knowledge is an invaluable part of our development of wisdom and often the best way to stimulate this process is through contemplation and meditation. This I believe was the essence conveyed in ‘The Corpus Hermeticum’ of Hermes Trismegistus. These documents, dating from the early Christian era, recognise the importance of silence to our search for wisdom: 19

Wisdom that understands in silence

Referring again to John Blofeld, who also believed in the importance of stilling one’s mind to the development of wisdom: 20

To hasten its coming, one must close the doors of the six senses and cultivate an objectiveless awareness that arises when thought is stilled.

Through this process, we can try to recollect what we know deep in our subconscious. The spirit guiding the writing of Irene Bays informed us that: 21

For each one of those persons who have shown an interest in ancient methods are guided within, from knowledge that has already been acquired in a distant life. But first of all the conscious mind has to learn the skill again. For as with all things the modern thinking, the modern methods and the modern way of life do not at all resemble past experiences in your life. Therefore you have to learn to adapt to the present day way of behaving and thinking and of life. But then once you have learned the skill which is to be of value to you, the skill which is of past experience, then the wisdoms within will come pouring forth and you will be surprised at the words that you will speak.

In this way we can tap into wisdom that we have gained in our past lives and apply it to our current situation. Wisdom has many facets; one of which is in accepting that our knowledge, reasoning and hence understanding is incomplete. That is, we must have a sense of humility about what wisdom we do possess. The scientist Carl Sagan recognised this: 22

Wisdom lies in understanding our limitations.

…or as put another way by Ralph Waldo Trine: 23

He who would enter into the realm of wisdom must first divest himself of all intellectual pride.

This is nothing new; there are many traits which can often be found in those who exhibit wisdom. During a speech which he gave at his daughter’s graduation day, Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo (better known as the actor, screenwriter, and author Alan Alda) said: 24

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I want you to be as smart as you can, but remember: It's always better to be wise than to be smart. And don't be upset that it takes a long time to find wisdom, because nobody knows where wisdom can be found. It tends to break out at unexpected times, like a rare virus to which mostly people with compassion and understanding are susceptible.

The true seeker must accept that there is much that is yet to be known as described by the author of ‘Unto Thee I Grant’: 25

True wisdom is less presuming than folly. The wise man doubteth often, and changeth his mind; the fool is obstinate, and doubteth not; he knoweth all things but his own ignorance.

There seems to be a significant correlation between the development of a greater awareness of our subconscious, psyche or intuitive ability and what our conscious mind has available to it. In her book ‘The Jewel in the Lotus’, Grace Cooke, who was the medium through whom White Eagle gave his teachings, expressed it as: 26

The more the higher mind develops, the greater the wisdom which comes into man's ordinary consciousness.

Finally, and probably ultimately for any human, is spiritual experience; often referred to as mystical experience. Not many achieve this state but it has been nicely described by Frederic Harton who wrote: 27

Wisdom is, then, primarily taste, a spiritual sense truly comparable with the physical one, and as ultimately indescribable. It is that fundamental experience of God which is the root of all personal religion, that experience of God which causes the soul to cry out, "I know," even though it is unable to describe what or how it knows .

From all this advice, from so many different people with a huge variety of backgrounds, we can readily see that we have to try to develop our wisdom; we can do it now as Emanuel Swedenborg said: 28

...while man lives in the natural world he can be admitted into the wisdom of spiritual things…

The spark for each of the major religions has been a prophet or master and each of them has been endowed with wisdom which, in turn, is a gift from their God. Whatever gifts we have and develop are for sharing with others; wisdom is no different. Irene Bays wrote: 29

For wisdom must not be kept to oneself, but shared.

A possessor of wisdom is able to counsel others on their spiritual journey as Frederic Harton remarked: 30

Counsel is the gift of practical wisdom, and is essentially the intuitive government of the will...

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...and, according to Robert Elias Najemy, the American author, wisdom arrives through spiritual development and growth: 31

After trying to get happiness out of this ‘shadow world’ for many years, we realize that the only way to real happiness is to climb the tree of spiritual growth, which means making some spiritual effort. In this way, we eventually obtain inner peace, inner spiritual wisdom and power.

The greatest help that we can give any fellow traveller is to try to convey the truths which form the basis for our wisdom. In the book ‘Unto Thee I Grant’ is written: 32

Joys of the understanding are the blessings of God; and He appointeth to every one his portion in what measure seemeth good unto Himself. Hath he endowed thee with wisdom? Hath He enlightened thy mind with the knowledge of truth? Communicate it to the ignorant, for their instruction; communicate it to the wise, for thine own improvement.

Notice the last sentence! Those who understand spiritual truths can convey them to others which then become their knowledge. They can then, using their reasoning and experience forge ahead on their spiritual pathway. In addition, by trying to articulate what we know to ‘the wise’, then we are strengthening our understanding and our wisdom moves forward. From the same treatise is also a note which indicates that as we achieve a modicum of wisdom then our other ‘good’ traits are amplified and our path through the physical world is more understandable: 33

The wise maketh everything the means of advantage, and with the same countenance beholdeth he all the faces of fortune; he governeth the good, he conquereth the evil; he is unmoved in all.

Spiritual wisdom as an asset for our material life is often not recognised as such, although Agnes Sanford did understand that: 34

The gift of wisdom, naturally, not only warns one what not to do but also gives one added power and success in whatever one does.

There is a strong relationship between truth and wisdom which was documented in the book about the teachings of Mokichi Okada. In the Commentary on Basic Concepts is written: 35

...wisdom refers to the purity and responsiveness of the soul to God. Mr Okada explained wisdom primarily as the extraordinary capacity, determined by the purity of the soul, that enables a person to understand and commit himself to the truths made known to him by divine grace.

Once truths are known, they change your life in ways expected and unexpected. You become a different person because living those truths changes the way you see things and approach people. You are able to link your knowledge and experience with intuition to provide a very sound basis for every aspect of your life. A natural consequence of this total integration is happiness. In testament of this, in ‘Unto Thee I Grant’ is written: 36

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Riches are servants to the wise; but they are tyrants over the mind of the fool. … Have not the wisest been those who have had the least of it, and is not wisdom happiness?

…and from the Isa Upanishad: 37

As we gain the light of wisdom, we cease to cling to the unrealities of this world and we find all our joy in the realm of reality.

Have you noticed the number of times happiness occurs in statements about the impact of spiritual progression? I believe that this happiness is a consequence of a total commitment to everything; all created beings and the environment in which we live. This is often described as love. The very close interrelationship between love and wisdom was recognised by Emanuel Swedenborg about which he wrote: 38

And since love and wisdom are the Lord's and are the Lord in heaven, and since love and wisdom constitute the life of the angels, it is clear that their life is the Lord's, and in fact is the Lord.

I’m not sure whether love comes before wisdom or wisdom before love. William of St Thierrry believed it is the former: 39

The will grows into love, love becomes charity. And charity develops into wisdom .

From the Spirit World White Eagle informed us that: 40

...there is no true wisdom without love.

...and Frederic Harton confirmed that: 41

Wisdom is not the fruit of thought, but of Charity...

So wisdom emerges from our love of all things, and the wiser we become the greater is our capacity for love. Seeing events through the eyes of love brings a peace to life which White Eagle linked to wisdom: 42

Wisdom comes to those who are calm and tranquil in spirit, to those who wait upon the Lord. Through an ever-increasing love in the heart you will grow wise.

The medium Rev. G. Vale Owen recorded a communication from the Spirit World which seemed to summarise the relationship between love and wisdom: 43

One of those things which matter here is that due proportion be meted out between wisdom and love. These are not contrary the one from the other, but are two great phases of one great principle. For love is to wisdom as the tree is to the leaves, and if love actuate and wisdom breathe, then the fruit is healthy and sound.

...and the development of our soul is the fruit. But, the development of love and wisdom takes a long time within each of us to coalesce into a practical way of living. Wisdom, in

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Old age is a time for contemplation and consolidation when, through application of love, experience may become wisdom.

In support of this emergent wisdom late in life, the higher spirit communicating through Phyllis V. Schlemmer confirmed that: 45

It is always in the last years [of life] that knowledge and wisdom are brought together.

Morton Kelsey believed that it was much earlier in life and even put an age onto wisdom acquisition: 46

At thirty, or even fifty, one does not have the depth and wisdom that come in later years

Experience is the key, and years of living are often required to gain it through the ‘University of Life’.

In parallel with this, both education of what we need in order to exist in the material world and the development of our spiritual nature are necessary. The real difficulty, as I have noted above, is that many often believe that knowledge is all that you need to become wise. The spirit whose knowledge was channelled through Phyllis V. Schlemmer believed otherwise: 47

Knowledge is gained from educational methods, but wisdom is innate.

On one occasion which he recounts, Andrew Harvey opened Père De Caussade's book 'Abandonment to Divine Providence'] and read: 48

We are really only well taught by the words God addresses especially to us. Neither books nor laborious delvings into history will instruct us about the wisdom of God. They will fill us with a useless muddled kind of knowledge that puffs us up with pride. It is what happens moment by moment that enlightens us.

A rather revealing description of this was given by Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows: 49

While knowledge is capable of perceiving only what is revealed, wisdom understands the reason for its existence.

Carl Jung, in his autobiography, revealed that manipulation of words is often a sign of the educated but not of the wise: 50

I am speaking of those who cannot tolerate the loss of myth and who can neither find a way to a merely exterior world, to the world as seen by science, nor rest satisfied with an intellectual juggling with words, which has nothing whatsoever to do with wisdom.

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It is all, as Shakespeare puts into the mouth of Hamlet “Words, words, words”. Evelyn Underhill knew of the importance of experience to give words real meaning: 51

Wisdom is the fruit of communion; ignorance the inevitable portion of those who "keep themselves to themselves," and stand apart, judging, analysing the things which they have never truly known.

Don’t get me wrong. I believe wholeheartedly in the acquisition of knowledge which will as years roll on form the basis of your wisdom. In his book ‘Spirit and Music’ Harry Earnest Hunt, a practical psychologist, concurred with this: 52

In spiritual law, as in natural law, nothing is ever lost. We study the physical, and by analogy we may learn much of the spiritual: we have not been left without guidance in the maze of life. But the first essential is that we should study those things which are open to us, and through them learn something of the wisdom that otherwise lies hidden.

Many people who go to see clairvoyants, albeit at Spiritualist church services or exhibitions, believe that those who are now in the Spirit World have gained wisdom by their act of passing from this life. How erroneous this is! Anthony Borgia pointed out in his book ‘Life in the World Unseen’ that: 53

There would, of course, be a number who would imagine that, because you have passed into the world of spirit, then you will at once have become endowed with the profoundest wisdom, and that all you say will be infallible utterances.

Nothing can be further from the truth. We are, after death, the same personality as before, although as we spend more time in the Spirit World then, as Anthony wrote: 54

We lose the wrinkles that age and worldly cares have marked upon our countenances, together with other indications of the passage of years, and we become younger in appearance, while we grow older in knowledge and wisdom and spirituality.

But that takes time and is dependent upon our own progress. This is also true for any degree of wisdom that we gain whilst on earth; it comes hard fought. Although in the great scheme of things the level of our wisdom that is possible to acquire is very small compared to what it will be after many years in the Spirit World, or as Evelyn Underhill noticed: 55

Perfect Wisdom came with kindergarten methods to men’s kindergarten souls .

Nevertheless we can but strive to perfection, and this effort will ultimately be beneficial. There will be knowledge and experience gained which, as our wisdom is developed, will come to fruition. Recognition of this was recorded in the book ‘The Crest Jewel of Wisdom’, which is attributed to the 8 th century Hindu philosopher and theologian Adi Shankara Acharya: 56

The momentum of works begun before the sunrise of wisdom does not cease without bearing fruit after wisdom is gained; it is like an arrow aimed and shot at a mark. The arrow shot with the thought that there is a tiger does not halt when it is seen to

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be a cow, but quickly pierces the mark because of its impetus. Works already entered on retain their energy even in the case of those who have attained wisdom; only through being experienced are they consumed. Former works, works accumulated, and future works melt away in the fire of perfect wisdom.

On your spiritual journey you will meet many people who will scoff and deride your spiritual direction and the progress that you are making. At first, that is hard to shrug off, but as your wisdom increases then such cynicism will be, as the saying goes, ‘water off a duck’s back’. Jack Angelo also believed that wisdom: 57

…is the antidote to cynicism and bitterness.

Mark your progress well, never be deflected from your spiritual path and use your knowledge from study and inspiration together with your evolving experience to develop your own precious wisdom.

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1 Gerard W Hughes, God of Surprises, Darton Longman and Todd, 1987. 1. Where your Treasure Is, (Pg 3) 2 Agnes Sanford, Healing Gifts of the Spirit, Arthur James, 1999. Chapter 4; The Gift of Wisdom, (Pg 62) 3 Downloaded 31 st May 2014 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisdom 4 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter VI: Mortification, Non-Attachment, Right Livelihood, (Pg 97) 5 Geraldine Cummins, The Road to Immortality, Pilgrim Books, 1984. Chapter XIII: THE EVOLUTION OF THE PSYCHE, (Pg 76) 6 Arthur David Waley, Three Ways of Thought in Ancient China, Doubleday, 1939. Chuang Tzu: Part ONE The Realm of Nothing Whatever, (Pg 46) 7 Arthur Findlay, On the Edge of the Etheric, Two Worlds Publishing, 1986. Chapter 15, (Pg 144) 8 Unto Thee I Grant, Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, 1966. Book Eight: Man Considered in the General. Chapter IV- Of the Period and Uses of Human Life, (Pg 48) 9 John Blofeld, Beyond the Gods, E P Dutton & Co, 1974. Chapter 1 - The Wish-fulfilling Gem, (Pg 25) 10 Agnes Sanford, Healing Gifts of the Spirit, Arthur James, 1999. Chapter 4; The Gift of Wisdom, (Pg 71) 11 Emanuel Swedenborg, Divine Providence, Swedenborg Society, 1949. Chapter II: Divine Providence of the Lord has for its end a Heaven from the Human Race, (Pg 26) 12 The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1947. Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book I. Chapter IV, (Pg 27) 13 Geraldine Cummins, The Scripts of Cleophas, Psychic Press, 1961. The Third Parchment - Foreword [given by the Messenger of Cleophas], (Pg 181) 14 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part Three: Chapter V - The Search for Spirituality (Spiritual Progression), (Pg 315) 15 Ralph Waldo Emerson, Natural History of Intellect, Solar Press, 1995. I. Natural History of Intellect - II. Instinct and Inspiration, (Pg 67) 16 Mokichi Okada, Johrei - divine light of salvation, Society of Johrei, 1984. Part Four: Life and Thought of Mokichi Okada: Commentary on Basic Concepts: Wisdom, (Pg 212) 17 Carl Jung, Seminar on Interpretation of Visions, Zitrich, privately printed, 1940, VI, (Pg 34) 18 Harry Earnest Hunt, The Gateway of Intuition, Wright & Brown, 1930s (?). 1 Thankfulness, (Pg 20) 19 The Corpus Hermeticum of Hermes Trismegistus, - The Seventh Book. His Secret Sermon in the Mount Of Regeneration, and the Profession of Silence. To His Son Tat. Downloaded 1 st November 2017 from http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/herm/hermes13.htm 20 John Blofeld, Beyond the Gods, E P Dutton & Co, 1974. Chapter 1 - The Wish-fulfilling Gem, (Pg 25) 21 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part Three: Chapter XIV - Wisdoms form Within (Inner Knowledge), (Pg 379 / 380) 22 Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, Ballantine Books, New York, 1997. The Most Precious Thing (Pg 21) 23 Ralph Waldo Trine, In Tune with the Infinite, G Bell & Sons, 1931. Chapter VI - Wisdom and interior Illumination, (Pg 105) 24 Alan Alda, Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself, Hutchinson, 2007. Chapter 2: Lingering at the Door, (Pg 18) 25 Unto Thee I Grant, Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, 1966. Book Five: Providence; Or The Accidental Differences of Men. Chapter I- Wise and Ignorant, (Pg 27) 26 Grace Cooke, The Jewel in the Lotus, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1973. III - The Creative Imagination, (Pg 28) 27 F P Harton, The Elements of the Spiritual Life: A study in Ascetical Theology, SPCK, 1950. Part I - Chapter VI The Gifts of the Spirit, (Pg 78) 28 Emanuel Swedenborg, Divine Providence, Swedenborg Society, 1949. Chapter VII: Man is admitted interiorly into the Truths... (Pg 163) 29 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part Two: Chapter XII - False Prophets, (Pg 235) 30 F P Harton, The Elements of the Spiritual Life: A study in Ascetical Theology, SPCK, 1950. Part I - Chapter VI The Gifts of the Spirit, (Pg 81) 31 Robert Elias Najemy, Universal Philosophy, Holistic Harmony Publishers, 1990. (Pg 10) 32 Unto Thee I Grant, Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, 1966. Book Five: Providence; Or The Accidental Differences of Men. Chapter I- Wise and Ignorant, (Pg 27) 33 Unto Thee I Grant, Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, 1966. Book Twelve: Manifestations of Karma. Chapter I- Prosperity and Adversity, (Pg 90)

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34 Agnes Sanford, Healing Gifts of the Spirit, Arthur James, 1999. Chapter 4; The Gift of Wisdom, (Pg 68) 35 Mokichi Okada, Johrei - divine light of salvation, Society of Johrei, 1984. Part Four: Life and Thought of Mokichi Okada: Commentary on Basic Concepts: Wisdom, (Pg 211) 36 Unto Thee I Grant, Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, 1966. Book Ten: Of the Affections of Man, Which Are Hurtful to Himself and Others. Chapter I- Covetousness, (Pg 72) 37 Swami Paramananda, The Upanishads, Grange Books, 2004. Isa - Upanishad – I, (Pg 17) 38 Emanuel Swedenborg, Divine Providence, Swedenborg Society, 1949. Chapter II: Divine Providence of the Lord has for its end a Heaven from the Human Race, (Pg 20) 39 William of St Thierrry, On the Nature and Dignity of Love, Mowbray, 1956. Chapter II - The Origin of Love, (Pg 14) 40 Walking with the Angels - A Path of Service, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1998. Part Two - 13. Rays from the Spiritual Sun - A meditation on the fourth ray, (Pg 102) 41 F P Harton, The Elements of the Spiritual Life: A study in Ascetical Theology, SPCK, 1950. Part I - Chapter VI The Gifts of the Spirit, (Pg 78) 42 White Eagle, The Quiet Mind, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1984. The Master Soul is Constant: .. is Wise in Speech and Action: Wisdom Comes, (Pg 59) 43 Rev. G. Vale Owen, The Life Beyond the Veil, Thornton Butterworth, 1929. Chapter III: From Darkness into Light - Friday, October 10, 1913. (Pg 72 / 73) 44 Jack Angelo, Spiritual Healing - energy medicine for today, Element, 1991. 6: Healing and the Cycle of Life, (Pg 96) 45 Phyllis V. Schlemmer, The Only Planet of Choice, Gateway Books, 1996. VI: Terrestrial Affairs - 20: Soul Matters, (Pg 296) 46 Morton T Kelsey, The Other Side of Silence, SPCK, 1985. Part Four: The Use of Images in Meditation - 15. A Check List for the Venture Inward, (Pg 200) 47 Phyllis V. Schlemmer, The Only Planet of Choice, Gateway Books, 1996. VI: Terrestrial Affairs - 20: Soul Matters, (Pg 301) 48 Andrew Harvey, Hidden Journey, Rider & Co, 1994. LORD MOTHER – SIX, (Pg 155) 49 Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows, Pathway of the Immortal, International Publications Inc, 1980. Chapter VII: Stairway to the Stars, (Pg 139) 50 Carl Gustav Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Fontana, 1995. IV Psychiatric Activities, (Pg 167) 51 Evelyn Underhill, Practical Mysticism: A Little Book for Normal People, Eagle Editions, 2002. Chapter 1: What is Mysticism, (Pg 8) 52 Harry Earnest Hunt, Spirit and Music, Chapter IV Spirit a Living Fact, (Pg 12) Downloaded 31 October 2017 from http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21542 53 Anthony Borgia, Life in the World Unseen, Ghostcircle.com/free-ebooks. Chapter III: First Experiences, (Pg 15) 54 Anthony Borgia, Life in the World Unseen, Ghostcircle.com/free-ebooks. Chapter III: First Experiences, (Pg 17) 55 Evelyn Underhill, The House of the Soul, Methuen & Co, 1929. Chapter II, (Pg 28) 56 Shankara Acharya, The Crest Jewel of Wisdom, John M Watkins, 1964. The Crest Jewel of Wisdom - The Momentum of Works, (Pg 70) 57 Jack Angelo, Spiritual Healing - energy medicine for today, Element, 1991. 6: Healing and the Cycle of Life, (Pg 96)

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15.14: Spiritual Development and Selflessness

In the physical world altruism is often synonymous with selflessness. That is they both relate to the concern and welfare of others. There are many people who, with their altruistic ‘hat on’, give millions of pounds to charitable causes which will benefit other people. One which immediately springs to mind is the co-founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, whose objective is to eradicate poliomyelitis. 1 What a fantastic goal to have and all credit to him for pouring his money into such a good cause. To quote from the Wikipedia: 2

Pure altruism consists of sacrificing something for someone other than the self (e.g. sacrificing time, energy or possessions) with no expectation of any compensation or benefits, either direct, or indirect (e.g., receiving recognition for the act of giving).

From a mystical perspective it is the total annihilation of ‘self’. As the Iranian-American activist, a nationally acclaimed writer on religions, Reza Aslan noted: 3

…the end of the journey: that moment of enlightenment in which the veil of reality is stripped away, the ego obliterated, and the self utterly consumed by God.

…and the young French mystic Simone Weil stated that her greatest desire was to: 4

…lose not only all will but all personal desire.

The view that I want to take is somewhere ‘less’ than mysticism and yet ‘more’ than altruism; it is close to what the ancient Chinese philosophers recognise as the characteristics of a Sage. In the 4 th century B.C. Chuang Tsu is recorded as saying: 5

The perfect man ignores self; the divine man ignores action; the true Sage ignores reputation.

Our objective should be to balance the needs and desires of ‘self’ with our spiritual development and help for others. This is what I consider to be the bounds of selflessness. This means that, as Winifred Graham’s father speaking from the Spirit World inspired his daughter to write: 6

You cannot live for self, and for pleasure alone.

…but you can live for happiness, which is a totally different experience. In his book ‘Thirty Years Among the Dead’, Carl Wickland recalls the words spoken by a discarnate spirit known as Anna H: 7

Good Evening. I came here tonight to thank you for what you have done for me. I am now very happy. I only lived for myself and for my body and beauty. I lived only for a good time. When you live for a good time you are not really happy. You are always afraid that some one will shine brighter than yourself, or that some one will take your place and charm away your admirers.

Some, like the 20 th century British-born Benedictine monk Bede Griffiths would say: 8

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It is only when you have renounced the world that you can really enjoy the world.

This renunciation is not to turn your back on the world and follow the monastic life; it is not to be dependent upon the trappings of materialism. A neat story was told by the Norwegian intellectual Jostein Gaarder: 9

The story goes that one day Socrates stood gazing at a stall that sold all kinds of wares. Finally he said, 'What a lot of things I don’t need!' This statement could be the motto for the Cynic school of philosophy, founded by Antisthenes in Athens around 400 B.C. Antisthenes had been a pupil of Socrates, and had become particularly interested in his frugality. The Cynics emphasized that true happiness is not found in external advantages such as material luxury, political power, or good health. True happiness lies in not being dependent on such random and fleeting things. And because happiness does not consist in benefits of this kind, it is within everyone’s reach. Moreover, having once been attained, it can never be lost.

About 800 years after Socrates lived St. Augustine; not only was this Algerian Berber the Bishop of Hippo Regius, but an exceptional philosopher and theologian. He developed the concept of the Church as a spiritual City of God (in a book of the same name) as distinct from the material City of Man. Within this treatise he stated that: 10

They that did thus with their riches, by easing small burdens, reaped great gains; taking more joy in that part which by their free distribution unto others they had kept more safely, than they felt sorrow for that which by their care to preserve to themselves they lost so easily.

Put in more modern and mystical terms by the American monk Thomas Merton: 11

When humility delivers a man from attachment to his own works and his own reputation, he discovers that true joy is only possible when we have forgotten ourselves.

So we have to be careful not to focus our lives on to material things, as the Japanese visionary Ryuho Okawa noted: 12

As long as we persist in holding on to these attachments we will never be able to realise true happiness.

…and as, according to Lumsden Barkway, Evelyn Underhill wrote: 13

Yet real love always heals fear and neutralises egotism, and so, as love grows up in us, we shall worry about ourselves less and admire and delight in God and His other children more and more, and this is the secret of joy.

It may indeed seem to be a secret - how many people do you know that have found it? Nevertheless it is achievable in part whilst we live our earthly life and if we are to reach this goal then we need to understand our own ‘self’; who are we? I have devoted a whole

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:14:51 15.14 Spiritual Development and Selflessness Page 3 of 13 section to this topic, so will say little of it here except to give a couple of quotations. One from the mystic Meister Eckhart who believed that: 14

The journey into the depths of God, and the journey into the depths of ourselves, are not really different. Theologically and metaphysically it may be possible to distinguish them, but on the level of experience and action they are one.

And from Silver Birch, the discarnate teacher: 15

What is important is that man should become aware of his true self and of the access he can have to the source of all being. He should know that the Great Spirit is not inaccessible, remote, far-off, unreachable, but is within himself and that he has a spiritual armoury, a strength, a reserve, a potency on which he can call in times of difficulty and crisis.

The Great Spirit, Silver Birch’s term for God, implements His connection to humanity through our guides and helpers in the Spirit World. It is from this direction that we can get some help in our attempt to become distant from our ‘self’. Again from the words of Silver Birch: 16

Moreover, in addition to this tremendous potential within himself, he can also reach out to the infinite power of the spirit without. He can climb a ladder, on which, rung after rung, there are beings waiting to help him as he is ready to reach them. And this is important.

These spirit helpers will not do the job for you; it is your responsibility to let go of all that you can that is centred on the ‘self’ and forge your own way along your spiritual pathway. This means that your spiritual desires and efforts should override those material and personal desires. Lumsden Barkway tells us that Evelyn Underhill uses the words of St. Paul to express this dilemma between spiritual and ‘self’: 17

'Let man examine himself', says St Paul ... Not as to whether he is good enough, for this question is not worth asking; but as to whether he is willing to take trouble enough, whether his face is set towards eternity, and whether the demands and interests of the Eternal are given priority over the demands and interests of self- will.

Many mystics and theological commentators have recognised the importance of reducing one’s ‘self’ importance in the drive for spirituality. This is one of the planks of the teaching conveyed, in 1876, by Imperator the spirit guide of William Stainton Moses: 18

The ancients were wise in their description of the enemies. A spirit has three foes - itself; the external world around it; and the spiritual foes that beset the upward path. These are described as the World, the Flesh, and the Devil. Begin with self—the Flesh. Conquer it, so that you are no longer slave to appetite, to passion, to ambition: so that self can be abnegated, and the spirit can come forth from its hermit-cell, and live and breathe and act in the free scope of the universal brotherhood. This is the first step.

Or, as Margaret Smith explained from the teaching of Mohammed and St John: 19

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He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that looseth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

This leads nicely onto the idea that whatever characteristics we develop on this earth, we will take with us into the next; the ‘self’ that we are creating will be with us in the hereafter; we do not change immediately as we pass through the door of death. Therefore, we must endeavour to give ourselves the best possible start to our life in the spirit, and one step on this ladder is to do those things which help us not think about satisfying our ‘self’. As the influential Austrian Roman Catholic layman Baron Von Hügel remarked: 20

It is true that we must not only see but look, that we must watch, that we must care, that we must get out of our animal selfcentredness.

This means that we must always look at the things we have done, and are about to do, and assess them according to our conscience and our Philosophy of Life; we really do have a good idea as to what is ‘good’ and what is ‘bad’. Often, with hindsight, our assessment of what we have done follows the thoughts of Father Andrew: 21

…we have seen something higher and been capable of rising to it, and we have chosen something lower from a selfish reason of our own.

This we must learn from; we must reduce our selfishness. Of course, in the ways of the material life, temptations abound. Even in the early days of Christianity, St Augustine wrote: 22

What innumerable toys, made by divers arts and manufacturers, in our apparel, shoes, utensils and all sorts of works, in pictures also and divers images, and these far exceeding all necessary and moderate use and all pious meaning, have men added to tempt...

…and from a later work by Thomas A Kempis: 23

Grieve and lament that up till now you are so worldly, such a lover of the flesh, Your passions so alive, So full of restless lusts, So careless in the watch over your outward senses, So oft enfolded by many empty phantoms, So much inclined to what is all around you, So thoughtless of what lies within. So ready for the laugh and for distraction, So hard to turn to sorrow and tears, Prepared for easier rules and all that suits the flesh, Slow to zeal or to harsh means.

…so many things we must change but one thing we can do is, as Graham Jeffery related in ‘The Rabbi's Tale’: 24

Take what you need, and leave the rest

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Notice the use of ‘need’ and not ‘want’. This leads naturally to recognising that the desires of the ‘self’ can be a stumbling block for spiritual attainment. The Spanish mystic St John of the Cross believed that any selfishness however apparently small will hold us back: 25

But some habits of voluntary imperfections, which are never completely conquered, prevent not only the attainment of Divine union, but also progress in perfection. .. For it comes to the same thing whether a bird be held by a slender cord or by a stout one; since, even if it be slender, the bird will be well held as though it were stout, for so long as it breaks it not and flies not away.

And in typical Chinese style, the sinologist Arthur Waley used the words of Chuang Tzu to describe it as: 26

P'u means wood in its natural condition, uncarved and unpainted. It is the Taoist symbol of man's natural state, when his inborn powers (tê) have not been tampered with by knowledge or circumscribed by mortality. The Taoist cult of p'u is a philosophic restatement of ancient ritual ideas: 'If thou wilt make me an altar of stone thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it' [Exodus xx. 25]. The enemies of this simplicity are the sense organs, with their separate and limited functions. 'The eye is a menace to clear sight, the ear is a menace to subtle hearing, the mind is a menace to wisdom, every organ of the senses is a menace to its own capacity. Sad is it indeed that man should look upon these seats of menace as his greatest treasure.'

At this point it is useful not to get too blasé about our own spiritual development compared to that of others. Certainly feel compassion towards others but don’t put yourself on a pedestal before them, as White Eagle advised: 27

One other point of the utmost importance on the spiritual path is that of avoiding spiritual pride.

By definition, on the other side of the coin, the loving feelings that you have towards humanity, nature and your environment, work to combat selfishness. This seems to be cyclical. The more love the less one considers ‘self’ and the less ‘self’ is the focus then the more love we have to spread around. Aldous Huxley recognised a similar circular relationship when he wrote: 28

The relationship between moral action and spiritual knowledge is circular, as it were, and reciprocal. Selfless behaviour makes possible an accession of knowledge, and the accession of knowledge makes possible the performance of further and more genuinely selfless actions, which in their turn enhance the agent's capacity for knowing. And so on.

It is not just knowledge that we gain but all sorts of enhancements to our personal framework. Selflessness seems to be a major trigger for help from the Spirit World. Being a Christian mystic, Père De Caussade, described this as: 29

…the soul becomes subject to the Divine Action the moment a good will begins to express in her heart. And its power and influence will be according to the measure of her self-abandonment.

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Selflessness has been the theme of many of the writings of the mystics. One such mystic was the 14 th century German teacher Meister Eckhart who, in one of his sermons, told his congregation that: 30

When I preach, I am accustomed to talk about detachment, saying that we should become free of ourselves and of all things.

…and from the 20 th century, Thomas Merton described it as: 31

But the test, in any event, is detachment of the will and the desire to renounce oneself completely in order to obey God.

This detached attitude, where the ‘self’ becomes less and less important, has implications for everything that we do; our approach to our family, other relationships and in particular to the activities which we undertake. Martin Israel recognised such an overall impact: 32

This is the key to spiritual growth in the world - an attitude of detached awareness combined with a commitment to give of one's utmost to the work in hand.

In his book about the Sufi Jalal-ud-Din Rumi called ‘The Way of Passion’, Andrew Harvey highlighted the mystic’s grasp of the importance of self abandonment but quoting from one of his beautiful poems: 33

How long will we fill our pockets Like children with dirt and stones? Let the world go. Holding it We never know ourselves, never are airborne.

This encapsulates the idea that releasing us from the ties of materialism is a consequence of letting go of the selfish desires which we all possess. Everything indeed starts to take on a different hue. On this point, the 20 th century spiritual healer and mystic Joel Goldsmith wrote: 34

...transcendental or spiritual consciousness is a state of consciousness which instantaneously releases an individual from all material concern

…which was a restatement of the notions of Emanuel Swedenborg: 35

The man who has become spiritual by the acknowledgement of God and wise by rejection of his proprium [self] sees the Divine Providence in the whole world and in all things...

The implication is that selflessness can be used as a measure of our spiritual progress. Oliver Davis observed this was the metric used by Meister Eckhart: 36

…the mark of spiritual progress for Eckhart is the lessening of the sense of individual self as we grow into universal human nature, in which there can be no distinctions and no self interest.

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…and Andrew Harvey in his excellent book ‘The Direct Path’ summarises: 37

The greatest mystics of all traditions remind us that progress along the Path is best gauged by growth in selflessness and humility.

Even as far back as when the Tao Te Ching was compiled, removing desire from oneself is the key to understanding the spiritual mysteries [the Secret Essences]: 38

The Way that can be told of is not an Unvarying Way; The names that can be named are not unvarying names. It was from the Nameless that Heaven and Earth sprang; The named is but the mother that rears the ten thousand creatures, each after its kind. Truly, Only he that rids himself forever of desire can see the Secret Essences; He that has never rid himself of desire can see only the Outcomes. These two things issued from the same mould, but nevertheless are different in name. This 'same mould' we can but call the mystery, Or rather the 'Darker than any mystery', The Doorway whence issued all Secret Essences.

Every religion has, in different ways dependent upon the community, stated the need for selflessness as a necessary parameter for spiritual growth. Sir Oliver Lodge, in ‘Man and the Universe’ suggested that: 39

Selfishness long continued must lead to isolation and so to a sort of practical extinction: it is like a disintegrating or repulsive force in the material cosmos, while love is like a cohesive and constructive force. All this is no new doctrine, thank goodness! It has been preached and practised by the prophets and saints of the human race for generations - by some mighty ones even before the advent of Jesus of Nazareth.

So how can we achieve this objective; how can we become selfless? In the 4 th century the influential Christian theologian Basil The Great is recorded as believing that those who are following the spiritual pathway and who are: 40

…wishing to participate, however, imperfectly, in the passionlessness of God, in spiritual sanctity, serenity, quietness and meekness, and to taste the joy and gladness born of them, must strive to lead his thoughts far away from every material passion which may trouble the soul, and to contemplate Divine things with a clear and unshaded eye, insatiably enjoying the Divine light.

Advising us from the Spirit World, Winifred Graham’s father agreed that we must: 41

...try and practise unselfishness. The way to do this, is always to put yourselves in the place of others. Try to imagine their trials and sufferings. This will make you sympathetic to those you may personally even dislike.

…and through this he suggested that we: 42

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Think of yourselves as making foundations, and a structure with every thought and action on earth.

In this way our thoughts, words and deeds will all become less ‘self’ oriented. In fact we can start simply as Grace Cooke suggested: 43

You all want to be practical and efficient. Well, start upon yourself, upon your life, by eating pure food, drinking pure water, breathing pure air; by thinking purely, by ordering your life harmoniously - leading a gentle, quiet life, controlling unruly emotions and thoughts.

And think about how much time you waste, as Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows recognised, in doing those mind-numbing activities: 44

...the scattered activities of the average family, many of which are useless, crowd out time which should be allocated to the greater quest.

So take a simple approach – look at each thought and try to purify it before it becomes vocalised or acted upon. I realise that this is not easy, but even if you review your day’s activities when you lie in bed of an evening, you can see the failings of your intentions, etc and resolve to do better next time. This is a very practical way to achieve that which Gregory of Nyssa recommended: 45

…it is only by purification that the soul can be freed from its hindrances and again drawn towards the Divine Spirit.

There are many other ways to achieve this end, and Aldous Huxley recorded just a few of them: 46

If exercises in concentration, repetition of the divine name, or meditation on God's attributes or on imagined scenes in the life of saint or Avatar help those who make use of them to come to selflessness, openness ... which makes possible the soul's union with the Godhead, then such spiritual exercises are wholly good and desirable. If they have other results - well, the tree is known by its fruits.

No matter what mechanism you use to control, suppress and eventually eliminate your ‘self’ from everything you think, say and do, it is not an easy path to follow. It is one of the three sides to the spiritual triangle as understood by Bede Griffiths: 47

In fact there is a threefold death through which everyone must pass - a death to the world, a death to the flesh and a death to the ego.

In order that all our actions exhibit selflessness, we have to concentrate on ‘self’. This sounds very strange, yet we must understand ourselves completely and only then can we eliminate our selfish desires one by one. All of the mystics try to do this and it seems that every soul will eventually have to follow that path. Maurice Barbanell returned from the Spirit World to communicate this to Paul Beard through the medium Marie Cherrie: 48

At first I thought I was doing it [developing whilst in the Spirit World] wrongly but then it was explained to me that there were certain areas of myself that I must learn

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more about and explore more thoroughly. The prejudices and secret fears we have hidden, even from ourself, are amazing. In this degree one has to be selfish to turn within. .. Truly one must become very strong in the 'I' before you can give it up, the 'I' being you, the true person, not just the 'I' you are, in relationship to other people.

We must understand ourselves, therefore, to become spiritually better and demonstrate to all and sundry our selflessness. This will certainly come in the form of helping others in some form or other. Evelyn Underhill expressed it as: 49

This dynamic love, once purged of self-interest, is ours to use on spiritual levels; it is an engine for working with God on other souls.

…and from a Quaker perspective: 50

The door of Selfhood must be opened before the light of love can shine.

Will we ever get there? Certainly not in this world, but that should not stop us from aspiring to saintliness. Thus, perhaps our goal should be as described by St. Namdev in his poem Shri Namdev Gatha: 51

A true Saint sees God in everything... Who perceives the one God in all creation, Who wipes out every trace of ego and pride, Know that only a one is a true Saint; The rest are all bound by fetters of Illusion.

OK! So I’ll not reach this level of selflessness during my current life, but I can try. Through trying I will change my ‘self’ and thereby change my life. Change is slow but through eliminating my personal aspirations in the activities that I undertake, my life will inevitably change – so will yours if you try. You may not notice it day-by-day but look back after 12 months and recognise the changes in your approach to life and others. Evelyn Underhill, in her renowned book ‘Mysticism’, wrote about the person who is trying to detach themselves from the material world: 52

He has now got through preliminaries; detached himself from his chief entanglements; re-orientated his instinctive life. The result is a new and solid certitude about God, and his own soul's relation to God: an 'enlightenment' in which he is adjusted to new standards of conduct and thought.

…and Henry Drummond, in his own style, suggested that the fruits of such changes are worth having: 53

We give up a correspondence in which there is a little life to enjoy a correspondence in which there is an abundant life.

I remember my grandson, Alex, when asked what he would like for his 10 th Christmas replied that there was nothing specific that he wanted as he had all he needed. If only we could all be like that and live the life Cyprian identified where: 54

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...no man could be overcome by the world if he had nothing in the world to overcome him.

This sentiment was echoed about 1500 years later by the Spanish dissident Jesuit Baltasar Gracián: 55

You can have everything if you care little for what matters nothing.

From all that has been said and written about selflessness, you realise that it is not an easy path; it is fraught with difficulties. In one of the best books on spiritual development, ‘Spirit Teachings’, William Stainton Moses’ guide said: 56

Ease and luxury are the pleasant paths in which the soul lingers and dreams away the summer day. Self-denial, self-sacrifice, self-discipline are the upward tracks, thorn-vexed and rocky…

Referring back to the Tao Te Ching, it is said that: 57

To understand others is to have knowledge; To understand oneself is to be illumined. To conquer others needs strength; To conquer oneself is harder still. To be content with what one has is to be rich.

…and the ‘Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart’ specifies that those who are following the spiritual pathway should recognise that they: 58

...are attempting a short but hard way which has only one road leading into error, called self-will.

Not only will concentrating on ‘self’ create barriers to our spiritual progress, it will also affect the way in which others see us. If this ‘self’ is the driver then our thoughts, words, and deeds will for ever be oriented to self-aggrandisement not only at the expense of others but at the expense of our honesty. This point was highlighted by the English Christian theologian Leslie Weatherhead who recalled that: 59

Earl Baldwin [aka Stanley Baldwin] in his Rectorial Address at Glasgow University in 1930, said, "You will remember how Ammian wrote that the time had come when the Roman's word could no longer be trusted: that was the beginning of the end." Not by some great overwhelming calamity, but by the slackness of individuals who sought the road of selfishness.

We will get nowhere if we cannot be trusted; we cannot let this happen just because of our selfishness. Therefore we must change; we must alter our character to reduce our selfishness. If we do then this will help us towards our destiny as Evelyn Underhill remarked: 60

Thus the bracing of natural character is essential if we are to bear the tensions of the supernatural life.

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And as you now realise this is a specific theme of Meister Eckhart: 61

What matters in my dealings with the world is that they should be entirely free from self-seeking. We have to be alert to the demands of the present moment, which may be very different from what we would like them to be. But the important thing is to be constantly seeking God in all that we do, trying to discern what He wants of us in a given situation, and doing it promptly, regardless of our personal likes or dislikes. It is the obedience to the Will of God, and indifference to our personal feelings, which constitutes true detachment.

Margaret Smith wrote about the early Sufi mystics and on this subject wrote: 62

Rabi'a taught that it was necessary to add to the purification of the soul from the grosser desires of the senses and self-indulgence, the purification of the inward faculties, so that the feelings and the will might be brought into complete harmony with the Eternal Will of God.

…and she also quoted from Isaac of Nineveh who rightly stated that: 63

When the ties of the material have been dissolved, then are forged the bonds with God.

So to have any chance of pursuing the right spiritual direction we must develop a selfless attitude, as Aldous Huxley realised: 64

...the aim of spiritual training is to make people become selfless in every circumstance of life...

Or as the ‘Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart’ indicates: 65

...and to cut off every wish of our own with willing decision and a zealous heart, thus becoming, with God's help, as it were, wilfully will-less.

Putting it all into an orthodox Christian context, Carl August Wickland was given the following message from the Spirit World: 66

Let us do the work that is always waiting for us to do. We must say: 'Get thee behind me, Satan.' 'Satan,' or the 'devil,' as he is often called, is not a man. 'Satan' is only selfishness, ignorance and bigotry - these are the devil.

To finish this chapter, I’ll stick with the ‘religion’ theme and take an extract from ‘Beyond Life's Sunset’ by The Rev. C. Drayton Thomas: 67

There have been many definitions of the word 'religion'. To me it means a personal relation to God, both inwardly and in outward action. Inwardly it is felt as trust and devotion, outwardly it manifests as service to one's fellows. A religious life is the opposite of a self-centred life; it widens our sympathies and enables us to see meanings in existence to which selfishness must ever be blind.

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1 http://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do/Global-Development/Polio 2 Taken 4 th June 2014 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altruism 3 Reza Aslan, No god but God, Arrow Books, 2006. 8. Stain Your Prayer Rug with Wine: The Sufi Way: (Pg 206) 4 Simone Weil, Waiting on God, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1952. Letters; Letter III; About her departure, (Pg 13) 5 Chuang Tsu, Musings of a Chinese Mystic, John Murray, 1927. The Sage, or Perfect Man, (Pg 86) 6 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. The Use of Good Thoughts, (Pg 37) 7 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XII: Selfishness - Experience, September 22, 1920, (Pg 289) 8 Bede Griffiths, Return to the Centre, Collins, Fount Paperbacks, 1978. 13. Death and Resurrection, (Pg 92) 9 Jostein Gaarder, Sophie's World, Phoenix, 1995. Hellenism, (Pg 101 / 102) 10 St Augustine, The City of God (De Civitate Dei), J M Dent, 1945. Volume One: The First Book: Chapter IX, (Pg 13) 11 Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation, Hollis and Carter, 1949.Chapter 4 - We are One Man, (Pg 44) 12 Ryuho Okawa, The Laws of the Sun, Element, 1996. Chapter Five: The Golden Age - The Path to El Cantare (1), (Pg 117) 13 Lumsden Barkway, An Anthology of the Love of God (from the writings of Evelyn Underhill), Mowbray, 1953. I The Nature of Pure Love: Love and its Sequence (The Fruits of the Spirit), (Pg 35) 14 Cyprian Smith, The Way of Paradox [spiritual life as taught by Meister Eckhart], Darton Longman and Todd, 1996. 4 Melting, (Pg 51) 15 Stella Storm, Philosophy of Silver Birch, The Spiritual Truth Press, 1998. Chapter Six: The Responsibility of Mediumship, (Pg 64) 16 Stella Storm, Philosophy of Silver Birch, The Spiritual Truth Press, 1998. Chapter Six: The Responsibility of Mediumship, (Pg 64) 17 Lumsden Barkway, An Anthology of the Love of God (from the writings of Evelyn Underhill), Mowbray, 1953. VI Penitence, the Outcome of Love: Self-Scrutiny (The Mystery of Sacrifice), (Pg 186) 18 William Stainton Moses, Spirit Teachings, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Section XXX, (Pg 257) 19 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 2: Chapter VII - Asceticism and Mysticism in Orthodox Islam, (Pg 152) 20 P. Franklin Chambers, Baron Von Hugel: Man of God. An introductory Anthology compiled with a biographical preface, Geoffrey Bles: The Centenary Press, 1946. An Introduction Anthology - Part One: Personal - The Harvest of a Quiet Eye, (Pg 50 / 51) 21 Father Andrew SDC, In the Silence, A.R.Mowbray, 1951. Union with the Will of God: III. Contrite Love, (Pg 66) 22 The Confessions of S. Augustine, Seeley & Co, 1909. Book the Tenth, (XXXIV) 23 Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Elliot Stock, 1891. Book III - A pious Encouragement to the Holy Communion, Chapter VII 24 Graham Jeffery, The Rabbi's Tale - Letters from Gamaliel, Palm Tree, 1989. Letter Nine, (Pg 27) 25 The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1947. Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book I. Chapter XI, (Pg 53) 26 Arthur David Waley, Three Ways of Thought in Ancient China, Doubleday, 1939. Chuang Tzu: Part TWO Politics, (Pg 66) 27 White Eagle on the Intuition and Initiation, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 2004. Part Two: Developing the Intuition - VIII: Stages of Development, (Pg 79) 28 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter VI: Mortification, Non-Attachment, Right Livelihood, (Pg 112) 29 Richard Whitwell, J.P. de Caussade - A Spiritual Study, The Instant Publishers, undated. Chapter XII - His Love Victorious, (Pg 57) 30 Oliver Davies, Meister Eckhart - Selected Writings, Penguin Books, 1994. Selected German Sermons: Sermon 5, (Pg 127/128) 31 Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island, Burns & Oates, 1997. 9: The Measure of Charity, (Pg 161) 32 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 4: Spiritual growth in everyday life, (Pg 30) 33 Andrew Harvey, The Way of Passion, Souvenir Press, 2002. Chapter 1 - Journey to Love, (Pg 8) 34 Joel S Goldsmith, The Contemplative Life, L N Fowler & Co, 1963. Chapter ONE - Conscious Awareness, (Pg 5) 35 Emanuel Swedenborg, Divine Providence, Swedenborg Society, 1949. Chapter IV: There are Laws of the Divine Providence, and these are unknown to man, (Pg 127)

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36 Oliver Davies, Meister Eckhart - Selected Writings, Penguin Books, 1994. Notes on Selected German Sermons: (Pg 288 note 80) 37 Andrew Harvey, The Direct Path, Rider & Co, 2000. Two: Practicing the Path - Eighteen Sacred Practices for Transformed Spiritual Living, (Pg 150 / 151) 38 Arthur David Waley, The Way and its Power, George, Allen & Unwin, 1936. Tao Te Ching: Chapter I 39 Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S., Man and the Universe, Methuen & Co, 1912. Section III - Science and Christianity: Chapter VI - Suggestions Towards the Re-interpretation of Christian Doctrine: II Reality, (Pg 128) 40 Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, Faber & Faber, 1992. Part One: Callistus and Ignatius of Xanthopoulos - Directions to Hesychasts – 86, (Pg 253) 41 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. On Selfishness, (Pg 25) 42 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Make Life More Interesting, (Pg 17) 43 Grace Cooke, The Jewel in the Lotus, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1973. VII - The Value of Meditation in Everyday Life, (Pg 60) 44 Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows, Pathway of the Immortal, International Publications Inc, 1980. Chapter VII: Stairway to the Stars, (Pg 128) 45 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 1: Chapter IV - Early Mysticism in the Near East, (Pg 61) 46 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter XXV: Spiritual Exercises, (Pg 282) 47 Bede Griffiths, Return to the Centre, Collins, Fount Paperbacks, 1978. 13. Death and Resurrection, (Pg 90) 48 Marie Cherrie, The Barbanell Report, Pilgrim Books, 1987. Part I: Seventeen - 12th April 1985, (Pg 94 & 95) 49 Evelyn Underhill, Concerning the Inner Life, Oneworld, 1999. Part III - Contemplation and Creative Work, (Pg 82) 50 Leila Ward (compiler), An Exercise of the Spirit, Quaker Home Service, 1984. 15 Colin, (Pg 26) 51 J R Puri & V K Sethi, Saint Namdev, Radha Soami Satsang Beas, 1978. Part II: Selected Poems of Namdev - The True Saint, [Shri Namdev Gatha, poem 841] (Pg 23) 52 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part TWO:The Mystic Way: Chapter IV - The Illumination of the Self, (Pg 234) 53 Henry Drummond, Natural Law in the Spirit World, Hodder & Stoughton, 1899. Mortification, (Pg 195) 54 Cyprian, CYPRIAN De Lapsis and De Ecclesiae Catholicae Unitate, Oxford University Press, 1971. The Lapsed – 11, (Pg 17) 55 Baltasar Gracián, The Art of Worldly Wisdom - A pocket Oracle, Mandarin, 1995. Aphorism 192: (Pg 109) 56 William Stainton Moses, Spirit Teachings, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Section XXXII, (Pg 280) 57 Arthur David Waley, The Way and its Power, George, Allen & Unwin, 1936. Tao Te Ching: Chapter XXXIII, (Pg 184) 58 Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, Faber & Faber, 1992. Part One: Callistus and Ignatius of Xanthopoulos - Directions to Hesychasts – 14, (Pg 175) 59 Leslie D Weatherhead, A Shepherd Remembers - A Devotional Study of The Twenty-Third Psalm, Hodder & Stoughton, 1960. Chapter 5: The Paths of Righteousness, (Pg 110) 60 Evelyn Underhill, The House of the Soul, Methuen & Co, 1929. Chapter IV, (Pg 61) 61 Cyprian Smith, The Way of Paradox [spiritual life as taught by Meister Eckhart], Darton Longman and Todd, 1996. 7 The Way and the Goal, (Pg 97 / 98) 62 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 2: Chapter X - Some Early Sufi Mystics, (Pg 221) 63 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 1: Chapter V - Early Mysticism in the Middle East, (Pg 98) 64 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter III: Personality, Sanctity, Divine Incarnation, (Pg 44) 65 Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, Faber & Faber, 1992. Part Two: Hesychius of Jerusalem to Theodulus - Texts on Sobriety and Prayer – 31, (Pg 285) 66 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XIII: Orthodoxy - Experience, July 19, 1922, (Pg 341) 67 The Rev. C. Drayton Thomas, Beyond Life's Sunset, Psychic Press, Undated. Chapter XI: Religion in the Spirit World, (Pg 73)

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15.15: Spiritual Development and Life Changes

As soon as you realise the existence of the Cosmic Laws, in particular the ones which say that your soul will live for ever and the Law of Cause and effect, then you will want to live your life according to them. In short, this means that you will trigger your Spiritual Development. Once you do then you will change. Inevitably it will touch every aspect of your life because what you honestly believe will impact upon how you conduct yourself. This has been known for many years and in William Watkinson’s introduction to his 1898 thesis on ‘The Influence of Scepticism on Character’ he recognised that: 1

…human character is affected by belief.

In more recent times, Morton Kelsey, whose writings focus on Christian spirituality, wrote about those taking this spiritual pathway: 2

It is a way of life for people who actually feel a need for it and who have become conscious of their need.

...and staying with the Christian theme, Joyce Hugget, a missionary living in Cyprus understood that: 3

...change for the Christian is an inevitability.

And with the backdrop of early Chinese philosophy, Michael Puett and Christine Gross- Loh confirmed that: 4

We are always changing.

This is a reflection of the Taoist philosophy which the Unitarian minister William Houff believed emphasised: 5

...the idea of adaptability, acceptance, harmony, and tranquillity.

This concept is because everything on this earth is changing imperceptibly and continuously. C S Lewis in ‘The Screwtape Letters’ put the following ideas into the words of senior demon Screwtape who considered that all humans are amphibians: 6

...half spirit and half animal... As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time. This means that while their spirit can be directed to an external object, their bodies, passions, and imaginations are in continual change, for to be in time means to change.

In fact, change is a necessary part of everyone’s life. The Chinese-American author and physician Adeline Yen Mah, with her feet in both the East and the West realised that: 7

Change is the only given ... nothing remains the same and all standards are relative. We are born, we mature, grow old and die. Then the cycle begins again. Life and death are but temporary manifestations of the same central reality. Midnight at home means midday somewhere else. Only the fact of change itself is

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unchanging.

Joseph Sharp, who has been a chaplain for the terminally ill at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, Texas, and an AIDS victim himself, understood from his own experience that change is important and inevitable: 8

From the experiential awakening we can come to understand that nothing in life is permanent, the only constant being change itself. As we work with this, we watch our own bizarre attempts to build some kind of permanence. It spans the breadth of the dramatic, such as denying a terminal diagnosis, to the mundane, such as believing that we must keep the kitchen counters spotlessly clean. Each is a way of denying the ever-changing reality of life, and so denying the great ongoing dying process of life. It is in becoming conscious of this greater dying that we begin to see our attempts at maintaining the illusion of permanence. We begin to notice how we have illusions of permanence in all aspects of our lives: relationships, jobs, living circumstances, and especially our bodies (such as keeping a certain weight or hair colour). We recognise how attached we are to controlling and restricting change – how we want to avoid pain at all costs, which is to avoid change.

Accept that change is inevitable and live your life with this in mind. Such change is not always immediately obvious as being beneficial. As you follow your spiritual destiny, do not expect all the gifts that you have to be expanded. Often the ones you think will remain and increase will be the ones you have to discard and replace. The medium Beatrice Russell, in her small but valuable book ‘Beyond the Veils through Meditation’, was advised by her spirit guide: 9

You will find as you develop … that there will be a sifting and transforming of your nature; you may obtain fresh gifts, new faculties, and others may be discarded.

And being more specific, Paul Miller wrote of the 19 th century medium Cora Tappan: 10

When she was 15, the power of healing was taken away and her energy was devoted to teaching and speaking.

Notice that the comment was that the gifts were taken away – Cora seemed to have no choice in the matter. Perhaps this had been agreed by her and those guiding her before she started her then current earthly life. This sort of change is part of the spiritual journey and therefore should be welcomed. I suppose one of the greatest types of change is the so- called ‘Damascus’ event; one where there is a sudden realisation that we should have a spiritual and not material focus in our lives. It is often considered that this is the result of God’s intervention, as described in the ‘Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart’; 11

If we have been converted and have mended our ways, it did not come from ourselves but was a gift from God.

This was echoed by Joyce Huggett who in her own style believed that: 12

For God invites us, not to stagnate in our spiritual life, but to change and to go on

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being changed.

This may, indirectly, be the case but I think that most stimuli come either from our inner self or intuitively from the Spirit World. Irrespective of the stimulus, we must accept that, as Joseph Sharp noted: 13

Our life experience is made of constant change. Our physical health changes. Our moods change. Our intellectual knowledge, the people whose company we keep, our desires all change. Even our beliefs about God, death, and dying change.

Everything is in a state of change and were we to open our eyes, it would be evidential. Joseph Sharp confirmed this with the statement: 14

We see change / dying everywhere as the universal constant of earthly life.

The more spiritually aware we become, the greater the changes we may have to make. Michael Newton, based on his extensive research using past life regression, believed that we are all going through this change: 15

We are all in a process of transformation to something greater than our current state of enlightenment.

And what sort of changes does this involve. The Christian theologian Leslie Weatherhead understood that there are three types of change that are required: 16

Firstly, a changed reaction to life. .. Secondly, a changed motive in daily work. .. Thirdly, a changed attitude to men and women. ..

…and he became a little more specific and wrote: 17

It is a new, positive change of direction which affects the whole of life, the use of our time, our money, our leisure, our talents, the way we do trivial things and the way we react to other people.

Evelyn Underhill put it less specifically in her famous mystical book entitled ‘Mysticism’ where she talked about spiritual development: 18

…involving the movement of consciousness from lower to higher levels of reality, the steady remaking of character in accordance with the 'independent spiritual world.'

She also expanded this slightly in a later book ‘The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today’: 19

We are now in a position to say that the first necessity of the life of the Spirit is the sublimation of the instinctive life, involving the transfer of our interest and energy to new objectives, the giving of our old vigour to new longings and new loves.

I don’t really think it worth my while trying to pin-point those aspects of your character

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:15:17 15.15 Spiritual Development and Life Changes Page 4 of 15 that may change. All I can confirm is that something will change and initially it may not be too obvious. The most religious may offer something like St Augustine in his famous ‘Confessions’: 20

And Thou knowest how far Thou hast already changed me...

The English religious philosopher and Anglican priest had this to say about the relationship of God and the change we make: 21

...the religious requirement is an impersonal categorically-binding unconditional principle against which we bounce ourselves, and which breaks and remakes us simply by being itself so utterly unyielding. It is the immutability of God, his eternal silent waiting without batting an eyelid, that forces us to confess everything. What an interrogator! He does not lift a finger and yet he gets everything he wants.

Or, in more familiar terms from the commentator on religion, psychology and mysticism Peter Spink: 22

The inner journey is by its very nature a secret and hidden way.

Yes! The journey starts within each of us. Once this happens we will start to change to become, imperceptively at first, different people. The Jesuit Gerald Hughes appreciated this potential for personal development and wrote: 23

When I begin to see the reality around me in a different way, then my behaviour will begin to change.

This is a gradual process as spirituality increases. It is secret, it is tenuous but eventually people will see a difference in our attitude and approach to life. In the personal writings of St Ignatius we are made aware that his own brother, like everyone else in the house: 24

…gradually realised from the outside the change that had been made inwardly in his [Ignatius] soul.

External observation is not only in our approach to life and the changes we have made, but also in our physical appearance. We are never the person we used to be. We have a completely different set of cells which comprise our body than we did 7 years ago. Physical and mental changes abound as the healing counsellor Alan Young identified: 25

Life involves continuous change, and birth and death are just two of the changes that we all experience. The atoms, molecules, and cells of our body are constantly dying (changing form), and being reborn.

Everything around us and linked to us is also in a state of flux. We cannot imagine what our circumstances will be in seven years time let alone what our bodies will be like. As our lives develop new opportunities emerge as old ways and situations are left behind. You cannot plan out what your life will become. In order to progress we have to accept the changes, ‘go with the flow’, and amend our ways accordingly. This ancient Chinese philosophy from the sage Mencius was encapsulated by Michael Puett and Christine Gross- Loh who wrote that over time: 26

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...you open up paths that you could not have imagined, out of which emerge options that you never would have seen before. Over time, you actually become a different person.

This incorporates every aspect of our lives. Physical change we readily notice and often try to prevent or disguise. The important changes, however, are spiritual. When they start to happen then we begin to automatically reflect to others the spirituality which is within us; we become a mirror of the Divine. This was confirmed by English Anglican priest Martin who wrote: 27

The proof of spiritual advancement lies in the altered character of the aspirant. His personality radiates a light - indeed from the uncreated light of God - that illuminates the world around him.

This radiance is a consequence of the changes to your inner essence; and the way you present yourself to the world. The first change is made when you decide to take up the baton of spiritual development, and thereafter change falls in step with your improving spirituality. The life-changing nature of this decision was expressed colloquially by Peter Meadows: 28

Yes, I do believe with every nid of my noddle that the decision in question is by far the most significant you will ever take. It's a life-changing, destiny re-routing resolution with no equal.

Being a mirror of the Divine, for most of us, is a seemingly unattainable goal. However, we all start somewhere and even that incurs noticeable change, as Joel Goldsmith realised: 29

The person who rises even slightly into spiritual realisation becomes in a small degree free of material and mental powers, a freedom noticeable in life even if only in a measure.

When I took my first steps on the spiritual road I remember thinking what an exciting adventure I was embarking upon. It appeared to me that I was like the Victorian explorers in the depths of the Amazon rainforest: what will I encounter next. In her book ‘Concerning the Inner Life’, Evelyn Underhill wrote: 30

Moreover those who do this work [spiritual] are commonly themselves growing and changing; they have not arrived, but are travelling and exploring as they do.

Jesus the Nazarene invited us all to look at the way we view life and everyone and everything around us. The Quaker John Punshon realised that from the time of Jesus’ first appearance in public ministry: 31

Jesus calls on people to change.

...and Leslie Weatherhead put the following words in to Jesus’ mouth: 32

"Change your way of looking at life," cried Jesus...

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This is not a straight forward process and it starts with realising our own imperfections and limitations and recognising that change is necessary. The psychic Heidi Sawyer says that we should discard the adage: 33

...'you can't teach an old dog new tricks' (and its cousin 'you can't teach a new dog old tricks') - for you certainly can if the dog really wants to learn! Anything can be changed if a person is willing to trust him - or herself and work on it.

We are all capable of improvement. The changes that are instilled in everyone who undertakes the journey mean that when we ‘return’ from our exploration we are different people. Change of our underlying essence comes through study and experience of life; from expanded understanding. The more we change our Philosophy of Life the more we change our attitude. In the third talk in the Oak Grove given in June 1934, the spiritual teacher Jiddu Krishnamurti said that discovery of the understanding of the environment in which we live: 34

...is true adjustment, not the adjustment to a particular pattern or condition, but the adjustment through understanding, which is therefore free of the particular condition.

It is through discovering new truths that our personality really gets the stimulus to change. The Benedictine monk from Ampleforth Abbey in England, Aelred Graham also recognised the impact new truths may have on our spiritual progress: 35

In fact, it is perhaps no more than a truism to say that the spiritual life develops and intensifies, or stagnates and weakens, in proportion to our responsiveness or insensibility to truth as here understood.

There seem to be two types of truth; those which are about learning new and exciting ideas and the second sort is from understanding more about ourselves. Of this latter type, maybe there is one burning trait of ours which needs significant adjustment. The Spanish dissident Jesuit whose writings have been praised by many a philosopher, suggested that as part of our appreciation of our self, we ought to recognise the primary trait which needs to be changed or acquired: 36

Know what piece you are missing. Many would be complete people if they had the piece they needed to reach the height of perfection. Some would be much if they paid attention to very little. Some lack seriousness, and this darkens great talents. Others lack gentleness, which is something their friends and family miss very quickly, especially when they hold power. Some lack quick execution, and others the ability to stop and meditate. If they noticed these defects, they could easily make up for them.

Many other commentators would suggest that we look at the whole array of faults and meet each as a challenge. For the healer Agnes Sanford, this was the primary route: 37

One needs first to see one's own faults clearly...

...and she added that change: 38

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...is like seeing in our minds a beautiful picture and painting it and then examining it when the glow of inspiration has faded out in order to see its mistakes and correct them. First we create, then we look at the created thing to see if it is good, then we correct those things that can be improved.

Taking this holistic view of our traits could lead us to follow the advice of the Russian Orthodox theologian Theophan the Recluse who recommended that we should be very methodological and: 39

...write down your shortcomings as soon as you are aware of them, and then write out a prescription for how you intend to correct them.

In fact, perhaps the simplest method could be: at the point at which we recognise a fault to exist, then that would be the best time to examine it in detail and lay plans to change it.

Another approach would be to look at all the thoughts, words and deeds which we have done and compare them to what would have been the case if Love were our driver. In ‘Divine Adjustment’ Henry Thomas Hamblin took this as a metric and wrote: 40

Love is the key to every situation in life. What would LOVE do? is a question which, if asked in the face of annoying and exasperating experiences, will always lead us into the right path of action, so that we are enabled to do just the right thing, through which harmony can be either maintained or restored.

Once we have done this, we can look at our traits and identify what needs to be changed in order to bring the result automatically into being. This is a positive way of looking at our characteristics. If we adopted the opposite perspective then always looking for the negative side could lead to a negative approach to life. This should never happen. If you feel this starting to emerge, then look at the spiritual advances that you have made and release the joy from such revelations. Sherwood Wirt provided a confirming extract from the 17 th century Lutheran theologian Philip Jacob Spener’s treatise ‘Pia Desideria’ in which he remarked that: 41

If we can bring the people to find their joy by eagerly and zealously searching in the Book of Life, then their spiritual life will be wondrously strengthened and they will become altogether different individuals.

Change comes in many forms. The British journalist Hazel Courteney, who specialises in alternative health and spiritual issues, from her own spiritual experience supported the view that we will always be supported in our process of spiritual change: 42

You can change your attitude and decide that somehow you are going to help yourself and make a difference. And believe me, once you have offered to work for the light, help will come when you least expect it often from unusual sources.

What tends to happen, in parallel with this personal search, is an increase in the help that we can get from our spirit guides and friends. This too will, through our intuitive qualities, bring to us more knowledge, more experience and more understanding of spiritual matters. Taking more words from Evelyn Underhill this time from her book ‘Abba’: 43

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Again and again freshness, novelty, power from beyond the world, break in by unexpected paths, bringing unexpected change.

If this is the case then we must be ready, as Lorna Byrne recommended, to acknowledge the help that we get: 44

As you grow, spiritually, you will find that you won't be afraid to acknowledge God, his angels or any spiritual being that has come from the heavens.

Not only will wear our hearts on our sleeves, but our future will be greatly enhanced. A spirit communicating through Irene Bays indicated that, perhaps, in later lives we will be able to visit currently unknown areas because of the spiritual development that we have now started. This spirit said that: 45

Through the teachings that you have had, understandings that have been given to you, providing you go forward doing those things that will be advised, you will have earned the right to visit other Spheres.

But that is in the distant future and doesn’t really concern us at the moment. Although it does indicate that our guiding spirits have aspirations of our future spirituality. So we have the wherewithal to appropriately develop and this process is very adequately supported by our spirit guides and other helpers. This combination leads to new ways of living and expressing our selves will lead to further expansions in our characteristics. This was expressed in the book ‘God and the Evolving Universe’ written by James Redfield, Michael Murphy, and Silvia Timbers: 46

...fundamental principles: first, that our present nature, if respected, will support our cultivation of its latent capacities; and second, that we are assisted in this by a higher presence or power. And these two principles involve a third. To nurture all of our emergent attributes, we can turn to practices that produce many positive changes at once.

To reach this stage, we need all the help that we can get. The shedding of old ways and rebuilding ourselves in the light of our new experiences is a difficult process recognised by all the mystics. One was St. Cuthbert who, according to Douglas Dales, said: 47

Drawing close to God was not always a comfortable experience

And it is all very complicated. The experience which Michael Newton gained from his research led him to appreciate that: 48

Soul development is a complex matter where we all progress by degrees in a variety of areas in an uneven manner. The important thing is to recognize our faults, avoid self-denial, and have the courage and self-sufficiency to make constant adjustments in our lives.

We certainly need courage; the eventful journey upon which we have embarked will bring out the best in us. I think that Rick Warren, the American evangelical Christian pastor, captured the essence of such changes: 49

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There is no growth without change; there is no change without fear or loss; and there is no loss without pain. Every change involves a loss of some kind: You must let go of old ways in order to experience the new. We fear these losses, even if our old ways were self defeating, because, like a worn out pair of shoes, they were at least comfortable and familiar .

Change is often so frightening as Rabbi Jonathan Sacks recognised: 50

Change, even change for the better, can be disorienting, threatening, traumatic. That is why the twenty-first century, with its non-stop transformations, will be deeply unsettling.

Heidi Sawyer knew the importance of spiritual development in letting go of our fears: 51

...many people who choose to develop the spiritual and psychic side of their nature lose their old fears and begin to establish a strong inner confidence and trust.

Nevertheless, change is something that happens to every aspect of our lives – nothing is permanent as Joseph Sharp realised: 52

Living our dying invites us to recognise the ‘illusion of permanence’ in all aspects of life: our careers, relationships, belief systems, emotional states, finances, health, intellect, confidence – the list is endless. Nothing in our life is truly permanent; everything changes. When we ask, “What’s dying?” the response becomes, “Everything.”

Our response to knowing that transformation of our live is inevitable then we must learn not to hold on to those aspects of life which we must jettison. The medium Gordon Smith said that learning this lesson: 53

...is the first step in allowing your consciousness to expand. Letting go of fear of situations you cannot change will also gently open up the mind to other levels of consciousness.

In other words, as expressed by Joyce Huggett, we must learn to: 54

...hold lightly to things and people and the past!

Letting go of the past, too, may involve not only our desires and aspirations but personal relationships as well. In my experience I have noticed that very few of the relationships I have been lucky to have within my life were permanent. They existed for a while for the benefit of both parties and then other relationships emerged and took their place. Don’t be afraid to let them change. On the theme of change, Thomas Merton, that 20 th century Trappist monk and mystic, wrote: 55

Whoever you are, the land to which God has brought you is not like the land of Egypt from which you came out. You can no longer live here as you lived there. Your old likes and your former ways are crucified now, and you must not seek to live any more for your own gratification, but give up your own judgment into the hands of a wise director, and sacrifice your pleasures and comforts for the love of

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God and give to the poor the money you no longer spend on those things.

Leslie Weatherhead, provided us with a specific example of where a quantum change in perception had a significant impact. He recalls a situation he read about in ‘Modern Theory and Practice of Healing’ by Dr. Howard E. Collier where it was noted that a changed approach to life improved physical health: 56

On a sunny November morning I was descending a hillside when I was aware with deep emotion that a clean cut must be made with the past. I must cease striving for my own ends and purposes, must cheerfully embrace whatever plans or purposes God might have for me; must be prepared to be well or ill: must subject my hitherto dominant self to the one purpose of the Lord of Life for me. As I did so, a deep Peace followed and spread out to Joy. For inward strife and chaos were given Peace and Joy. At such times we experience a lightness of heart, and adventurous abandon, which he who calculates chances in the lottery of life can never know nor comprehend. From this time on my physical health steadily improved. Here we find, I am persuaded, the essential living core of Spiritual Healing. It arises from the glad submission of the self as a whole, and as a personality, to the Will of God for us. To heal is to make whole: to be healed is to be made whole. It was in this manner that the Healer came to me.

A single change that happens due to our spiritual development will have many other consequences. For example, understanding that there is life after death and the importance of our eternal life will foster in us a changed attitude to the material world which recognises its transience. That being the case, we start to place less and less importance on the material aspects of living. Hence our total set of values change which fits in with Martin Israel’s views that: 57

As we grow in spiritual knowledge, so our conception of the good increases...

…and in Rick Warren’s paraphrase of Brother Lawrence’s approach to life: 58

The key to friendship with God, he [Brother Lawrence] said, is not changing what you do, but changing your attitude toward what you do.

Evelyn Underhill, too, recognised that our whole set of values would be subject to alteration: 59

Therefore it is plain that the smallest and humblest beginning of such a life in ourselves and this inquiry is useless unless it be made to speak to our own condition will entail not merely an addition to life, but for us too a change in our whole scale of values, a self-dedication.

Perhaps all of our current characteristics will change or should I say will need to change as a consequence of our expanding spiritual agenda. Watchman Nee, a church leader and Christian teacher who worked in China during the first half of the 20th century, believed that: 60

Gentleness is a most necessary feature of the inner man

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Whereas the educationalist and visionary Rudolf Steiner listed a whole range of qualities which must be altered: 61

To the qualities which, like anger and vexation, have to be combated, belong such as ambition, timidity, curiosity, superstition, conceit, the disease of prejudice, a needless love of gossip, and the making of distinction in regard of human beings according to the merely outward marks of rank, sex, race, and so forth. In our time it is difficult for people to comprehend that the combating of such qualities can have any connection with an increase of capacity for knowledge.

Whatever changes we make always happen slowly; spiritual development is a slow and lengthy process. Every change needs to be consolidated before the next one can even start. A point also made by the mystic Henry Thomas Hamblin: 62

In order to advance, we must make use of the Truth which we already have.

The foundations of our character must be well laid; no house can exist for long if built on sand. Christopher Jamison, the Abbot of the Benedictine Monastery, Worth Abbey, expressed the change in our values as: 63

The real task of being true to oneself is a slow and profound work; it is not a fixed way but involves search and change.

And from Leslie Weatherhead, a more historically Christian perspective: 64

Men who walked with Jesus were not changed in the twinkling of an eye.

The consolidation of our improving spiritual awareness is not determined by the passage of time but by the knowledge and experience we gain. This is why all beneficial change is slow. Brian Weiss, an American psychiatrist who researched into reincarnation, past life regression, future-life progression and survival of the human soul after death, wrote: 65

At a higher level, time is measured in lessons learned, though on Earth it is chronological.

One aspect of all change which our character’s make is that often we do not recognise that it is happening. That is the nature of such development. The spirit of Maurice Barbanell in his communications to Paul Beard through the medium Marie Cherrie told us that from his experience in the Spirit World: 66

I find that you can only judge progress in retrospect, but not when it is happening, for the change is so insidious you are not aware of it, it does not rush over you, it creeps over you.

This seeking, searching, lifting of life’s stones to see what is underneath is a very personal affair. Certainly others can help but, at the end of the day, it is your own responsibility to progress. Because of this, it often seems a lonely path to tread. Silver Birch, guiding us from the Spirit World, told us that: 67

...spiritual attainment must be a lonely, solitary path that gets more and more

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isolated the farther you reach because you have to leave familiar landmarks behind .

In concert with this, Father Andrew remarked: 68

The further one advances in spiritual ways, the less lonely and the more alone one becomes.

This subtle difference between loneliness and being alone is important. No one pursuing the spiritual pathway will ever feel bereft of company. Spirit guides and helpers are always there supporting our improvements, nevertheless, as Jostein Saether noticed: 69

The inner creative path is usually deeply solitary...

In your quiet times; in your thoughtful moments when you are alone, it is at these times when spiritual guidance often comes. When you are contemplating some spiritual idea you will feel the proximity of the Spirit World. It is at these times when you realise that you are never alone.

This relationship that you have with Spirit started long before you were born. There, together with those who are spiritually advanced, you and your guide planned the major events that were to happen in your life. The implication, therefore, is that you develop your experience and character so that you are able to meet your planned goals. Again referring to Silver Birch: 70

The plan does not change. You have to change to fit into the plan.

The real difficulty is that, whilst living our earthly life, we do not remember the pre-life plan. This means that often there are unexpected twists and turns in our life which in no way could we predict. In her book ‘The Spiritual Life’ Evelyn Underhill mentions some of those people who had major discontinuities in their lives: 71

St. Paul did not want to be an apostle to the Gentiles. He wanted to be a clever and appreciated young Jewish scholar, and kicked against the pricks. St. Ambrose and St. Augustine did not want to be overworked and worried bishops. Nothing was farther from their intention. St. Cuthbert wanted the solitude and freedom of his hermitage on the Farne; but he did not often get there. St. Francis Xavier’s preference was for an ordered life close to his beloved master, St. Ignatius. At a few hours’ notice he was sent out to be the Apostle of the Indies and never returned to Europe again. Henry Martyn, the fragile and exquisite scholar, was compelled to sacrifice the intellectual life to which he was so perfectly fitted for the missionary life to which he felt he was decisively called. In all these, a power beyond themselves decided the direction of life. Yet in all we recognise not frustration, but the highest of all types of achievement.

Another example came from the Welsh journalist and television produced Jeffrey Iverson. In his book ‘In Search of the Dead’ he recalled a person’s changed approach after a Near Death Experience: 72

My whole personality really changed, because from being aimless, just drifting, I really became focussed on going away to New York and becoming an artist. I knew

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this was what I had to do and it would all come out all right. It also made me much more tolerant of all types of people. Before I was a very difficult child. I always had to have my own way. Now I became a bit more mellow and tolerant, and just wanting to see the whole world. I had a feeling of harmony that I never had, which is the most important thing.

The Sufi Idries Shah provided a graphical picture which may help to crystallise what is happening during this changing process: 73

We can take life as a journey and, looking at the way in which people imagine things are going to be, find that there are interventions, now and then, which change that course. Once changed, of course, that destiny is again assumed to be linear, and it goes ahead until another intervention once more confounds the pattern. Then, by hindsight, people start the process all over again, assuming that the linear form will continue...

So don’t expect your life to stay in the narrow lane which you are currently walking; it may open out into vistas unimagined and paths untrodden by others. To demonstrate the power that we are now developing through forging our spiritual pathway Greg Braden, one of the New Age American authors, compared what we do to the program of a computer: 74

If we think of the entire universe as a massive consciousness computer, then consciousness itself is the operating system, and reality is the output. Just as a computer's operating system is fixed and changes must come from the programs that speak to it, in order to change our world, we must alter the programs that make sense to reality: feelings, emotions, prayers, and beliefs.

It is what each of us do that can change the world – we should all take up this challenge and apply our spirituality to humanity and our environment.

1 William L Watkinson, The Influence of Scepticism on Character, Charles H Kelly, 1898. The Influence of Scepticism on Character, (Pg 1) 2 Morton T Kelsey, The Other Side of Silence, SPCK, 1985. Part Two: The Basic Climate for Meditation - 5: Cracking the Husk: Man's Need for God, (Pg 56) 3 Joyce Huggett, Listening To God, Hodder & Stoughton, 1988. Chapter 18: Another Piece of the Scaffolding: the Listening Group, (Pg 202) 4 Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh, The Path, Viking, 2016. 3: On Relationships: Confucius and As-If Rituals, (Pg 45) 5 William Houff, Infinity in Your Hand, Skinner House Books, 1994. Chapter 10: Taoism, the Natural Spirituality - Or, the joy of dragging one's tail in the mud, (Pg 109) 6 C S Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, Fount, 1977. VIII, (Pg 44)

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7 Adeline Yen Mah, Watching The Tree, Harper Collins, 2001. 2 Light at the End of the Tunnel, (Pg 23) 8 Joseph Sharp, Living Our Dying - A Way to the Sacred in Everyday Life, Rider & Co, 1996. Part IV: Living Our Dying – Chapter 10: Intimacy with All Things, (Pg 211) 9 Beatrice Russell, Beyond the Veils through Meditation, Lincoln Philosophical Research Foundation, 1986. The Superficial 'I', (Pg 37 / 38) 10 Paul Miller, Cavalcade of the Spirit, Volume I, The Psychic Book Club, 1943. Oratory from Beyond, (Pg 32) 11 Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, Faber & Faber, 1992. Part Two: St Barsanuphius and St John - Directions in Spiritual Work – 42, (Pg 356) 12 Joyce Huggett, Listening To God, Hodder & Stoughton, 1988. Preface, (Pg 14) 13 Joseph Sharp, Living Our Dying - A Way to the Sacred in Everyday Life, Rider & Co, 1996. Part III: Going Deeper – Chapter 6: The Mirror: Being Alive with Someone As They Die, (Pg 134) 14 Joseph Sharp, Living Our Dying - A Way to the Sacred in Everyday Life, Rider & Co, 1996. Part II: Inviting Dying into Everyday Life – Chapter 2: Effort, Pushing Through:Some Basic Practices. (Pg 38) 15 Michael Newton, Destiny of Souls: New Case Studies of Life Between Lives, Llewellyn Publications, 2005. 1: The Spirit World, (Pg 6) 16 Leslie D Weatherhead, How Can I Find God?, Hodder & Stoughton, 1965. Part III: How shall I know if I have found Him? (Pg 109 through 114) 17 Leslie D Weatherhead, How Can I Find God?, Hodder & Stoughton, 1965. Part I: Are we hiding from Him? - I: In Refusing to Repent? (Pg 16) 18 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part TWO:The Mystic Way: Introductory, (Pg 168/169) 19 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter III Psychology and the life of the Spirit: (I) The Analysis of Mind, (Pg 75) 20 The Confessions of S. Augustine, Seeley & Co, 1909. Book the Tenth, (XXXVI) 21 Don Cupitt, Taking Leave of God, SCM Press, 2001. 7 The Meaning of God, (Pg 101) 22 Peter Spink, Beyond Belief, Judy Piatkus, 1996. 10: Between Two Worlds, (Pg 151) 23 Gerard W Hughes, God in all Things, Hodder & Stoughton, 2004. Chapter Three: Down-to-Earth Holiness - Acknowledging Our Failures is to Begin to Change, (Pg 47) 24 Saint Ignatius of Loyola: Personal Writings, Penguin Books, 1996. Reminiscences (Autobiography): 1. Loyola, (Pg 16) 25 Alan Young, Cosmic Healing, DeVorss & Co, 1988. 11 Synthesis – Death, (Pg 143) 26 Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh, The Path, Viking, 2016. 4: On Decisions: Mencius and the Capricious World, (Pg 81) 27 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 16: Discerning the spiritual path, (Pg 124) 28 Peter Meadows, Joseph Steinberg and Donna Vann, Beyond Belief? Word Publishing, 1999. Chapter 13: Grateful dead, (Pg 141) 29 Joel S Goldsmith, The Contemplative Life, L N Fowler & Co, 1963. Chapter FIVE - Steps on the Path of Illumination, (Pg 75) 30 Evelyn Underhill, Concerning the Inner Life, Oneworld, 1999. Part III - Contemplation and Creative Work, (Pg 90) 31 John Punshon, Encounter With Silence, Friends United Press, 1989. An Experience of Unprogrammed Worship - Speaking Comfortably to God, (Pg 41) 32 Leslie D Weatherhead, How Can I Find God?, Hodder & Stoughton, 1965. Part I: Are we hiding from Him? - I: In Refusing to Repent? (Pg 18) 33 Heidi Sawyer, Why My Mother Didn't Want Me To Be Psychic, Hay House, 2008. Chapter 5: When Choosing a Psychic - Consider ... Self-development, (Pg 64) 34 Krishnamurti, Authentic Report of Twelve Talks given by Krishnamurti, The Star Publishing Trust, 1934. Third talk in The Oak Grove (June 18, 1934), (Pg 19) 35 Dom Aelred Graham, Christian Thought in Action, The Catholic Book Club, 1958. Chapter One: What Is the Spiritual Life? (Pg 17) 36 Baltasar Gracián, The Art of Worldly Wisdom - A pocket Oracle, Mandarin, 1995. Aphorism 238: (Pg 135) 37 Agnes Sanford, The Healing Light, Arthur James, 1985. Chapter XI: The Healing of the Emotions, (Pg 139) 38 Agnes Sanford, The Healing Light, Arthur James, 1985. Chapter XII: The Healing Power of Forgiveness, (Pg 143) 39 St. Theophan the Recluse, The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to it, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1995. 36 The Mystery of Repentance and Communion, (Pg 165) 40 Henry Thomas Hamblin, Divine Adjustment, The Science of Thought Press, 1998. Chapter Five: A New Vision, (Pg 70)

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41 Sherwood Eliot Wirt, Exploring the Spiritual Life, Lion Books, 1985. 13 - from Pia Desideria by Philip Jacob Spener, (Pg 187) 42 Hazel Courteney, Divine Intervention, Cico Books, 2002. Chapter 18: The Higher Realms, (Pg 233) 43 Evelyn Underhill, The Fruits of the Spirit; Light of Christ; Abba, Longmans, Green and Co, 1957. Abba: Chapter IV - The Kingdom, (Pg 33) 44 Lorna Byrne, Angels in my Hair, Century, 2008. Chapter Sixteen: The Tunnel, (Pg 181) 45 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part Three: Chapter XIII - Interplanetary Visitors (Planet of Light), (Pg 370) 46 James Redfield, Michael Murphy, Silvia Timbers, God and the Evolving Universe, Bantam Press, 2002. Part Four - Practices and Readings: 16 Transformative Practice: Basic Principles of Transformative Practice, (Pg 222) 47 Douglas Dales, Called to be Angels, Canterbury Press, 1998. Cuthbert, (Pg 35) 48 Michael Newton, Journey of Souls, Llewellyn Publications, 2009. Chapter Nine: The Beginner Soul, (Pg 127) 49 Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, Zondervan, 2002. It takes Time, (Pg 220) 50 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 4 - Control: The Imperative of Responsibility, (Pg 70) 51 Heidi Sawyer, Why My Mother Didn't Want Me To Be Psychic, Hay House, 2008. Chapter 7: Psychic Chakras - the Energetic Dustbins: Energetic Dustbins, (Pg 89) 52 Joseph Sharp, Living Our Dying - A Way to the Sacred in Everyday Life, Rider & Co, 1996. Part III: Going Deeper – Chapter 5: More Stories, Reflections, and Practices, (Pg 109) 53 Gordon Smith, The Unbelievable Truth, Hay House, 2004. Chapter Ten: Consciousness - Fear and Limitation, (Pg 195) 54 Joyce Huggett, Listening To God, Hodder & Stoughton, 1988. Chapter 15: Tempted to Give Up, (Pg 165) 55 Thomas Merton, Elected Silence, Hollis and Carter, 1950. Part Two - The Waters of Contradiction, (Pg 186) 56 Leslie D Weatherhead, Psychology, Religion and Healing, Hodder & Stoughton, 1952. Section Seven: The Needs of the Integrated Personality - Chapter 4: Conclusions and Signposts, (Pg 492) 57 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 4: Spiritual growth in everyday life, (Pg 33) 58 Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, Zondervan, 2002. Becoming Best Friends with God, (Pg 88) 59 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter VI The Life of the Spirit in the Individual, (Pg 150) 60 Watchman Nee, When is My Spirit Normal?, Ministry of Life, 1927. Chapter 4 - The Normalcy of the Spirit - A Gentle Spirit, (Pg 176) 61 Rudolf Steiner, The Way of Initiation, Theosophical Publishing Society, 1912. The Way of Initiation: VII - The Higher Education of the Soul, (Pg 204) 62 Henry Thomas Hamblin, The Book of Daily Readings, The Rally, 1944. October 7, (Pg 140) 63 Christopher Jamison, Finding Sanctuary, Phoenix, 2007. PART TWO: STEP 3 – Obedience, (Pg 85) 64 Leslie D Weatherhead, How Can I Find God?, Hodder & Stoughton, 1965. Part III: How shall I know if I have found Him? (Pg 115) 65 Brian Leslie Weiss, Same Soul, Many Bodies, Piatkus, 2006. Chapter 1 – Immortality, (Pg 13) 66 Marie Cherrie, The Barbanell Report, Pilgrim Books, 1987. Part II: Twenty-Seven - 18th July 1986, (Pg 174) 67 Anne Dooley, Guidance from Silver Birch, Spiritualist Press, 1966. Chapter Two: Who Are You? (Pg 22) 68 Father Andrew SDC, In the Silence, A.R.Mowbray, 1951. Growth in Holiness: I. Our Relationship with God, (Pg 11) 69 Jostein Saether, Living With Invisible People - A karmic autobiography, Clairview, 2001. 2. The spiritual breakthrough and early experiences, (Pg 94) 70 Anne Dooley, Guidance from Silver Birch, Spiritualist Press, 1966. Chapter Five: The Fog of Matter, (Pg 51) 71 Evelyn Underhill, The Spiritual Life, Mowbray, 1984. Part One: What is Spiritual Life? 72 Jeffrey Iverson, In Search of the Dead, BCA, 1993. Part Two: Visions and Voices - Chapter Nine: Sea Changes, (Pg 78) 73 Idries Shah, The Commanding Self, Octagon Press, 1994. Section III: The Cook, (Pg 107) 74 Gregg Braden, The Divine Matrix, Hay House, 2009. Part II: Chapter Eight: Rewriting the Reality Code: 20 keys to conscious creation, (Pg 199)

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15.16: Spiritual Development and Other People

Although I have a whole section on helping other people through a Path of Service, I’ll leave the introduction to this chapter to Beth Collier. In her book ‘Beyond Words’ she discusses the life of prayer which falls neatly into what I would describe as Spiritual Development. When anyone pursues such a life then, as Beth says, there must be a spin-off for society. She continues: 1

By you being a more complete person and more fully used by God, those near you get the person they deserve; the whole you, both outward-looking and reflective, approachable and not an island of superior independence. A happier and more relaxed you, whose shoulders have perhaps grown broader but whose personal needs are seen to matter too; helpful and reliable but not a doormat. Someone whose life is full and demanding whatever the physical, geographical constraints, and who obviously does not entirely depend only on other people for their strength. It is possible to present a calm exterior because there is no feeling that it is necessary to compete with other people in order to prove your worth, because you already feel valued and secure. This state of mind is noticeable to those whom you meet, and may sometimes be remarked on as it makes the general atmosphere of relationships more relaxed.

The Rosicrucian Lonnie C. Edwards captured this in one very short sentence: 2

Relationships characterise our earthly lives.

Another way of looking at the relationship that you have with others has been articulated by a spirit communicator by the name of Dr. Root who, through the mediumship of Mrs Wickland, said: 3

When you do a kind act to another you do it unto God, because he is one part of God and you another. We only serve God when we serve others. Live to serve and do all you can for others, then you will progress in understanding.

This is underpinned by the idea that we are all ‘sparks of God’; chips off the Divine block. There have been many other spirit communicators who stress time and time again that no matter what is the primary objective of anyone’s life, there is always the inherent strategy of working with and helping others. Referring again to Carl Wickland’s experience of the Spirit World, another discarnate, known as Anna H, realised, having lived for a while in the Spirit World, that she now has an understanding of real life: 4

The real life is to serve others, to do good for others, to help others; then you yourself will have help. This brings happiness, which is 'Heaven' - it is the Heaven of Contentment.

Putting it, as Diana Cooper did, in a New Age nutshell: 5

Life on Earth is a team game .

We must accept this as a fact of life for most of us. Certainly there is a small minority who

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:15:46 15.16 Spiritual Development and Other People Page 2 of 15 take the pure contemplative life in monastic surroundings but for most of us we have to strike a balance between our material and spiritual aspects. Be careful not to lean too much towards the material and remember the words of Jack Joseph: 6

The sound of many hands applauding earthly achievements does not add one cubit to spiritual growth.

Even though the material world provides many distractions for the spiritual aspirant, we must continue to take our material responsibilities seriously whilst setting our primary sight on our spiritual development. We need to strike the right balance. Karen Armstrong, known for her books on comparative religion, realised that all religious traditions: 7

...insist that a mystic must integrate his spirituality healthily with the demands of ordinary life.

In coming to a balance our relationships with other people form a significant part in both aspects. Evelyn Underhill, according to Brenda Blanch, believed that our life: 8

…is shared with all other spirits, whether in the body or out of the body to adopt Saint Paul’s words.

And sharing is a two way process; we can help others and others in turn may help us, as the spirit communicating through Beatrice Russell understood: 9

The wonderful part is there are no limits to which we can rise by our own efforts, assisted greatly by the efforts of those around us.

This interdependence was understood by the Russian philosopher Nicolas Berdyaev when he wrote: 10

Spiritual Life includes not only the "I," but also the "we."

Other people are important; very important to our spiritual progress. Not everyone agrees that other people serve to help us along our way. In that terrible play 'Huis Clos', according to Frederick Happold, Jean-Paul Satre summed up the whole tragedy in a single phrase: 11

Hell is other people

This will certainly be the case if enhancing our ego is our metric. Fortunately, that is not the case. We need to recognise how dependent upon other people we really are. Michael Newton in his book ‘Journey of Souls’ stressed this interconnectivity: 12

We bear responsibility in the evolution of a higher consciousness for ourselves and others in life. Thus, our journey is a collective one.

It is interesting to note the impact of children on adults, in particular those who are their parents. Most of the time, it is the parents who are infusing their offspring with the values they will need later on in their life. However, if notice is taken of what their children say and do then the mother and father too can learn. This was noticed by Lorna Byrne who wrote: 13

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Because young children have recently come from Heaven, they are full of love and true spiritual feeling, and in this way they influence their parents and other adults around them .

To demonstrate the impact and innocent spirituality of children, I will retell a passage from ’90 minutes in Heaven’ by the Rev. Don Piper. This Minister at the First Baptist Church in Pasadena, Texas, in describing his Near Death Experience, also told one of his favourite stories about a little girl who left her house and her mother didn't know where she had gone: 14

Once the mother missed her, she worried that something might have happened to her child. She stood on the front porch and yelled her daughter's name several times. Almost immediately the little girl ran from the house next door. The mother hugged her, said she was worried, and finally asked, "Where have you been?" "I went next door to be with Mr. Smith." "Why were you over there?" "His wife died and he is very sad." "Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't know that," the mother said. "What did you do?" "I just helped him cry."

If only we could only support others in the way this little girl did. She opened a door to compassion with an understanding far greater than many adults. Of course the opposite is also true; we have to teach our children that which we wish we were taught. The Chinese- American author Adeline Yen Mah recognised that as well as providing our offspring with knowledge and truths: 15

...it is essential to provide our children with a sense of integrity, morality and self- worth. By giving them the best education that we can afford, along with the opportunity and motivation to pursue their own future, we will have bestowed upon them an heirloom that is much more significant and valuable than any sum of money. Not only can this bequest never be taken away from them, it is a legacy that will mould their character and influence their behaviour for the rest of their lives.

Many people don’t give much thought to how best to raise their children; they just do it and live from day-to-day. No matter what approach parents take to rearing their children, it will never be perfect. The vicar and psychotherapist Peter Mockford realised that: 16

No human being has had perfect parenting, so for all of us there are inbuilt aspects of our personality that work against relationships. These we did not deliberately put in place, but developed in the main to survive. However, because they are adaptations we make when very young, they rarely serve us well relationally when we are older. For example, a child may well have learned to be very quiet when young as otherwise they got hit. In later life, though, this mechanism does not work well relationally, as keeping quiet and not engaging with others does not build relationships. This is a sin in that it works against relationships – it is certainly not the fault of the individual, but they will have to deal with it at some point to develop relationships. Sometimes the effects of our early upbringing are devastating.

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So that each of us needs to come to terms with our developed characteristics and recognise that our relationships with others need to be enhanced in order to continue our own development. From the perspective of the next generation and giving our children the best legacy possible, the better the start we can give them, the better lives they will lead and the more help they can give humanity. More often than not, those who are following their spiritual journey, can, by virtue of their demeanour and general attitude to life, turn the tide for others. The spirit who channelled his inspired thoughts through Irene Bays recognised this to be true: 17

You must, in your way, endeavour to turn the thoughts of people towards a spiritual awareness, a giving out of love, a selflessness.

This does not mean trying to convert everyone you meet to the values that you uphold. The spiritual counsellor Sue Minns understood that: 18

We cannot change anyone but ourselves, and it is not our business to even attempt it.

Everyone has to take personal responsibility for their own progress and where necessary to stand up for it. Arthur Conan Doyle viewed this as a duty: 19

We are bound in honour, I think, to state our own belief, especially to those who are in trouble. Having stated it, we should not force it, but leave the rest to higher wisdom than our own. We wish to subvert no religion. We wish only to bring back the material-minded - to take them out of their cramped valley and put them on the ridge, whence they can breathe purer air and see other valleys and other ridges beyond. Religions are mostly petrified and decayed, overgrown with forms and choked with mysteries. We can prove that there is no need for this. All that is essential is both very simple and very sure.

How true! So the lesson that we have to learn, as articulated by Barry Oates, David Hopkins and Carole Austin in ‘Philosophy of Spiritualism’, is that in support of our family and friends we should always: 20

...be there when needed and never to impose our will unasked on others.

This was a reiteration of the advice provided by White Eagle who indicated that we should not force our opinions on those who doubt our direction in life because: 21

...arguments seldom lead anywhere or convince anyone.

Perhaps as well as outlining our own philosophy, we can do what we are able in terms of encouraging others. Sue Minns, in her book ‘Soulwork - Foundations for Spiritual Growth’ recognised that such encouragement and perhaps positive advice is needed by us all: 22

People grow in confidence when they are encouraged, not when they are continually criticised.

Public mediums, in particular, can be a source of encouragement particularly to those just starting out on their spiritual journey. On this theme the British medium Tony Stockwell

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...always happy to spread the good news that we haven't lost our loved ones, that life is eternal, but it is not my lot in life to convince every person I meet.

What it does mean is that because you are following a spiritual pathway then whatever you say and do will reflect the truths that you hold. It is through giving this attitude a human face that your spirit can infuse that of another – just by your presence. This notion of change as we plough our spiritual path was provided by David Hay – based on his research on the boundary between biological science and the spiritual dimensions of human experience - who concluded that: 24

…the overwhelming weight of evidence suggests that those personally in touch with the experiential dimension of religion typically find something different. On the whole their experience shifts their personality and behaviour away from rigidity and defensiveness and towards greater constructiveness and concern for others.

Martin Israel, a twentieth century English pathologist and Anglican priest, also recognised the impact of a changing approach that we have to material things and other people: 25

The spiritual life should also be a fruitful life in the world - fruitful not so much in acquiring the good things of life for oneself as in making these more available to other people.

As we develop our spiritual nature, so our gifts expand and so we can do more for others to help them both in their spiritual and material lives. In addition, our general sensitivity increases so that we become more aware of the needs of others; particularly their emotional aspects. Looking at the life of Seraphim of Sarov one of the most renowned Russian monks and mystics in the Eastern Orthodox Church, we are told by Iulia de Beausobre that this aspect of his abilities increased significantly as he spiritually grew: 26

He was gaining clear insight into the physical and spiritual fabric of the lives of others; he understood their happiness or sorrow better than they did themselves.

Because of this we often have to be very careful that we don’t get emotionally involved; we need to take a caring and yet detached approach. Meister Eckhart understood this requirement, so Cyprian Smith tells us: 27

When we act, and pour ourselves out in the world and in relationships with other people, this involves loss of energy, dissipation. But to learn to pour out while remaining inwardly detached, to be at one in movement yet also in repose, is largely what the spiritual life is all about...

Spiritual development increases your humility and compassion to your fellow human beings. Evelyn Underhill uses the term ‘subtleness’ to describe the type of relationship we consequently have with others: 28

Now humbleness and love, as understood by spiritual persons, are not passive virtues; they are energetic, and show themselves in mind, will and heart. In the mind by a constant desirous tendency to, and seeking after, that which is best; in the

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will by keenness, or, as the mystics would say, by diligence and zeal; in the heart, by an easy suppleness of relation with our fellow human beings - patience, good temper, sympathy, generosity.

In particular we ought to ‘be there’ when needed; we ought, as White Eagle recommends, to: 29

...share the joys and sorrows of your fellows, and while maintaining your own poise, cry when they cry, laugh when they laugh, be one with them. You will be amazed at what they have to teach you.

Thus, as well as helping our fellow travellers, we can learn from them. We can develop those traits which we are lacking. One of these which I personally have to acquire more and more of is ‘patience’, or as Morton Kelsey said that life: 30

...is learning to be tolerant and accepting those who have other ways of responding to the divine.

Although the 20 th century teacher and spiritual healer Joel Goldsmith wrote from a mystical and therefore contemplative perspective, he understood the development of feeling for others as we improved our spiritual life: 31

Through the contemplative life, you come to a whole new state of consciousness in which, while you are still aware that there are evils in the world, no longer do you sit in judgment on them or condemn them, no longer do you misunderstand them. Now you have compassion because you understand why they are taking place.

Sensitivity in the form of compassion is one of the telltale signs of spirituality. Deep within your heart you become more aware of other people’s feelings. The German born resident of Canada and spiritual author Eckhart Tolle understood this and wrote: 32

Compassion is the awareness of a deep bond between yourself and all creatures .

I expect that all religious traditions have a compassionate thread and non more so than that of the Jains. Being one of the oldest Indian religions, Jainism raised compassion to be one of its three primary principles. In discussing this religion, the academic and Methodist minister Geoffrey Parrinder wrote: 33

The most famous Jain doctrine is that of reverence for life or harmlessness (ahimsa). 'One must meditate upon compassion for all living beings, delight at the sight of beings more advanced than ourselves, pity for the afflicted, and indifference for those who mistreat you... Compassion for all living beings, compassion for those who have taken vows, charity, self-control, with attachment, etc., contemplation, forgiveness, and contentment.'

Knowing that the consequences of what we do on this earth stays with us into the Afterlife, may be the stimulus for us to change our lifestyle in the here-and-now. Gary Schwartz, a professor of psychology, medicine, neurology, psychiatry and psychic researcher, realised the implications and wrote: 34

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If the pain we caused others still lives within them after death in their info-energy systems, we may continue to resonate energetically with their suffering. Since relationships can continue between physical systems (us) and info-energy systems (the deceased), this possibility leads us to consider how we treat others in the physical world. The resulting emphasis on kindness and compassion also includes new consequences related to deceit and lying, with far-reaching implications for all human interactions.

Mendacity is the bane of humanity. This does not mean that we will all agree, but at least, from each person’s perspective, honesty ought to shine through. Conversations and communications can be constructive in this light and we will all be able to progress with little disagreement. This could be the framework within which life becomes supportive of each other and we will be able to demonstrate the two traits highlighted by Richard Rolle in the 14 th century: 35

Be courteous and humble to everyone.

Courteousness was also a theme stressed by Martin Israel in ‘The Pain That Heals’: 36

...a courteous person respects the identity and integrity of the other individual, no matter how unimportant he may appear in the world's eyes.

Respect is important as this leads to us being non-judgmental. It also leads us to implement the old adage which in the Bible reads: 37

Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you: do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

This was restated in ‘The Scripts of Cleophas’ in which St Paul said: 38

Thou dost not wound thy hand or smite thy feet; thou cherishest all thy members. Wherefore we should cherish all the children of our God.

This, as Karen Armstrong appreciated is often called the Golden Rule: 39

One of the first people to make it crystal clear that holiness was inseparable from altruism was the Chinese sage Confucius (551-479 BCE). He preferred not to speak about the divine, because it lay beyond the competence of language, and theological chatter was a distraction from the real business of religion. He used to say: "My Way has one thread that runs right through it." There were no abstruse metaphysics; everything always came back to the importance of treating others with absolute respect. It was epitomized in the Golden Rule, which, he said, his disciples should practice "all day and every day": "Never do to others what you would not like them to do to you." They should look into their own hearts, discover what gave them pain, and then refuse under any circumstance whatsoever to inflict that pain on anybody else.

There have been many ways of stating this ‘rule’. The phraseology used by the spiritual

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...the basic rule for dealing with others, in all situations, is ‘do no harm’. It is also the fundamental law for dealing with yourself.

A higher spirit provided similar advice during communication through the medium Phyllis V. Schlemmer. In fact it converted the ‘Golden Rule’ into a ‘Golden Law’: 41

There is but one law of perfection - there are no complexities, it is a very simple law: treat each and every soul, every animal, and every plant as you would wish them to treat you. In that way you grow to perfection. That is the golden law, it is the law of the universe.

It is unfortunate that some people seem to continue to ignore this Law. Perhaps, such souls are as described by the New Age writer Diana Cooper: 42

Only a young soul will harm people, animals or the planet. Have compassion for young souls for they do not understand what they do.

So don’t be too hasty in judging others because maybe once upon a life we were in the same situation. Remember that everyone and everything is unique and, in some way or other, is following a similar journey. Being aware of this will certainly colour our view on our attitude to them. Lonnie C. Edwards suggested that: 43

When we meet and seek to relate to other people, we must especially bear in mind that everyone has a soul, a divine nature, that is essentially perfect—a soul just as our own. Focus on the fact that they are travelling both a human and an infinite journey, just as you are.

Through such extended service to other creations we become more spiritual and consequentially are able to gain greater understanding of things divine. This in turn provides us with a greater capacity to help our neighbour. This idea was incorporated in Martin Israel’s book ‘The Pearl of Great Price’: 44

And the measure of our readiness to receive suprarational knowledge is our capacity to flow out in love to our neighbour.

So bear this in mind in all your transactions with others, and even though we may not agree with everyone else, we ought to accept the beliefs and philosophy of others. This is not an easy thing to do. We all have around us, either in family or work environments, those who irk us; those who try our patience. Winifred Graham’s father communicating to her through automatic writing told her: 45

I am always watching people on earth with great interest, and noting how God works in mysterious ways, giving to each some special mission, often unknown to the one most concerned. Sometimes even bad tempered or trying people are fulfilling a work unconsciously for God, by making those in closest touch with them practise endurance. No one is in the world for nothing, even those who give pain to others.

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In ‘Summons to Life’, Martin Israel also commented on this point: 46

The spiritual path embraces the whole of life. The discipline of relationships within a difficult community is as much part of the ascent of the mind to God as is the time set aside for prayer.

So, be tolerant…and also beware of the relationships which you do make. It is foolish to create relationships which will deflect or retard us on our spiritual journey. Put into general terms by the French priest and spiritual mentor Abbé Henri de Tourville: 47

God, the splendour of all fatherly goodness, wants us to take from things that which will help us, and reject everything which will harm us.

So make sure that you are not distracted by others and take the advice given to Carl Wickland: 48

When others come in your way and try to keep you down, rise and say: 'No, I will be firm, and I will conquer,' and then you can create happiness and contentment in your soul, and you will have happiness around you.

Within anonymously written ‘The Rules for the Conduct of Life’, first published in 1740 as a set of standards for Freemen of The City of London, we are faced with similar advice: 49

Be very cautious what sort of friendships and acquaintance you contract...

We can, to some extent, avoid this problem by natural gravity; that is to recognise that like attracts like as Jostein Saether realised: 50

When people seek the spirit with heartfelt honesty, then they will also find their way towards one another, from soul to soul.

Confirming this and communicating from the Spirit World, Red Cloud, the guide of the famous English medium Estelle Roberts, remarked: 51

You must advance with your dear ones, mentally and spiritually, whilst still in the body. Be at one with them so that you, too, can pass right through the astral world and death no longer has its power upon you.

If we all recognise that improvement for one generates an improvement for all, then peace will reign. There is an element of the ‘common good’. This was a belief of the 4 th century Bishop Ambrose who also asserted that: 52

...what is the true advantage of the individual is the advantage of all...

Therefore, be with those who hold similar values and develop together providing support and mutual guidance; this group may not include members of your family. You must never shirk your family responsibilities and yet you must recognise that your spiritual family has a greater long term value to you. The spirit of the trance medium Maurice Barbanell, communicating to Paul Beard through the mediumship of Marie Cherrie, told us: 53

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As was pointed out to me [Maurice] by one of our group the body was given to you by those physical links, but that is no longer a link between you [members of your earthly family] , and as that link has now dissolved so the family link of spirit comes more into being, which is a separate thing entirely. There is some sentimental sadness attached to this but I have realised it for what it is and accept it.

Keep relationships which are beneficial to both and soften those where discord abounds. Even in ‘good’ relationships there sometimes exists tension. This is inevitable, but such angst between two people should never be allowed to fester – expose it and kill it, or as embedded within ‘The Rule of Saint Benedict: 54

...after a quarrel to make peace with the other before sunset.

This Benedictine requirement should be adopted by all, because we live in a world of dependencies; particularly our dependence on other people and their reliance on us. We do things together as families and communities which John Punshon, widely known in Quaker circles in Britain and the US, believed to be very important: 55

Much of what is valuable in our lives happens in community. We are born of the union of two people. We grow up as members of a family. We have a neighbourhood, a nation, a history and a future. If our conception of religion fails to acknowledge the social dimension of life, we shall not do it justice. Important though our private relationship with God may be, we are called into a kingdom, into fellowship, into dependence upon other people.

Martin Israel, as recorded in ‘Healing as a Sacrament’, links this interconnectedness with our ability to see others as ourselves: 56

When one's vision has widened sufficiently to see one's neighbour as oneself, one has passed from the narrowly private personal existence we all guard so intensely to the transpersonal life in which the stranger is also a member of one's family.

So together we progress and hence, as Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows wrote: 57

...each individual must continue to train his untrained nature and assist his fellow man.

This was also the focus of the teaching of the Chinese philosopher Mencius. He believed that, as reported by Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh, that we should: 58

...go into each situation resolved to be the best human being we can be, not because of what we’ll get out of it, but simply to affect others around us for the better, regardless of the outcome. We can cultivate our better sides and face this unpredictable world, transforming it as we go. ... Our work – of bettering oneself and others to produce a better world – is never over.

The relationships that we have with others are never happenchance; their creation is guided and they always exist for a purpose. The difficulty is that we do not often recognise that reason. Joseph Sharp believed that: 59

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On surface levels, there seems to be many different reasons for our relationships: economic, psychological, cultural, reproductive. But, in truth, a deeper purpose lies at the heart of this yearning to connect and relate to others. This deeper, we might even say spiritual, purpose is succinctly expressed by this anonymous poem: I sought my spirit, but my spirit I could not see; I sought my God, but my God eluded me; I sought my brother and found all three. Our relationships are the intimate ground upon which the soul flowers.

This emphasis on brotherhood was also taken by one of the higher spirits communicating through Phyllis V. Schlemmer, who remarked that: 60

There are no teachers, for all are students. There is an exchange that is given, and when you give yourself, if it be your physical, mental or emotional nature, if you give out that energy to touch and expand to others, what you receive is a hundredfold. That is the secret of growth, the secret of expansion: the willingness to give yourself completely without question. But at the same time knowing not to give yourself to fools .

Accept this advice and be very discerning as to your relationships.

I will offer one word of caution. Irrespective of the importance of other people to our life, spiritual development is a personal and unique journey which eventually each of us has to take. There is no benefit in hiding behind the façade of creed and dogma; behind the dictates of any particular religion. This was articulated extremely well by the spirit communicator who channelled their teachings through William Stainton Moses: 61

We say that man has no right to close the road to God, and to lock up the wicket, compelling all to pass through his door. We say again that rigid orthodoxy, dogmatic faith prescribed in human words, inflexible lines within which he who walks not is therefore lost - these are human figments, bonds of man’s making to tie down aspiring souls, and pin them to earth. Better, we reiterate, for each struggling spirit to wander forth with no guide but its appointed angel, to pray for itself, to think for itself, to work for itself till the day-dawn of truth rise upon it, than that it should surrender its freedom and accept its religion at the dictation of any. Far, far better that the wanderings should be tortuous and long drawn out, and the creed scant and little satisfying; better that the cold winds should brace it, and the storms of heaven beat upon it, than that it should be cramped within the narrow, choking, airless avenue of human dogmatism, gasping for breath, crying for bread, and fed only with the stones of an ancient creed, the fossilised imaginings of human ignorance. Better, far better, that the shallowest and crudest notions of the Great Father should come to His child direct from spirit to spirit, the Divine inbreathing of Divine truth, than that he should consent to receive the most elaborate theology which fits and suits him not, and dream on in drowsy carelessness through the probation life, only to awake to a bitter consciousness of the falsity of that which he has so heedlessly accepted. Honesty and fearlessness in the search after truth are the first prerequisites for finding it. Without these no spirit soars. With these none fail of progress.

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This spirit, known as Imperator, is not advocating anything new. It has often been recognised by mystics that religious practices can deflect the aspirant away from their true spiritual pathway. Karen Armstrong tells us that Rabbi Yohanan and his colleagues belonged to the more flexible strand of the Pharisee movement. His teachers had been disciples of the great Hillel (c. 80 BCE-30 CE), who had emphasized the importance of the spirit rather than the letter of Mosaic Law. 62

In a famous Talmudic story, it was said that Hillel had formulated a Jewish version of Confucius's Golden Rule. One day, a pagan had approached Hillel and promised to convert to Judaism if Hillel could teach him the entire Torah standing on one leg. Hillel replied: "What is hateful to yourself, do not to your fellow man. That is the whole of the Torah and the remainder is but commentary. Go learn it." It was a provocative and daring piece of exegesis. Hillel did not mention any of the doctrines that seemed central to Judaism-the unity of God, the creation of the world, the Exodus, Sinai, the 613 commandments of the Torah, or the Promised Land. The essence of Jewish teaching was the disciplined refusal to inflict pain on other human beings: everything else was only "commentary."

Accepting this and still be within the traditions of a religious community is often difficult. However, more than one priest has confided in me that few of those in the Anglican faith can subscribed wholeheartedly to the 39 Articles. 63 Hugh Martin, in his summary of the underpinning beliefs within ‘The Pilgrim's Progress’, wrote that: 64

...Bunyan was concerned with how he looked in the sight of God, and not with even puritanical opinion.

Therefore, take a flexible approach to the truths that you uncover and don’t be daunted by ‘accepted practice’. Through this process you can become very spiritual and aware of the need to help and be helped by others. Advancing thus, our personal relationships may change as may the deep and close feelings we have for others. In a discussion which Paul Beard had with Maurice Barbanell advice was forthcoming as to why the mystics of old set themselves apart from their previous relationships: 65

Maurice: He [Paul's deceased mentor Peter] also asked me why I worried about being alone. Paul: What did you reply? Maurice: That I didn't know I worried about it. He said, 'But you do, you are trying to stay with old relationships, with old loves.' He added, 'This is why those who would achieve spirituality, awareness in our [Spirit] world, had, in your world, to walk alone and be alone.' In other words again, distancing themselves from personal relationships. He said they did it there on earth, you're having to learn this thing here.

For my own progression, I accept that the responsibilities that I have in this life lead me to the conclusion that I will have to work at my development once I have left the earth behind. Irrespective how and when enlightenment comes to each one of us, we must always recognise that this awareness is not developed in order just to benefit ourselves but must be used for the benefit of others. On this topic, Joel Goldsmith wrote that if anyone again reaches the spiritual heights of Jesus the Nazarene then: 66

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…he will find himself with all the world's problems to be solved. It is for this reason that spiritual attainment is never given to us for our own benefit. Of those who have much, much is demanded .

Thus through such people, and there are many living now who are exceptionally enlightened, the future of the earth can be determined as Harry Earnest Hunt wrote: 67

The preliminary steps rest with the individual, who must first learn, and then teach. And what must he learn? Humbly to train the intuitional element within to inform him of the reality of the invisible, and of the presence of God, in whose power alone it lies to afford a permanent solution of the present ills.

Within each of us this ‘presence of God’ can be reflected to others through our kindness. White Eagle posed the question ‘How can we make the world a better place?’ and answered it with the following words: 68

If you will resolve with all your heart and soul and mind that your attitude to mankind, individually and collectively, shall be kind – we ask no more, only that you shall be kind – you will be amazed at the peace you will find.

Thus, taking this approach to other people and developing our spirituality we can collectively do our bit for humanity and provide a better place for our grandchildren.

1 Beth Collier, Beyond Words, Triangle, 1987. 9 You and me, (Pg 94) 2 Lonnie C. Edwards M.D., Spiritual Laws That Govern Humanity and the Universe, Rosicrucian Order, AMORC, 2015 - Kindle version. Chapter 2: The Continuum of Life and the World of Relationships 3 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XVI: Philosophy - Experience, March 23, 1921, (Pg 455)

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4 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XII: Selfishness - Experience, September 22, 1920, (Pg 289) 5 Diana Cooper, A Little Light on the Spiritual Laws, Hodder & Stoughton, 2000. Introduction, (Pg ix) 6 Jack Joseph, The Omano Oracle, Medicine Bear Publishing, 1997. Part II – Readings, (Pg 111) 7 Karen Armstrong, The Case For God, Vintage Books, 2010. Part One: The Unknown God - 6 Faith and Reason, (Pg 150) 8 Brenda Blanch, Heaven a Dance - An Evelyn Underhill Anthology, Triangle, 1992. The Spiritual Life, (Pg 13) 9 Beatrice Russell, Fragments of Truth from the Unseen. Unknown Publisher, 1951. The World of Light, (Pg 3) 10 Nicolas Berdyaev, Towards a New Epoch, Geoffrey Bles: The Centerary Press, 1949. Social Revolution and Spiritual Awakening, (Pg 52) 11 F C Happold, Religious Faith and Twentieth-Century Man, Pelican Books, 1966. 7 The Quest of Being: The Existentialist Pilgrimage, (Pg 79) 12 Michael Newton, Journey of Souls, Llewellyn Publications, 2009. Conclusion, (Pg 276) 13 Lorna Byrne, Stairways to Heaven, Coronet, 2011. Chapter Ten: Witnessing the Nativity, (Pg 90) 14 Don Piper, 90 Minutes in Heaven, Kingsway Publications, 2005. 17 Longing for Home, (Pg 193 / 194) 15 Adeline Yen Mah, Watching The Tree, Harper Collins, 2001. 11 Frog at the Bottom of a Well, (Pg 226) 16 Peter Mockford, Light and Liberty, Instant Apostle, 2017. Chapter 2: Understanding of the Deliverance Ministry, (Pg 34) 17 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part One: Chapter II - The Power of Thought, (Pg 26) 18 Sue Minns, Soulwork - Foundations for Spiritual Growth, College of Psychic Studies, 2003. Chapter 12: Helpful Practices. (Pg 158 / 159) 19 Arthur Conan Doyle, The New Revelation, Hodder & Stoughton, 1918. Chapter IV Problems and Limitations, (Pg 131 / 132) 20 Barry Oates, David Hopkins and Carole Austin, Philosophy of Spiritualism, Spiritualists' National Union, 2007. Second Principle: The Brotherhood of Man, (Pg 24) 21 White Eagle, Spiritual Unfoldment 1, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1994. I: A Simple Approach – Those who know and Those who do not know, (Pg 15) 22 Sue Minns, Soulwork - Foundations for Spiritual Growth, College of Psychic Studies, 2003. Chapter 12: Helpful Practices. (Pg 157) 23 Tony Stockwell, Spirited, Hodder Mobius, 2005. Chapter 5 Is There Really Life After Death? (Pg 79) 24 David Hay, Exploring Inner Space - Scientists and Religious Experience, Mowbray, 1987. Part Three: Modern Explorations - 12. Doubts about the Despisers: Religion as 'Means', 'End, or 'Quest', (Pg 182) 25 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 16: Discerning the spiritual path, (Pg 136) 26 Iulia de Beausobre, Flame in the Snow - A Russian Legend, Fount, 1979. Part Two: Return Manward - The Simple Soul, (Pg 146) 27 Cyprian Smith, The Way of Paradox [spiritual life as taught by Meister Eckhart], Darton Longman and Todd, 1996. 4 Melting, (Pg 51) 28 Evelyn Underhill, The Essentials of Mysticism, Oneworld, 1999. The Education of the Spirit, (Pg 66 / 67) 29 White Eagle, Spiritual Unfoldment 1, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1994. V: Spiritual Faculties, (Pg 65) 30 Morton T Kelsey, The Other Side of Silence, SPCK, 1985. Part One: A Basic Perspective - 2: Intimacy, Art and Meditation, (Pg 26) 31 Joel S Goldsmith, The Contemplative Life, L N Fowler & Co, 1963. Chapter EIGHT - Contemplation Develops the Beholder, (Pg 134) 32 Eckhart Tolle, Practising the Power of NOW, Hodder Mobius, 2002. Eight: Acceptance of the Now, (Pg 105) 33 Geoffrey Parrinder, Worship in the World's Religions, Association Press, 1961. Part II - India and Southern Asia: Chapter 3 - The Jains, (Pg 65) 34 Gary E. Schwartz, The Afterlife Experiments, Atria Books, 2002. Part V: Discovering the Larger Reality. 18 How Our Lives Might Change, (Pg 241 / 242) 35 Rosamund S. Allen, Richard Rolle - The English Writings, SPCK, 1989. The Commandment, (Pg 149) 36 Martin Israel, The Pain That Heals, Hodder & Stoughton, 1981. Chapter 12: Equanimity: the Precious Fruit of Suffering, (Pg 137) 37 Bible, New Testament, Matthew 7:12 38 Geraldine Cummins, The Scripts of Cleophas, Psychic Press, 1961. The Third Parchment - Chapter XXIII: The Healing of David: Reaction against Paul, (Pg 259)

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39 Karen Armstrong, The Case For God, Vintage Books, 2010. Part One: The Unknown God - 1 Homo Religiosus, (Pg 33) 40 Michal Levin, Spiritual Intelligence, Hodder & Stoughton, 2000. Part II: Your Journey. Chapter Nine – Spiritual Principles of Relationships, (Pg 211) 41 Phyllis V. Schlemmer, The Only Planet of Choice, Gateway Books, 1996. VI: Terrestrial Affairs - 19: Adventures in Consciousness, (Pg 268) 42 Diana Cooper, A Little Light on the Spiritual Laws, Hodder & Stoughton, 2000. Chapter Nineteen: The Law of Reincarnation, (Pg 104) 43 Lonnie C. Edwards M.D., Spiritual Laws That Govern Humanity and the Universe, Rosicrucian Order, AMORC, 2015 - Kindle version. Chapter 13: The Plan 44 Martin Israel, The Pearl of Great Price, SPCK, 1988. 7 – Diversions, (Pg 68) 45 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. The Mystery and Importance of your life, (Pg 20) 46 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 16: Discerning the spiritual path, (Pg 135) 47 Abbé Henri de Tourville, Letters of Direction, Mowbray, 1939. XVIII – Suffering, (Pg 101) 48 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XVI: Philosophy - Experience, March 23, 1921, (Pg 454 / 455) 49 Anon, Rules for The Conduct of Life, Oyez Press, 1927. Rules for the Conduct of Life: Rule VVVIV, (Pg 36) 50 Jostein Saether, Living With Invisible People - A karmic autobiography, Clairview, 2001. 1 Episodes from my present life, (Pg 52) 51 Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud Speaks, Tudor Press, 1992. Chapter Eighteen: Reincarnation and the Second Death, (Pg 89) 52 'Reader', Features of the Church Fathers, Heath Cranton Limited, 1935. Second Century and Onwards: Ambrose - On the Duties of the Clergy, (Pg 60) 53 Marie Cherrie, The Barbanell Report, Pilgrim Books, 1987. Part I: Sixteen - 11th September 1985, (Pg 92 / 93) 54 The Rule of Saint Benedict (Translated by Abbot Parry OSB), Gracewing, 1997. Chapter IV The Tools of Good Works, (Pg 19) 55 John Punshon, Encounter With Silence, Friends United Press, 1989. Beyond the Quaker Meeting - Celebration and Sacrifice, (Pg 102) 56 Martin Israel, Healing as a Sacrament, Darton Longman and Todd, 1984. Chapter 5: The Unobstructed Vision, (Pg 51) 57 Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows, Pathway of the Immortal, International Publications Inc, 1980. Chapter II: Evolution of the Human World, (Pg 39) 58 Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh, The Path, Viking, 2016. 4: On Decisions: Mencius and the Capricious World, (Pg 84) 59 Joseph Sharp, Living Our Dying - A Way to the Sacred in Everyday Life, Rider & Co, 1996. Part IV: Living Our Dying – Chapter 8: Relationships, (Pg 182 / 183) 60 Phyllis V. Schlemmer, The Only Planet of Choice, Gateway Books, 1996. VI: Terrestrial Affairs - 18: Making a Difference, (Pg 246) 61 William Stainton Moses, Spirit Teachings, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Section XVIII, (Pg 146 / 147) 62 Karen Armstrong, The Case For God, Vintage Books, 2010. Part One: The Unknown God - 4 Faith, (Pg 82 / 83) 63 The Thirty-nine Articles of Religion (commonly abbreviated as the Thirty-nine Articles or the XXXIX Articles) are the historically defining statements of doctrines and practices of the Church of England with respect to the controversies of the English Reformation. The Thirty-nine Articles form part of the Book of Common Prayer used by both the Church of England and the Episcopal Church. Several versions are available online. 64 Hugh Martin, Great Christian Books, SCM Press, 1945. The Pilgrim's Progress, (Pg 77) 65 Marie Cherrie, The Barbanell Report, Pilgrim Books, 1987. Part I: Twenty-Two - 19th March 1986, (Pg 135) 66 Joel S Goldsmith, The Contemplative Life, L N Fowler & Co, 1963. Chapter FIVE - Steps on the Path of Illumination, (Pg 84) 67 Harry Earnest Hunt, The Gateway of Intuition, Wright & Brown, 1930s (?). XXVII The Invisible, (Pg 100) 68 White Eagle, Spiritual Unfoldment 1, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1994. VI: Life in the Spirit World – Our Attitude to Life, (Pg 92)

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15.17: Spiritual Development and the Trials of Life

Let me start this chapter with a question from the Anglican priest Martin Israel: 1

Where do we start on the spiritual journey?

Whilst he declared that ‘There is no simple answer to this question’ he went on to say:

A child is, in many ways, more aware of the wonders of the world around him than he will be some years later when the unavoidable impact of conditioning by his social environment dulls his inner sensitivity and draws him closer to the illusions of material things. But this is not the whole answer. The process of growing into life is one in which all the powers inherent in the personality are progressively realised in the actions of life.

In parallel with following a physical life and the material considerations that flow along with it, we all, through education and community experience, gain a lot of knowledge. However, such knowledge is useless if it does not lead to a better understanding of the experiences that we have whilst living our earthly life. Realising that living on earth is a learning school and the way that we learn is through the difficult events in our life is the great eye-opener of spirituality. At the end of the first chapter of ‘When is My Spirit Normal?’ by the Chinese Christian Watchman Lee, he concluded that: 2

...along the spiritual pathway lurk many snares. A little carelessness brings in defeat. Yet there is no short cut or bypass we can take. We are not insured because we have learned some knowledge; on the contrary, we ourselves must experience everything. Those who have preceded us can only warn us of the hazards ahead so that we may not fall prey to them. If we intend to bypass part of the pathway, we shall be disappointed, but faithful followers of the Lord can avoid many unnecessary defeats.

Thus, thankfully, we can look towards the experiences of others to help us along our spiritual pathway. This journey, which each of us must eventually start, leads to an awareness that we must accept both the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ things of life; the ‘good’ give us rest and time for reflection, the ‘bad’ provide the experience for us to move spiritually forward. This duality of human existence was expressed beautifully in a poem that, according to Malcolm Muggeridge, William Blake elevated and illumined by the joy and lovingness and beauty which his eye of imagination saw … all creation to be overflowing with: 3

Joy and woe are woven fine, A clothing for the soul divine, Under every grief and pine Runs a joy with silken twine. It is right it should be so, Man was made for joy and woe; And when this we rightly know, Through the world we safely go.

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For thousands of years this duality has been recognised and thus we may conclude that meeting, overcoming, and learning from life’s tribulations is an inevitable concomitant to being human. This means that we will never be able to escape difficulties in life because they are there for our benefit. In other words, what we perceive as ‘bad’ is, in reality, what we ought to see as ‘good’. Winifred Graham was told by her deceased father that we ought to: 4

Welcome every trial, tell yourself it is sent as a lesson, try to profit by it, and be brave.

The British Christian missionary, Norman Grubb, expanded the way we ought to look at events which impact on our lives. He wrote in ‘The Spontaneous You’: 5

The point is the habit of always relating things that happen to me to the meeting of some need in others. It is the difference between frustration and opportunity. If I just see things as happening to me and I don't know why, I am frustrated. I say, "If only things were different, if I hadn't had that difficult past or this physical disability or family problem, I could be of some use", then I am bogged down. But if I say, "God, you have sent this for some purpose, to minister somehow through me to some people in need", then it is opportunity. Life is then always an adventure of faith, never dull, never repetitious, always with some meaning around the corner. Let us get it in its total dimension - life's only meaning is God and others.

Put another way, we should give thanks for each difficult situation and try to evaluate how we can learn from it. Laura Lynne Jackson, an American psychic and medium, pondered whether: 6

...we could all see illness and adversity as opportunities to expand our love on a soul level.

The mystic Henry Thomas Hamblin, having personally endured much hardship in his early life, began to realise that because this is true: 7

...we make a practice of blessing every situation, even when the appearance may seem dark. We then find that each experience works out in ways of good.

Many of those who have encountered Near Death or Out of Body Experiences come to a similar conclusion. Don Piper, a Minister at the First Baptist Church in Pasadena, Texas, during his recovery realised the need to bless every situation after listening to a music cassette on which, he said: 8

The first song had been recorded by the Imperials, and it was called 'Praise the Lord.' The lyrics suggest that when we are up against a struggle and we think we can't go on, we need to praise God. As preposterous as that prospect seemed at three o'clock in the morning in a hospital bed, I continued to listen for any help to bring me out of my deep heartache. There was a phrase in the next verse about the chains that seem to bind us falling away when we turn ourselves over to praise. The whole song centred on praising God in spite of our circumstances.

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With all that had happened to him and through this apparently chance event, Don began to change his view of how he should regard all life events. One hundred years before Don’s life changing event, the 19 th century French priest Abbé Henri de Tourville, according to the classical scholar Robin Waterfield, also knew that: 9

The greatest thing in life is not to succeed in escaping its trials and temptations, though this may be a consolation of which we are often in need. But if this consolation is denied to us, then we have to rely on something else. We have to understand the trial, accept it and know how to master ourselves in it.

If we can accept this, then we have, or will be given, the strength to overcome all that life throws at us. The American spiritual writer, Sophy Burnham, is the spawning salmon in an analogy of this: 10

God puts longing in our hearts so that we will leap upstream, like a spawning salmon that throws itself against the river current, leaping up waterfalls in its passionate urge to reach the Source, its birthplace, spawning ground and death.

…and using a similar water-based metaphor the Belgian born academic Emile Cammaerts said that we are bound to: 11

…struggle on against overwhelming obstacles, to be swept back again and again by cross currents which prevent us from reaching the shore, to go on praying when all this praying and striving brings down upon us the grace of God, and we receive at last the power to "progress", not in the modern sense, but in Bunyan's sense, towards the goal set before us.

Remember that whatever is given to you as a learning experience, you will never be tested beyond your ability. On this, the academic and churchman Sherwood Wirt wrote that our God: 12

...lays no more upon us than we are able to bear.

This process of learning never ends. It is part of the soul’s goal to move more towards spiritual perfection day-by-day, life-by-life irrespective of where that may be. The American medium, John Edward, said that he viewed: 13

...this life and the afterlife kind of like school: On Earth, it's like we're in kindergarten, running around in circles and getting distracted with the toys and not knowing how to do things. When we get to the Other Side, we graduate straight into college because we immediately have more understanding, more skills, and more smarts. It's still us, but it's like a wiser, better us.

…or more concisely from the experience of the spiritual teacher Zodiac: 14

...the earth is but preparation for the life which goes on for evermore .

And consequentially, no matter what the environment, we continue to encounter situations from which we can learn. Earth was seemingly designed as a testing and developmental ground for souls which was confirmed by the mystic and introvert Martin Israel: 15

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...the material world is our place of experience and experimentation.

We must learn from these experiences otherwise we will continue, perhaps in different forms, to encounter a similar situation until we do learn. The spiritual mentor Michal Levin understood that: 16

It was the experience that delivered the lessons, not the mental deductions or instructions. In the same way as no set of instructions will ever teach you to ride a bicycle. They may give you a valuable pointer on how to go about it. But they can never teach you how to do it, as if it were a model aeroplane you were putting together from a kit. Nor does the explanation of some of the skills involved in bicycle riding ever describe the experience of whistling downhill through the early morning on a cycle.

And this, perhaps, all mystics have come to recognise as a fact. Indeed the psychic Heidi Sawyer declared that: 17

Over the years I have learned it is part of the richness of life to experience ups and downs, as it is what makes us human. Challenges are there to learn from; and the quicker we learn the lesson, the easier it becomes. The more we hold on to pain and suffering the longer they last.

Similarly, if we seek to make presented difficulties easier, rather than accepting and facing them, then life continues to be perceived as being more difficult. This was the view of the mystic Henry Thomas Hamblin who realised that: 18

Every successful person has made stepping stones of his failures, and a ladder of achievement out of his adversities. No one has ever ‘made good’ through running away from his difficulties; no one has ever achieved anything worthwhile through hoping and praying for easier circumstances. As soon as circumstances are made easier, character becomes softened, the will to win is weakened, and thus the true object of life becomes almost impossible of achievement. One simply does it – that is all.

All that we learn is a means to an end but that end is not when we die. To rephrase a well worn adage, ‘we live after we die’. What we learn in this life is never lost and is carried forward into the Afterlife or as the trance medium and journalist Maurice Barbanell wrote that each of us: 19

...undergoes a variety of experiences designed to train and equip his spirit for the next stage of his existence.

And recognising the value of the learning which we gain in life, the Rev. G. Vale Owen said: 20

...the earth is not the only field in which earth's training may be put to use…

This flies in the face of those who believe that earth is the only learning place and that all will be rest in the Spirit World. The Rev. C. Drayton Thomas dispelled this notion: 21

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It has been supposed by some that death will bring us perfect knowledge - or nearly so. But no! One has to learn, whether here or hereafter, and learning is inevitably a gradual process.

Yes! Learning is a continuing process; it does not stop at death. Max Müller’s ‘Thoughts on Life and Religion’ which were published posthumously by his wife, reveal that: 22

Such trials as you have had to pass through are not sent without a purpose, and if you say that they have changed your views of life, such a change in a character like yours can only be a change in advance, a firmer faith in those truths which have been revealed to the dim sight of human nature, a stronger will to resist all falsehood and tampering with the truth, and a deeper conviction that we owe our life to Him who has given it, and that we must fight His battle when He calls us to do it.

As well as being grateful for the travails we encounter, we need to look at the process itself which seems to occur in cycles. Each one of these starts with a ‘difficult’ experience and results in an increase in our spirituality which then fits us for another trial, and so on… This was similarly expressed by the spirit communicating through the medium Irene Bays’ in her book ‘Entwining Lives’: 23

As you progress along your paths you will of course have tests and initiations, and as you pass each initiation so you will penetrate another vibration, another dimension; receive great understanding and more wisdom. Thus the light will become brighter within each one of you.

Gaining wisdom is one of the consequences of a life full of ‘interesting’ experiences. Lonnie C. Edwards M.D., in his book ‘Spiritual Laws That Govern Humanity and the Universe’ which reflected the Rosicrucian perspective, wrote that: 24

Experiences of every sort are brought to us as learning tools in order that we might evolve in wisdom and understanding. By evolving, we become increasingly more conscious of our soul’s purpose and of universal laws that govern human existence.

This cycle of learn and consolidate is part of the natural order of things; it is how we learn. Because of this you must realise that nothing in our life is a consequence of chance or accident; everything is for a purpose. Martin Israel used similar words to describe this situation: 25

The first point to be made is that nothing that happens to us is a mere chance; there are no fortuitous events in the spiritual world. What appears to be a blind stroke of misfortune is also a golden opportunity for the one who is awake to the germ of a new possibility to grow into something of a better person than he was before the crucial event.

If chance does not apply, then we have to look carefully and constructively at all events and set them in the context of our whole life. That was Martin Israel’s thesis and he went on to write: 26

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One principle does stand out quite clearly: wholeness does not consist in removing a present source of travail; it demands a complete transformation of the person's attitude to life, which in turn is an outward sign of a transfigured personality.

Corroboration for this can also be in White Eagle’s teachings: 27

We advise you to love not only other beings, but also the conditions of your life. Bear no resentment. Nothing happens out of order or by chance, and the great law brings those very conditions in your life which you need for growth. So accept with love all that happens. Look for the lesson that has to be learnt from the experience. Look up to God daily, hourly, and be filled with the divine light and love. It pours like a golden ray into the heart and head centre, cleansing, healing, uplifting, steadying, giving you control.

This is a completely different way of looking at life; it negates a litigious approach. It is not necessary to blame someone else for what befalls us, but to accept every event in a positive and developmental way. St. Theophan the Recluse described this by stating that: 28

It is necessary for you to reinterpret everything that comes before your eyes in a spiritual sense.

This Russian Orthodox saint went so far as to set this in the context of a housewife to whom he said: 29

Do you want everything to go as you desire? Proud woman! Not only is this wrong with respect to something around the house, but even with respect to you yourself.

We have to accept what befalls us, take a positive approach and make the best of every situation. The Scottish minister James Martin restated this with an example: 30

What matters most is not what happens to us in our journey through life, nor how well we understand what is happening to us at any given time. The claim of the Gospel is that by Christ’s help we may be ‘more than conquerors’ whatever befalls us. John Ruskin was once in the company of a lady who dropped a blot of ink on her beautiful silk handkerchief. “Oh,” she cried in great dismay, “my lovely handkerchief is ruined.” “Perhaps not,” said Ruskin, “please leave it with me.” A little later he returned her handkerchief, but it was no longer disfigured. Unable to remove the blot, Ruskin had used it as a basis for a most attractive design. The handkerchief, far from being ruined, was now even lovelier that it had been.

Let me give you another real example of a remarkable way of looking at life from Peter Meadows’ book ‘Beyond Belief?’ which he wrote with Joseph Steinberg and Donna Vann. In it is described the attitude of his friend Joni Eareckson Tada who, as an attractive teenager she enjoyed: 31

...riding horses and an effervescent social life. One warm July day, while swimming with her sister, she dived into the lake that was far too shallow for her safety. She had left the diving board as a carefree teenager - and was pulled out of the water as

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a quadriplegic. Joni went through agonies of doubt, anger with God, and bitterness at being imprisoned in a body that didn't work. Finally, she allowed her situation to draw her closer to God. Today she travels throughout the world as a champion for the disabled. 'I wouldn't change my life for anything,' she says, 'I even feel privileged. The last time I was with her she told me, 'What's all the fuss? Compared with eternity, this life and its suffering will be over in an instant. Then I will have a perfect body for ever. And I'll dance!'

In effect, the hard times hone our spirituality as Dannion Brinkley, who gained his spiritual knowledge through a couple of Near Death Experiences, suggested: 32

Because I now comprehend life as a university designed for higher learning, I also understand that obstacles to our ability to love will probably be thrown at us. But through this, we inevitably grow stronger, both emotionally and spiritually.

Silver Birch, that exceptional teacher from the Spirit World, had this for us to consider: 33

And it is the experiences gained through the physical body that determine the growth of the body of spirit.

Or, as Henry Hardy, the Anglican friar more usually known as Father Andrew put it: 34

There are dangers and difficulties in social life, but it is through these dangers and difficulties that individual development is to take place. The individual soul is developed and proved in a social environment.

‘Proved’, that is, both in terms of demonstration but also as in the way that bread is proved – once a stage is reached the bread needs to be left to rise before the results of the process can be realised. A lesson, once learned needs to be grounded in our whole being before we can move on to another stage, or as the Christian Peter Spink remarked: 35

The spiritual path provides no escape from life's perturbations but it will offer you a way of integrating life's contradictions into a positive whole.

...and in one of the Letters of the Abbé Henri de Tourville makes the statement that every one of us will: 36

...run into snags sometimes, but at least overcoming them will make you grow stronger.

That is, spiritually stronger, and we must face up to these vicissitudes of life; they exist for our benefit, and as the mystic Henry Thomas Hamblin remarked: 37

The disorders of our life are not due to evil and malignant powers working against us, but are the outworking of God’s perfect laws, which, when obeyed, produce harmony, but which, when disobeyed, produce disharmony.

The more resilient we become through this process, the easier it will be to accept and recognise that which we should be learning. There is also an additional benefit which

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:16:11 15.17 Spiritual Development and the Trials of Life Page 8 of 19 comes in accepting our lot and knowing that all that happens is, ultimately for our advantage. Bearing this in mind, any fear that we visualise for a future event becomes significantly reduced or just evaporates. Fear is an all consuming emotion and seems to oust all other positive ones. Because of this Martin Israel understood that: 38

Fear is the inveterate enemy of progress in the lives of people. It immobilises us, allowing us neither to proceed upon our proper course, nor letting us investigate the world around us. It paralyses our endeavours and leads us to choose the status quo, the present situation, as the best for us, since it impresses upon us the conviction that any movement away from it is fraught with intolerable hazards.

Supporting this idea that fear is a barrier to spiritual progress, White Eagle noted that: 39

Fear is one of the greatest enemies of men, so the soul has to learn to discard all fear. If you will think for a moment you will know that fear in some form or another is the greatest enemy in life. People live dominated by fear – fear of the future, fear of ill-health, of death, of losing their property, of starvation, of loss. Countless fears beset mankind. Thus the great test which the initiate had to overcome was that of fear in many subtle forms.

I know it is easy to say, but don’t be anxious for your future. At the start of your spiritual journey this may seem like an impossibility ... towards the end it will be a reality. Take each day as it comes and don’t be afraid to push the boundaries; to step a little beyond your comfort zone. You will be able to do this more and more because you will possess the right frame of mind. The mystic and teacher Theophan the Recluse realised that the more careful we try to be, the more difficult will be our progress, because, he says: 40

...slips and blunders steal by and creep in. Know ahead of time that this is the way things are. You will encounter them.

Thus acceptance of our lot is part and parcel of our developing spirituality. Steel is tempered in the fire; our spirituality is tempered through the physical life we lead. As we encounter each new difficulty, our internal characteristics are revealed for all to see. W. H. Dyson confirmed this when he wrote that: 41

…great critical moments do not fashion the soul - they reveal it, prove what has been and is.

It is these traits of ours which are changed with each new difficulty encountered and trial successfully mastered. In such times, we bring together all the knowledge we have gained, fuse it with past experiences, to bring a developed wisdom to the new event. So at each difficulty we bring to bear all that we are, as Laurie Worger said: 42

As with normal schooling, no teacher can simply transplant his knowledge into the mind of the pupil. We are given lessons in order that the truth they contain may become our own knowledge through putting them into practice in the process of trial and error.

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Or put another way, as we live our life we are learning to live just that bit better. The trials which seem to meet us in our early life usually fit us for that which is to follow. An example was given by Pamela Young who said that her mother: 43

...had suffered a lot as a child and this had made her greatly empathetic to the plight of the underdog.

...we build our character from our experiences. It is a slow and arduous process which leads to expanded spirituality. In the book ‘Philosophy of Spiritualism’ during a discussion on the brotherhood of man, Barry Oates, David Hopkins and Carole Austin wrote: 44

Spiritual progression is dependent upon our reaction to the problems we encounter in life, our relationships with others and our attitudes towards other forms of life.

You may think that I am suggesting that everything we do is achieved by self-application alone. This is not so. We get tremendous help from our spirit guides and friends – provided, of course, that we are aware of it and can tune in to their support. This help is vital, as the spiritual journey is a life-long trek which gets harder the further one gets. Every mystic, every saint whose lives we can examine, testify to this; so don’t think that a spiritual life is one of gentle repose and feather beds. Evelyn Underhill, known for her books on mysticism, captured this and wrote: 45

The spiritual life is a stern choice. It is not a consoling retreat from the difficulties of existence; but an invitation to enter fully into that difficult existence, and there apply the Charity of God and bear the cost.

The American medium Silvia Browne hit the nail on the head when she remarked that: 46

...mistakes and hard times are inevitable and necessary for the progress of the human spirit...

Such errors of judgment or action are never as bad as they seem, mainly because we can learn a lot from them. Robert Llewelyn in his dissertation about the mystic Julian of Norwich reminded us that she: 47

...would have us know that no fall is to be seen ultimately as loss if it leads to contrition and a deepening knowledge of God's mercy, whereby pride and self-will can be overthrown, and our grounding in humility be made complete. And so it is she can write: ' God allowed him [St John of Beverley] to fall. But he mercifully upheld him so that he did not perish or lose time. And afterwards God lifted him up to much more grace. Because of the contrition and humility he had in this life, God has given him many joys in heaven, which go beyond those he would have had if he had not fallen.’ [extract from Revelations of Divine Love ch 38]

Abbé Henri de Tourville, according to Robin Waterfield, had a really nice description of the travails of life: 48

You must keep to your own chosen path, my dear child, and not worry about the puddles you fall into, otherwise you will never walk at all.

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...or as White Eagle suggested: 49

...do get out of the habit of worrying, worrying, worrying over little pinpricks.

To give you a broad feel as to what many have written about the march along the spiritual pathway, I will extract some remarks from a number of people who include Silver Birch, Leslie Weatherhead, Father Andrew, Laurie Worger, Evelyn Underhill, Jacob Boehme and Brother Lawrence respectively:

I regret that the path of those who serve is not easy. 50

It [Spiritual development] is a "steep path". 51

We can never rest 'on' the spiritual way: we may rest 'in' the way . 52

The harder and more difficult the life, the greater the number of obstacles, then the greater chance of progression. 53

The energy which wells up incessantly in every living being must abandon the old road of least resistance and discharge itself in a new and more difficult way. 54

The student said: 'Dear master, no longer can I bear being wrong. How can I find the nearest way to it (Love’s fire)?' The master said 'Go where the going is hardest.' 55

We ought firmly to resolve to overcome, with the grace of God assisting us, the many difficulties which will meet us in the spiritual life. 56

…and reassuringly from Zodiac: 57

...when you enter into those experiences which cause your heart to ache you are merely taking a shorter road which shall lead you on your journey and shall bring you safely out once more into the sunshine of God's love.

Affiliated with this comes another feature of developing spirituality ... the greater your capacity, the more you will be given to carry. If you look at the lives of the great mystics, this comes through loud and clear. The greater our spirituality, the more resilient we become and the more lessons we can learn. In recognising this Martin Israel wrote: 58

To whom much is given, much is expected, and the responsibility inherent in the gifts can weigh heavily on the creature.

Nevertheless, through all the troubles we must take a balanced outlook. In effect, the lessons we learn help each of us to refine our Philosophy of Life which is the basis for all our actions. The material events combined with the spiritual, all add grist to the mill and it is important that these two aspects are fused or melded into one holistic approach to life. As Evelyn Underhill noted: 59

Most of our conflicts and difficulties come from trying to deal with the spiritual and

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practical aspects of our life separately instead of realising them as parts of one whole. If our practical life is centred on our own interests, cluttered up by possessions, distracted by ambitions, passions, wants and worries, beset by a sense of our own rights and importance, or anxieties for our own future, or longings for our own success, we need not expect that our spiritual life will be a contrast to all this.

Because the more we see of our spiritual pathway the more difficulty we realise that we will have to overcome, then we must be resolute and not waver from our intended path. In the 15 th century, Thomas A Kempis recognised the hardships of following a spiritual life: 60

That I be in health within and thoroughly purged, Fit to be a lover, Brave to be a sufferer, Firm to go outwards to the end.

…and in a later chapter he reinforced this by writing: 61

Let not the world and its brief glory cheat me; Let not the devil and his cunning trip me up; Grant me bravery to stand, Patience to bear, Constancy to persevere.

In support of this, Evelyn Underhill, who studied most of the writings of the great pre-20 th century mystics, wrote: 62

The soul needs fortitude, if it is to take up that great vocation

I’m not sure that I would call spiritual development a vocation. I think that we all MUST take this path at some time whether now in this life, or in lives to come perhaps in places that I cannot imagine. If that is the case, then once we start we have an obligation to continue. We should not let ourselves be distracted. Again using two quotations from Evelyn Underhill’s book ‘The House of the Soul’: 63

Effort and endurance must enter deeply into the process by which our mixed being is harmonised, simplified, expanded, and made fit to be the instrument of God.

…and: 64

...in the life of the spirit there is a great deal of sitting tight; of refusing to be frightened out of it or decoyed away from it; of refusing to despair, waiting till the weather improves, till business gets brisker, day breaks and shadows lift. We must endure a mysterious pressure, which operates more often and more purely in darkness that in light. We cannot take up the soul’s privileges and responsibilities as a householder, merely by paying one instalment and getting immediate delivery of all the goods we desire, with an insurance policy protecting us from risk …

Don’t expect that you will ever reach your ultimate spiritual goal; this is for the distant future. However, this should not faze you. Let the words of the great polymath Goethe, as

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This is what the saint labours for: wholeness. None of us can fulfil that quest in this life but, as Goethe says, it is not in achieving sanctity that we are saved (for that is impossible) but in striving to achieve sanctity.

What we can do, however, is to have the right approach to everything and progress as best we can. The metric that John Todd tells us that founding Methodist John Wesley recommended that we all use was: 66

...to see God in all things and do all for Him, but recognising that it cannot be always thus.

This practical route accepted that our humanity seems to get in the way. We are not perfect and will fall at many of life’s hurdles. There is not a set of hard and fast rules which will lead us to perfection. We have to follow our pathway and do our best. The spiritual counsellor Joyce Huggett lamented the fact and wrote: 67

I would like to be able to present a neat formula which I used to steer me through these sticky patches. Alas! I know of no such aerobics guaranteed to keep me spiritually trim and fit to listen.

So we must try to do what is spiritually right and know that in doing this, our arm will be strengthened by our supporters from the Spirit World. In ‘The Cloud of Unknowing’ the anonymous 14 th century author captured this idea and wrote: 68

Then why is this [contemplative] work so toilsome? The labour, of course, is in the unrelenting struggle to banish the countless distracting thoughts that plague our minds and to restrain them beneath the 'cloud of forgetting' which I spoke of earlier. This is the suffering. All the struggle is on man's side in the effort he must make to prepare himself for God's action, which is the awakening of love and which He alone can do. But persevere in doing your part and I promise you that God will not fail to do His.

This was echoed by White Eagle who implored us to: 69

Cast your burden upon the Lord. In other words, let go, surrender, lay down your problems. Do not try to unravel the knot, which gets tighter and tighter as you pull at it. Lay it down. Concentrate all your heart upon that gentle, loving personality, the Lord Jesus Christ, and all knots will be unloosed, all problems solved.

For some, there is a hunger for spirituality which charges their every waking hour. These are the mystics of yesterday and today. I think that Andrew Harvey fits into this category. He described that his mentor, Mother Meera: 70

…has brought me to her and shown me that in the endless extravagance of the Divine there is no need ever to stop demanding, to stop hungering. For those who ask shall be given; for those who dare to be hungry the Food will be brought.

I can appreciate Andrew’s urge for more … more knowledge, more understanding, more

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:16:11 15.17 Spiritual Development and the Trials of Life Page 13 of 19 experience. This is one of my drivers. If I knew all the Cosmic Laws which affect us and have the strength to implement them then I would be satisfied. Until then I will continue to search, to read and to reason. It is good to know that when William Stainton Moses asked about those who search, he was told by his spirit communicator Imperator that: 71

None anxiously look who do not find in the end, though they may have long to wait - yes, even till they reach a higher sphere of being. God tries all: and to those only who are fitted is advanced knowledge granted. The preparation must be complete before the step is gained. This is an unalterable law. Fitness precedes progression. Patience is required.

I, and many others, describe our spiritual journey as a pathway, which makes it seem like a simple stroll down a country lane. It is not like this at all. We live from one event to another and at each we need to make the right choice of action based upon our experience and philosophy. Often, if not always, we need to look back at the things we have done and learn from our mistakes; we don’t always do the right thing and thereby we miss learning a particular lesson. It is important for us all to be aware of this process for it is in this way that we can progress. Again referring to the writing of Irene Bays: 72

Lessons will be hard and there will be some who will return to the Earth plane several times before they even become aware. For they have built a hard shell around the spiritual, and although they discard the physical body they take back to the World of Spirit a spirit which is encased.

My friend Peter Matthews argued that perhaps each life is one large step comprised of many small ones, and each subsequent life builds on all those that have gone before: 73

Thus it may in fact be that each life has a kind of evolution in that during each life you hopefully learn something and initially life may begin at one level and then when enough has been learned through several lives a jump is made to the next level where a higher level of learning is required and when this is achieved the next level can be attained and so on.

However, what the real mechanism is, we can never know. All we can do is to accept the fact that we must build our spirituality from day to day, from life to life. How many lives, again, is determined by our personal progress. Nona, an Egyptian princess communicating from the Spirit World provided similar view as to the frequency that souls return to the earth to learn: 74

No hard-and-fast rules can be given, says Nona, either of the number of times we return to Earth, or of the reasons which impel us to return. ...but we can reduce the number of our incarnations by freeing the spirit each time from all that is contrary to its upward growth.

…and probably, for every lesson that we learn there are others which we miss completely, as Martin Israel noticed: 75

One would have thought that we at least, striving for the good life, would not fail so miserably time after time.

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And we do ... not only as individuals but collectively. How many wars and conflicts has Great Britain been involved in and, knowing the futility of them, still persist in pursuing a military solution to international problems. The American astrophysicist, cosmologist and author Carl Sagan observed this fact and suggested that: 76

Even a casual scrutiny of history reveals that we humans have a sad tendency to make the same mistakes again and again.

Quite often mistakes become evident not long after we have made them, and they become easier to see in retrospect. When we are conscious of having made a mistake and recognise that we could have acted differently, Alan Young tells us that the legendary spiritual master of the ancient wisdom, St. Germain (also sometimes referred to as Master Rakoczi) suggests that: 77

...our first act should always be to call on the Law of Forgiveness and demand wisdom and strength not to make the same mistake a second time.

This is part of the learning process to which every mistake contributes. The real mistake in life is not to learn from it. Joyce Huggett in her book ‘Listening To God’ quoted Thomas Merton who commented that he says of mistakes that: 78

...the only one which is really a mistake is that from which we learn nothing.

The major lessons which we have to learn seem to stand out to other people but not necessarily to ourselves. This is where honest relationships are invaluable; a spouse, partner, close friend can be of great service to us. Even so, we often miss that which we need to learn. Where we do not see a opportunity to learn, it will come round again but, perhaps, in a different guise as described by Irene Bays: 79

All upon the Earth plane come to a fork in the road, and there are occasions when the wrong road is taken, but it simply leads back in a circle. Round you go until you come back to the same place.

...and, perhaps in a different context and different form, the lesson is presented again until we do learn. A lesson learnt is a step up the spiritual ladder because as a consequence of it we will, maybe imperceptibly, change. Using a quotation from the English romantic poet John Keats to stress the importance of experience, Michal Levin wrote: 80

The poet, John Keats, writing in the early nineteenth century, said, ‘Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced – even a proverb is not a proverb till your life has illustrated it.’ It is the same in developing your spiritual intelligence.

Our soul, our innermost character, will slowly change as we continue to spiritually develop. On this point, Laurie Worger wrote: 81

Anyone who deliberately chooses the spiritual pathway knows of the difficulties, tests, and hurts during the many changes which become necessary in both the inward and outward life.

Hence we must expect change of this nature. Changing characteristics go hand in hand with

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People who are not open-minded will never improve their lot; people who are not open-minded can never achieve true spiritual progress.

Such flexibility has another aspect to it; it allows you to reflect on what actions you took in order to learn but not to brood or worry about them. In more poetic form Jack Joseph recognised that: 83

Light carries no memories of the darkness. Dawn has no debt to discharge to the sunset. Past no longer remains of any significance to those who travel to the shore of spiritual awareness.

To help you to assimilate what you have been through in life, set time aside to contemplate your actions. Sit in the quiet and think about the lessons you have learnt and those past and recent actions from which you don’t think that you have learned any lessons. Your inner soul, with intuitive help from spirit, may guide you to understand. Swami Paramananda in his introduction to ‘The Upanishads’ realised that: 84

It is not possible to comprehend the subtle problems of life unless the thought is tranquil and the energy concentrated. Until our mind is withdrawn from the varied distractions and agitations of worldly affairs, we cannot enter into the spirit of higher religious study. No study is of avail so long as our inner being is not attuned.

This mechanism may throw light on your actions and experiences. But don’t concentrate just on the difficult aspects of your life; look at the pleasures that you have experienced and the joys that come along with spiritual development. Citing Father Andrew again: 85

We all of us may have different kinds of conflict, and this perpetual conflict of the spiritual life takes to itself different appearances and experiences at different times of our life. But if there is conflict, fatigue, and weariness, there is also rest. The spiritual joys of true holiness far more than counterbalance all the pain and labour and weariness.

If you think about it, the whole of your life experience is a learning process. Right from the day you were aware of your (lack of?) spirituality you have started to learn. All your past actions have led to where you are now, as Irene Bays’ communicator says: 86

All experience is a learning, and a teaching, nothing is wasted.

This was stressed by Henry Thomas Hamblin in ‘Divine Adjustment’ where he wrote: 87

There is an infinitely wise object in every experience that comes to us. If it flings us into a rage, then we may know we have both pride and resentment to overcome. If it fills us with fear, we know that we have fear and the sin of doubt to overcome. If it depresses us, then we may know that we have not yet entered into our true life in God which is infinite joy. There is always something to be learnt from every

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experience; for, if it were not necessary, we would not attract it.

Richard Bach, whose love of aviation led him to set much of his philosophical teaching in that context, writing from his experience told us that: 88

A long time ago I learned that everything is exactly as it is for a reason. ... No exceptions. Everything has a reason, and the tiniest detail is a clue.

And remember the old adage which Baltasar Gracián re-iterated: 89

There is no cloud without a silver lining.

The implication is that nothing happens without an underlying reason. Of this thesis Max Müller wrote: 90

Whatever happens to us is always the best for us, even if we do not at once understand and perceive it.

So that if we can recognise this and look for the good within every event we encounter, we will progress in leaps and bounds.

Just a few points to emphasis before I close this chapter. Firstly, embarking upon the spiritual path will always give us a difficult ride, or as Ian Lawton, a researcher and author specialising in ancient history and spiritual philosophy, says: 91

...soul growth is about challenge...

...and as the medium John Edward knew from his own experience: 92

Nor did enlightenment come without a price.

Secondly, the path that we ought to follow is often missed and we may walk up a number of blind alleys. Martin Israel wrote: 93

Even the traveller on the spiritual path may experience periods of poor [spiritual] sight.

...and we ought not to be disturbed, as Abbé Henri de Tourville believed: 94

You should in no way be disturbed by the ups and downs in your spiritual life...

Finally, why not take the advice of the Christian priest who lived in Gaul during the 5 th century, Julianus Pomerius, and push the spiritual boundaries yourself: 95

This, too, heartened me to give myself a trial: to attempt great things would itself be great even if nothing were to result…

So walk a straight spiritual pathway, believe in what you are doing and don’t be distracted. There will be the ups-and-downs of life to contend with but rest assured that the journey that you are taking is valuable and important to YOU.

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1 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 2: The point of departure, (Pg 16) 2 Watchman Nee, When is My Spirit Normal?, Ministry of Life, 1927. Chapter 1 - The Dangers of Spiritual Life, (Pg 143) 3 Malcolm Muggeridge, A Third Testament, The Plough Publishing House, 2002. 4 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Don't Look on the Dark Side, (Pg 27) 5 Norman Grubb, The Spontaneous You, Lutterworth Press, 1966. Chapter 17. Applied to the Daily Life, (Pg 99) 6 Laura Lynne Jackson, The Light Between Us, Arrow Books, 2016. Part Three: 23 The Canarsie Pier, (Pg 174) 7 Henry Thomas Hamblin, Divine Adjustment, The Science of Thought Press, 1998. Chapter Eleven: Love, Life and Light, (Pg 132) 8 Don Piper, 90 Minutes in Heaven, Kingsway Publications, 2005. 10 More Miracles, (Pg 106) 9 Robin Waterfield, Streams of Grace, Fount, 1985. (Pg 28) 10 Sophy Burnham, The Ecstatic Journey, Ballantine Books, New York, 1997. Chapter 1 - Rowing toward God, (Pg 15) 11 Emile Cammaerts, The Flower of Grass, The Cresset Press, 1944. Chapter vii - Under God, (Pg 157) 12 Sherwood Eliot Wirt, Exploring the Spiritual Life, Lion Books, 1985. 14 - From The Rules and Exercises of Holy Living by Jeremy Taylor, (Pg 200) 13 John Edward, After Life - Answers from the Other Side, Princess Books, 2004. Chapter Ten: Papa, Can You Hear Me? (Pg 205) 14 Gems of Thought, The Greater World Christian Spiritualist Assn, 1989. When We Meet Our Pilot, (Pg 111) 15 Martin Israel, The Pain That Heals, Hodder & Stoughton, 1981. Chapter 11: The Suffering in Relationships: the Pain of Perfection, (Pg 126) 16 Michal Levin, Spiritual Intelligence, Hodder & Stoughton, 2000. Part II: Your Journey. Chapter Eight – Other Worlds? (Pg 196 / 197) 17 Heidi Sawyer, Why My Mother Didn't Want Me To Be Psychic, Hay House, 2008. Chapter 6: Psychic FM - The Purpose of Readings: The Skills of a Reading - Non-attachment to Outcome, (Pg 77 / 78) 18 Henry Thomas Hamblin, The Book of Daily Readings, The Rally, 1944. January 11, (Pg 17) 19 Maurice Barbanell, This is Spiritualism, The Spiritual Truth Press, 2001. Chapter 21 - The Implications, (Pg 209) 20 Rev. G. Vale Owen, The Life Beyond the Veil, Thornton Butterworth, 1929. Chapter III: From Darkness into Light - Friday, October 10, 1913. (Pg 73) 21 The Rev. C. Drayton Thomas, Beyond Life's Sunset, Psychic Press, Undated. Chapter VI: Mind and Memory in the Life Beyond Death, (Pg 37) 22 Max Müller, Thoughts on Life and Religion, Archibald Constable and Company, 1905. Sorrow and Suffering, (Pg 198 / 199) 23 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part Three: Chapter V - The Search for Spirituality (The Light Within), (Pg 309) 24 Lonnie C. Edwards M.D., Spiritual Laws That Govern Humanity and the Universe, Rosicrucian Order, AMORC, 2015 - Kindle version. Chapter 7: Forgiveness and the Indwelling Soul 25 Martin Israel, The Pain That Heals, Hodder & Stoughton, 1981. Chapter 14: Retribution and Suffering: the Significance of Atonement, (Pg 166) 26 Martin Israel, The Pain That Heals, Hodder & Stoughton, 1981. Chapter 15: The Path to Wholeness, (Pg 171) 27 White Eagle, The Quiet Mind, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1984. The Master Soul is Constant: .. Bears no Resentment: Accept, With Love, (Pg 79) 28 St. Theophan the Recluse, The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to it, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1995. 51 Turning the Burdens of Life to Spiritual Profit, (Pg 219) 29 St. Theophan the Recluse, The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to it, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1995. 77 Obedience to Parents, (Pg 307) 30 James Martin, Suffering Man, Loving God, Fount Paperbacks, 1990. Chapter Nine: The Christian Attitude, (Pg 78) 31 Peter Meadows, Joseph Steinberg and Donna Vann, Beyond Belief?, Word Publishing, 1999. Chapter 10: What a Pain, (Pg 113) 32 Dannion Brinkley, Secrets of the Light, Piatkus, 2012. Part 3: The Seven Lessons from Heaven - Conclusion: If It’s True, What Shall We Do? (Pg 186) 33 A W Austen, Teachings of Silver Birch, Psychic Press, 1993. Problems of Healing, (Pg 66)

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34 Father Andrew SDC, In the Silence, A.R.Mowbray, 1951. Union with the Will of God: VII. Fellowship, (Pg 87) 35 Peter Spink, Beyond Belief, Judy Piatkus, 1996. 1: Finding the God Within, (Pg 4) 36 Robin Waterfield, Streams of Grace, Fount, 1985. (Pg 34) 37 Henry Thomas Hamblin, The Book of Daily Readings, The Rally, 1944. March 16, (Pg 43) 38 Martin Israel, The Pain That Heals, Hodder & Stoughton, 1981. Chapter 6: An Encounter with Fear, (Pg 60) 39 White Eagle, Spiritual Unfoldment 2, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1994. VII: Fairy Tales, (Pg 85) 40 St. Theophan the Recluse, The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to it, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1995. 39 How the Enemy Tries to Lead One Astray, (Pg 176) 41 Dyson, W.H, Studies in Christian Mystics, James Clarke, 1913. Chapter XI - The Mystic Life, (Pg 131/132) 42 Laurie Worger, My Treasures For You, The Percival Book Company, 1965. Chapter 3: Our God-directed Lives, (Pg 37) 43 Pamela Young, Hope Street, Coronet, 2011. Part Two: The Family Saga, (Pg 122) 44 Barry Oates, David Hopkins and Carole Austin, Philosophy of Spiritualism, Spiritualists' National Union, 2007. Second Principle: The Brotherhood of Man, (Pg 20) 45 Evelyn Underhill, The School of Charity, Longmans, Green and Co, 1934. Part I - Chapter I - I believe, (Pg 6) 46 Sylvia Browne, The Other Side and Back, Piatkus, 2000. A Note to My Readers, (Pg 4) 47 Robert Llewelyn (ed), Julian - Woman of our Day, Darton Longman and Todd, 1986. Woman of Consolation and Strength by Robert Llewelyn, (Pg 135) 48 Robin Waterfield, Streams of Grace, Fount, 1985. (Pg 44 / 45) 49 White Eagle, Spiritual Unfoldment 1, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1994. I: A Simple Approach – A healthy Mind in a healthy body, (Pg 19) 50 Anne Dooley, Guidance from Silver Birch, Spiritualist Press, 1966. Chapter Three: Serving Your Apprenticeship, (Pg 27) 51 Leslie D Weatherhead, How Can I Find God?, Hodder & Stoughton, 1965. Part I: Are we hiding from Him? - I: In Refusing to Repent? (Pg 18) 52 Father Andrew SDC, In the Silence, A.R.Mowbray, 1951. Growth in Holiness: III. The Sulpician Method, (Pg 24) 53 Laurie Worger, My Treasures For You, The Percival Book Company, 1965. Chapter 3: Our God-directed Lives, (Pg 40) 54 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part TWO:The Mystic Way: Chapter III - The Purification of the Self, (Pg 217) 55 Jacob Boehme, The Way to Christ, Paulist Press, 1978. The Sixth Treatise on the supersenual life (1622) 56 Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God with Spiritual Maxims, Spire Books, 2007. Spiritual Maxims #1, (Pg 69) 57 Gems of Thought, The Greater World Christian Spiritualist Assn, 1989. The Earthly Round of Experience, (Pg 162) 58 Martin Israel, The Pain That Heals, Hodder & Stoughton, 1981. Chapter 7: Psychic Darkness: the Collective Pain, (Pg 72) 59 Evelyn Underhill, The Spiritual Life, Mowbray, 1984. Part One: What is Spiritual Life? (Pg 33) 60 Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Elliot Stock, 1891. Book IV - Book of Inward Consolation, Chapter V 61 Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Elliot Stock, 1891. Book IV - Book of Inward Consolation, Chapter XXVI(III) 62 Evelyn Underhill, The House of the Soul, Methuen & Co, 1929. Chapter IV, (Pg 58) 63 Evelyn Underhill, The House of the Soul, Methuen & Co, 1929. Chapter IV, (Pg 56) 64 Evelyn Underhill, The House of the Soul, Methuen & Co, 1929. Chapter IV, (Pg 57 & 58) 65 Thomas Merton, Reflections on My Work, Collins, Fontana Library, 1989. Foreword, (Pg 9) 66 John M. Todd, John Wesley and the Catholic Church, The Catholic Book Club, 1958. Chapter Five: The Last Fifty Years, (Pg 96) 67 Joyce Huggett, Listening To God, Hodder & Stoughton, 1988. Chapter 15: Tempted to Give Up, (Pg 169) 68 The Cloud of Unknowing and The Book of Privy Counselling, Doubleday, 1973. The Cloud of Unknowing: Chapter 26, (Pg 83) 69 White Eagle, The Quiet Mind, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1984. The Master Soul is Constant: .. is Gentle, Loving , Kind: Lay Down Your Problem, (Pg 23) 70 Andrew Harvey, Hidden Journey, Rider & Co, 1994. LORD MOTHER – FOUR, (Pg 97)

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71 William Stainton Moses, Spirit Teachings, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Section I, (Pg 9) 72 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part One: Chapter XI - The Search for Spirituality (Spiritual Awareness), (Pg 109) 73 Peter Matthews, Spiritualism and Reincarnation, Con-Psy Publications, 1997. Chapter 4 - Compensation and Retribution, (Pg 26 / 27) 74 A. J. Howard Hulme and Frederic H. Wood, Ancient Egypt Speaks, Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XI - The Truth of Life, (Pg 172) 75 Martin Israel, The Pearl of Great Price, SPCK, 1988. 4 - The Cloud and the Fire, (Pg 29) 76 Carl Edward Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, Ballantine Books, New York, 1997. Chapter 25 : Real Patriots Ask Questions, (Pg 424) 77 Alan Young, Cosmic Healing, DeVorss & Co, 1988. 6 Saint Germain – Forgiveness, (Pg 81) 78 Joyce Huggett, Listening To God, Hodder & Stoughton, 1988. Chapter 13: Many Mistakes, (Pg 139) 79 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part Three: Chapter IV - Prayer (The Value of Prayer), (Pg 294 / 295) 80 Michal Levin, Spiritual Intelligence, Hodder & Stoughton, 2000. Part II: Your Journey. Chapter Nine – Spiritual Principles of Relationships, (Pg 215) 81 Laurie Worger, My Treasures For You, The Percival Book Company, 1965. Chapter 4: Three Aspects of Christ, (Pg 52) 82 Ryuho Okawa, The Laws of the Sun, Element, 1996. Chapter Five: The Golden Age - The Path to El Cantare (1) - Abandon Attachment, (Pg 118) 83 Jack Joseph, The Omano Oracle, Medicine Bear Publishing, 1997. Part I - The Oracles, (Pg 13) 84 Swami Paramananda, The Upanishads, Grange Books, 2004. Introduction, (Pg 12) 85 Father Andrew SDC, In the Silence, A.R.Mowbray, 1951. Growth in Holiness: II. Spiritual Combat, (Pg 21) 86 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part Two: Chapter III - Thoughts of Love (Harmony and Love), (Pg 186) 87 Henry Thomas Hamblin, Divine Adjustment, The Science of Thought Press, 1998. Chapter Eleven: Love, Life and Light, (Pg 133) 88 Richard Bach, Out of My Mind, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1999. 1: (Pg 15) 89 Baltasar Gracián, The Art of Worldly Wisdom - A pocket Oracle, Mandarin, 1995. Aphorism 190: (Pg 107) 90 Max Müller, Thoughts on Life and Religion, Archibald Constable and Company, 1905. The Will of God, (Pg 222) 91 Ian Lawton, The Wisdom of the Soul, RSP (Rational Spirituality Press), 2007. 3: Humanity's Past and Future, (Pg 106) 92 John Edward, One Last Time, Piatkus, 2001. Part 1: On the Path - 3 The Man with the Barber's Comb, (Pg 21) 93 Martin Israel, The Pearl of Great Price, SPCK, 1988. 4 - The Cloud and the Fire, (Pg 33) 94 Robin Waterfield, Streams of Grace, Fount, 1985. (Pg 22) 95 Julianus Pomerius, The Contemplative Life - 'De Vita Contemplativa', Newman Bookshop, 1947. Book One – Foreword, (Pg 14)

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15.18: Spiritual Development and Love

Even though I have said so much about Love in sixteen previous chapters, covering two sections, I want to just emphasise its cyclical relationship to Spiritual development. The more any person develops their spiritual nature, the greater their ‘love’ blossoms, and the more ‘love’ we have for humanity and our environment, the greater becomes our spirituality. Love is the driver for service and service is one of the primary goals for our life on earth.

As I have an analytical background, and therefore have a desire to classify and organise, I have created the table below in order to try to explain what I mean by Love and Spiritual Development. It encapsulates the essence of my belief system.

God Humanity & the Environment Love is given out Gratitude Service to others through as… kindness, charity, compassion, friendship, forgiveness, patience, humility, mercy, empathy, etc… Love received The Spirit world and Creation of situations for through… unwavering execution of spiritual and material the Cosmic Laws experiences

This table needs a bit of explanation. I will ‘read’ the table for you.

Love is given out as gratitude to God

God acts only through mechanism established in the ‘beginning’, hence I believe that God is passive and NEVER takes direct action to help or hinder our spiritual or material progress. Nevertheless, I can be really thankful for all that has happened to me and show this in my gratitude to God through prayer.

Love is given out as Service to others through kindness, charity, compassion, friendship, forgiveness, patience, humility, mercy, empathy to Humanity & the Environment

One of everyone’s Life’s Objectives is, through use of the talents and abilities that we possess, to help others. We can continue to improve how we do this by reducing our focus on ourselves and by developing those characteristics of kindness, compassion, etc.

Love received through the Spirit world and unwavering execution of the Cosmic Laws from God

Because I see my God as a Creator and First Cause, I believe that whatever help I get from God is through those mechanisms which were initially

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established. These include my guides, teachers and helpers in the Spirit World and the invariable execution of those Cosmic Laws which totally control how we develop.

Love received through creation of situations for spiritual and material experiences from Humanity & the Environment

The setting within which I can spiritually develop is determined by the environment in which I live and the people I meet each day of my life. Without this context, I would not be able to learn the lessons I need and hence spiritually develop.

So these are the ways in which Love and Spiritual Development blend. All four of these facets are necessary, like the need for all four wheels on a car – take one away and the whole vehicle comes to a standstill. You must not let this happen; praise and be thankful to God; accept and attune to the world of Spirit and receive their inspirations; serve humanity and the world as best you can with the skills that you have; accept the situations which arise in life, both the good and the bad, as necessary vehicles in which your spirituality can be tested and improved. This summarises Love; it is the template for your life.

As you extend your spirituality in the context of your life, you will grow in wisdom. The lessons you learn will add experience so that whatever you do will be tempered by what you have already been through. For the balance of love and wisdom, the Rev. G. Vale Owen wrote: 1

One of those things which matter here is that due proportion be meted out between wisdom and love. These are not contrary the one from the other, but are two great phases of one great principle. For love is to wisdom as the tree is to the leaves, and if love actuate and wisdom breathe, then the fruit is healthy and sound.

…so too will you be spiritually healthy and sound if you follow your planned objectives for your life and embrace everything through love. There are not many people who take the spiritual pathway. Therese of Lisieux, a really loving mystic of the 19 th century, recognised that God: 2

...finds so few surrendering themselves without reserve to the tenderness of His infinite love.

Certainly, very few people will even consider the need to take a spiritual route in life, as most will be too preoccupied with balancing their material books. Justin Welby, the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury, suggested in his first book ‘Dethroning Mammon’ that it may be that we seem to focus on what we believe to be of value: 3

In our society, we value wealth that is visible, and life that is confident.

Similarly, focussing on this world’s progress and all that it entails is vacuous. During the 1930s and 1940s the spiritual philosopher and mystic Jiddu Krishnamurti intermittently kept notes of his philosophical observations, his inner states, his musings about nature, and his discussions with individuals and groups. From one such episode reported in ‘Commentaries on Living - Third Series’ he made the observation that: 4

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Where there is ambition, there is no love; and action without love has no meaning.

Many love aspects of their material life, and these become their personal drivers. The opposite is true for those following a spiritual pathway, where love of others is their focus. However, it is sometimes hard to understand what the mystics mean when they refer to love and in particular to God’s love. I interpret Therese’s comment, above, as indicating that very few people allow themselves to be guided and inspired by their supporters in the Spirit World and accept the world as a training ground. More in keeping with my view of ‘God’s love’ came through the following words from Abu, the communicator who used W. F. Rickard to convey his messages from the Spirit World: 5

And so, the blessing which I know to be outflowing from that fount of all love and of blessing and warmth towards us, towards me, towards you, towards all the children, be they upon a high plane of spiritual advancement or upon the lowest, be their intellects magnificent ones or be they merely 'vegetables' - the love and the blessing and the warmth alike flow out towards all. Man, whatever his standing, whatever his status, has merely to appreciate that fact and to respond to it, and his advancement in spiritual terms is assured.

The English Anglo-Catholic writer and pacifist known for her numerous works on religion and spiritual practice, Evelyn Underhill, according to Lumden Barkway, tried to convey to us that we must, in an appropriate way, become tuned in to God’s love - which comes to us via the Spirit World and other people: 6

Let us try to see our situation in that large and general way: our small imperfect souls, waiting here on the Eternal God already fully present in His splendour; and His living Spirit which is His Love, gradually penetrating and fertilising all our lives...

Another way of expressing the premise that love and spiritual development are inseparable was given by the Anglican priest, professor of divinity at Cambridge, and Dean of St Paul's Cathedral, William Inge in one of his sermons: 7

And as we must accustom ourselves to the thought that God is essentially spirit, light and love, and that when we walk in the spirit, when we walk in the light, and when we walk in love, we are on the path that leads to God.

…and Martin Israel, priest, mystic and spiritual author, simply said: 8

…spirituality is the movement of the personality to God .

Thus as love leads us towards our goal, so recognising and taking steps to move towards our destiny will develop a greater love within us. F P Harton expressed this as: 9

Awareness of God brings love

In less esoteric terms, the Japanese visionary Ryuho Okawa told us that: 10

Love is what we aim to attain through our spiritual practices…

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Or, by contrast, through spiritual development our love for creation and all therein, grows. It is cyclical. Some look at it one way, others the opposite. No matter, love runs through the whole of our spiritual efforts, or as White Eagle remarked: 11

The foundation of all spiritual growth is love. We all like to love and be loved; it is natural and makes life joyous and comfortable. Many of us, however, do not understand love unless we see it manifesting through a human personality, and this is quite right; for did not the great Master say, ’He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?’

Some of the mystical poets have very expressive ways of bringing love and spirituality together. For example George Herbert, a 17 th century Welsh poet, wrote: 12

Indeed mans whole estate Amounts (and richly) to serve thee; He did not heav'n and earth create Yet studies them, not him by whom they be.

Teach me thy love to know That this new light, which now I see, May both the work and workman show; Then by a sunne-beam I will climb to thee.

Love, in its broadest, most expansive sense, is what we came to earth to learn or perhaps remember. It is through love that we are able to live our lives appropriately. Pamela Young, for example, recognised this and wrote that she realised that: 13

...most of all I came to learn that the greatest thing any of us have is love.

Love opens unparalleled vistas; with love we can change the world or at least do our little bit towards it. Jiddu Krishnamurti knew that: 14

To bring about a radical change in the ways of our life, there must be expanding awareness, and a great depth of feeling which is love. With love everything is possible.

He went on to also stress that we should plough our own field of love and not be distracted by definitions and descriptions that other people have expressed: 15

Put away the book, the description, the tradition, the authority, and take the journey of self-discovery. Love, and don’t be caught in opinions and ideas about what love is or should be. When you love, everything will come right. Love has its own action. Love, and you will know the blessings of it. Keep away from the authority who tells you what love is and what it is not. No authority knows; and he who knows cannot tell. Love, and there is understanding.

This idea of total love for everything was conveyed to Betty Jean Eadie during her Near Death Experience, and from that she explained that: 16

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We are here to have love for every person born on earth.

We can meet this need through greater understanding and climbing the spiritual ladder and by taking the opportunities that life offers to us to improve. We become more and more sensitive to the plight of other creatures and the environs in which we live. We begin to ‘feel’ for hardship and difficulties which others experience and want to help wherever we can – this is love. What happens when this occurs is a natural suppression of our own desires; our own ego. Using the language of the religious mystic, St John of the Cross wrote: 17

The strength of the soul consists in its faculties, passions and desires, all of which are governed by the will. Now when these faculties, passions and desires are directed by the will toward God, and turned away from all that is not God, then the strength of the soul is kept for God, and thus the soul is able to love God with all its strength.

Staying with a ‘God’ focussed expression of love, according to Rabbi Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Karl Rahner, one of the most influential theologians of the 20th century, understood that: 18

...God is the incomprehensible mystery that embraces everything: the goal of human life is to lose oneself in this divine mystery of love.

This is not just a Roman Catholic perspective. Most religions take a similar view. John M. Todd tells us that John Wesley, one of the founders of the Methodist movement, had one conviction that stands out above all others. This was that: 19

...God is love, and that love always and everywhere triumphs finally and for ever over every obstacle.

Whilst in principle this is totally independent of any religion, it is not independent of our spirituality. In part this was developed by one of the greatest of Sufis Jalalu'l Din Rumi. We are told by Geoffrey Parrinder that Rumi’s : 20

...popular Mathnawi, 'spiritual couplets', has been called the Qur'an of Persia. He founded mystical dances, said to represent the revolution of the planets round the sun, which were perhaps the beginnings of the Dancing Dervishes. Rumi ranges over the whole expanse of doctrine and religion, finding God even in Pharaoh's hard heart, and in the disobedience of Iblis, as well as in the different ways of Christian and Muslim, Jew, Hindu and Zoroastrian. Love is the secret of them all, for the lamps are different but the Light is the same; 'the lovers of God have no religion but God alone.'

As our spirituality develops and our focus is changed, such obstacles become reduced in severity. We can accept and look positively on all that happens not only to us but also to other people. With this in mind we can acknowledge the words of the Buddha who, according to Andrew Harvey, said: 21

Without a generous heart there can be no true spiritual life.

The spiritual mentor Michal Levin had a similar thought and wrote: 22

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Chief among the qualities of spirituality, the very essence of the place you reach, and the real understanding that informs you, is love.

In fact, the linkage between love and spirituality seems to be cyclical. The greater your spirituality, the greater your love becomes; and as love itself expands so does your spirituality. Using different words and keeping with a non-theological expression of love, we can state that by focussing on service to others our spirituality develops and consequently our love is enhanced. The opposite is also true; focus on developing love for humanity and our spirituality will naturally develop.

As we progress on both of these fronts simultaneously we become spiritually mature; we move our life from kindergarten to junior school. Taking this ‘children’ based view in terms of our relationship with the Creator Robert Llewelyn quoted from Brant Pelphrey’s study ‘Love Was His Meaning’ which looked at the life of Julian of Norwich who: 23

...sees that we relate to our heavenly father sometimes as little children who need punishment and chiding; sometimes as helpless children who need rescuing; sometimes as wrathful children, who are nevertheless loved though we refuse love; and sometimes as mature children, or even as a beloved wife, who can return love as it is given. Underlying her concept of growth in Holy Spirit, which is our growth in divine love, is a remarkable idea which needs to be heard today: that only love compels love in others, and creates maturity.

Through our reflection of love, others may be stimulated to move to a more loving attitude to others and our environment. Consequential on taking this approach, we will strike a more favourable balance between ‘self’ and service to others. Of this Henry Thomas Hamblin wrote: 24

By self-sacrifice, by crucifying the self, by pouring out our love upon all men, by loving God with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength, by surrendering to the Will of God, by non-resistance of evil, and by being led entirely by Spirit, we find our feet firmly planted in the Way of Peace.

As you can see from the expressions that Henry uses, developing love as a central plank to our emergent spirituality is not an easy task. In fact, Henry stated that: 25

The one law of life and of the Universe is love, so that it is simple to follow and obey, but not easy.

This development is difficult even though it is relatively easy to see how little love we possess. In his ‘Summons to Life’, Martin Israel stressed this very point: 26

...the truly aspiring person realises continually how much he is lacking in love.

Another form of expression is through clear inspiration from the agents of God. In the preface to the ‘Poems of St John of the Cross’ is revealed that: 27

It looks, however, as if the poems just escaped from him; they are stanzas of the spontaneous and semi-ecstatic love song he had always in his heart, once he had

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come to know God.

Whilst these lead St John of the Cross to poetry and mysticism, they will lead you to other avenues of expression. When you do feel that Spirit is guiding you, then whilst you should take great note of this always use your reasoning to confirm to yourself that it is ‘good’ for you. Remember there are deceptive spirits as well as those who lead you along your correct spiritual pathway. So take the advice of the anonymous author of ‘The Cloud of Unknowing’: 28

And so, humbly trust the blind stirring of love in your heart. Not your physical heart, of course, but your spiritual heart, your will.

…always, as the New Testament suggested, ‘test’ the communicating spirit or intuition or what you are inspired to do. Possibly this assessment of inspired thought may come through contemplation. This can be done by anyone as Mother Teresa believed: 29

Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within the reach of every hand. Anyone may gather it and no limit is set. Everyone can reach love through meditation, spirit of prayer and sacrifice, by an intense inner life.

The objective of contemplation, in this context, is to test whether the fruit you are offered is ripe and not otherwise. Once you are confident that what your ‘heart’ tells you is correct then the type of service that you can give to humanity seems to be unlimited. The London parish priest Terry Tastard used the term ‘social action’ in place of ‘service to humanity’ and believed that this improved as our love base expanded: 30

The best resource for commitment to social action is to grow in awareness of this gratuitous love, which in turn enables the spark in the soul, through which we love God and the creation which God loves.

Thus the cycle of love brings out our desire to serve and more service brings to us an increased love for everything, leading to a developing spirituality through the experiences of life. This is why we exist. Laurie Worger, in his book ‘My Treasures For You’ wrote: 31

We soon find how wonderful are God's laws and plans for each one of us. Under PERFECT JUSTICE all have to undergo a series of corresponding experiences. Becoming rich and poor, of good health, and of bad, experiencing injustice and hardship in order to develop our spiritual strength until it becomes a living compassion and blossoms out eventually into the flower of perfect love.

This expresses what living is about; the ups and downs of life which is completely enhanced if we pour as much love into it as we can. Père De Caussade, a French spiritual director of the 18 th century, knew that the joy and happiness that we experience every moment depends on our attitude and approach to life: 32

The present moment holds infinite riches beyond your wildest dreams but you will only enjoy them to the extent of your faith and love.

And finally, let me use a quotation from the father of Winifred Graham who, communicating to her from the Spirit World, decreed that: 33

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Without love you are spiritually dead. With love, you are a partner of the Divine Creator Himself.

This was confirmed by a highly evolved spirit communicating through the medium Dion Fortune who stated: 34

Whosoever expresses Love brings Spirit, which is One, into manifestation. To be loving is to be good. Whosoever expresses hate brings separateness into manifestation. To be separate is to be dead. Therefore choose Love and live.

...and we should agree with Max Müller that: 35

...the highest point of perfection is love.

So, develop your spirituality through your love for all creatures and that love will be a mirror of who you are and what you stand for – you will be living your Philosophy of Life.

1 Rev. G. Vale Owen, The Life Beyond the Veil, Thornton Butterworth, 1929. Chapter III: From Darkness into Light - Friday, October 10, 1913, (Pg 72 / 73) 2 Therese of Lisieux, The Story of a Soul, Anthony Clarke Books, 1973. Chapter 11, (Pg 152) 3 Justin Welby, Dethroning Mammon, Bloomsbury, 2016. Chapter 1: What we see we value, (Pg 11)

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4 J Krishnamurti, Commentaries on Living - Third Series, Victor Gollancz, 1961. Can One Know What Is Good for the People? (Pg 16) 5 W. F. Rickard,, Abu Talks, Regency Press, 1992. Chapter 18 - Astral-shells, (Pg 82) 6 Lumsden Barkway, An Anthology of the Love of God (from the writings of Evelyn Underhill), Mowbray, 1953. II The Love of the Godhead: I God, The Source and Sum of Love:: Self-yielding to Eternal Love (The Fruits of the Spirit) (Pg 43) 7 Dean Inge, Goodness and Truth, Mowbray, 1958. Sermon 6: Walking in the Light, (Pg 64) 8 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 1: The measure of a man, (Pg 14) 9 F P Harton, The Elements of the Spiritual Life: A study in Ascetical Theology, SPCK, 1950. Part IV - Chapter XX Recollection, (Pg 275) 10 Ryuho Okawa, The Laws of the Sun, Element, 1996. Chapter Three: The River of Love - 'Existence as Love' and God's Love, (Pg 61) 11 White Eagle, Spiritual Unfoldment 1, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1994. VI: Life in the Spirit World – Personal and Divine Love, (Pg 90) 12 Gerald Hammond, The Metaphysical Poets, Macmillan & Co, 1990. George Herbert: The Conception of Form, (From 'Mattens') (Pg 163) 13 Pamela Young, Hope Street, Coronet, 2011. Part Three: Pamela's Journey, (Pg 200) 14 J Krishnamurti, Commentaries on Living - Third Series, Victor Gollancz, 1961. Self-Interest Decays the Mind, (Pg 155) 15 J Krishnamurti, Commentaries on Living - Third Series, Victor Gollancz, 1961. What Is Love? (Pg 214) 16 Betty J Eadie, Embraced by the Light, Thorsons, 1995. Embraced by the Light, (Pg 51) 17 The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1947. Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book III. Chapter XVI, (Pg 259) 18 Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Jewish & Christian Mysticism - An Introduction, Continuum, 1994. Part II The Christian Tradition - 10 Modern Christian Mystics: Henri Le Saux and Karl Rahner, (Pg 156) 19 John M. Todd, John Wesley and the Catholic Church, The Catholic Book Club, 1958. Chapter Six: Ho, Everyone that Thirsteth, (Pg 119) 20 Geoffrey Parrinder, Worship in the World's Religions, Association Press, 1961. Part IV - The Near East and the West: Chapter 11 – Islam, (Pg 204) 21 Andrew Harvey, The Direct Path, Rider & Co, 2000. Two: Practicing the Path - Eighteen Sacred Practices for Transformed Spiritual Living, (Pg 155) 22 Michal Levin, Spiritual Intelligence, Hodder & Stoughton, 2000. Part II: Your Journey. Chapter Four – The World of Energy, (Pg 52) 23 Robert Llewelyn (ed), Julian - Woman of our Day, Darton Longman and Todd, 1986. Woman of Consolation and Strength by Robert Llewelyn, (Pg 136) 24 Henry Thomas Hamblin, The Life of the Spirit, The Science of Thought Press, 1934. Chapter the Last - The Law of Sacrifice, (Pg 89) 25 Henry Thomas Hamblin, Divine Adjustment, The Science of Thought Press, 1998. Chapter Six: Divine Adjustment, (Pg 77) 26 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 16: Discerning the spiritual path, (Pg 124) 27 Poems of St John of the Cross, Collins, Fount Paperbacks, 1891. Preface, (Pg 2) 28 The Cloud of Unknowing and The Book of Privy Counselling, Doubleday, 1973. The Cloud of Unknowing: Chapter 51, (Pg 113) 29 Malcolm Muggeridge, Something Beautiful for God, Collins, 1973. Mother Teresa's Way of Love, (Pg 65) 30 Terry Tastard, The Spark in the Soul, Darton Longman and Todd, 1989. Chapter 5 - Thomas Merton and God Our Identity. (Pg 103) 31 Laurie Worger, My Treasures For You, The Percival Book Company, 1965. Chapter 3: Our God-directed Lives, (Pg 37) 32 Père De Caussade, The Sacrament of the Present Moment, Fount, 1987. 9: God’s transcendent Will and the Supremacy of Our Duty to the Present Moment – What God Tells Us, (Pg 82) 33 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. A Different Aspect of Love, (Pg 39) 34 Dion Fortune, The Cosmic Doctrine, Helios Book Service, 1966. Chapter XXX: The Law of Attraction of the Centre, (Pg 133) 35 Max Müller, Thoughts on Life and Religion, Archibald Constable and Company, 1905. Future Life, (Pg 83)

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15.19: Spiritual Development and Freewill

Freewill and destiny always cause debate and polarisation of views. Destiny decrees that our lives are pre-planned and freewill allows us to choose at every point in life what we do. These seem to be direct opposites; can we have both? I believe so; let me explain.

We are a spark of God and it is our soul’s ‘reason d’être’ to improve and bring back to God, from whom we arose, a complete spiritual entity. This notion was articulated by the legendary spiritual master of the ancient wisdom known as Saint Germain: 1

Man is the son of God. He is commanded by the Father to choose how he shall direct the Life energy, and what quality he wishes his fulfilled desire to express. This he must do for free will is his birthright. The personal self of every individual is empowered with the Power of Choice as to what it wishes to think, to feel, to create, and experience.

In more modern parlance, the Rosicrucian Lonnie C. Edwards wrote: 2

The recognition of choices is extremely important to the student seeking growth and spirituality. The art of being aware of choices and then exercising and demonstrating wisdom in selection must be acquired. In the process of learning to make wise choices, many spiritual attributes are developed. As human beings we recognise that free will is an inherent human attribute and right. We must also realize that as human beings we must accept and live with our choices and our preferences, be they “good” or “bad.” The student should regard this as a right as well as a divine endowment.

This sets the scene for our life’s ambition and progress. However, our development lies primarily within the Spirit World where we exist alongside other spirits of like spirituality – this is one of the Cosmic Laws, that like attracts like. Because of this there are experiences which we are unable to encounter in such an environment. Perhaps this is why the Earth is seen as a training ground for those experiences which need direct contact between those people of different levels of spirituality. In such situations can we not only learn but experience forgiveness, tolerance, mercy, etc. - all those aspects of love which are necessary to our progress and for us to embed within our souls.

Therefore, before we are born into this life, we agreed to encounter a number of learning experiences; these form the basis of our earthly destiny. These are not necessarily planned to the hour as to when they should happen but certainly they are scheduled loosely into our life. Many philosophers, theologians and other august men have recognised the relationship between fate and freewill. On this subject, Brian Weiss whose research into past life regression gave him the understanding to write: 3

Destiny and free will seem to exist together. There is an intelligence, a wisdom, or a consciousness that knows how events and relationships will turn out. Hamlet calls it a destiny "that shapes our ends." We on earth don't know how they will end, but we can affect how they will turn out for us both later in our life and in our lives to come by our present actions and behaviours - by our free will.

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…and he added: 4

Just as the soul does a review at the end of a life, so it seems to make a life preview before we are born. It plans the life. I'm going to work on compassion or empathy or nonviolence, for example. It sees how the life is set up, whom we are going to meet, who will help us along the spiritual path, and how we are going to help them. (It's complicated because there is an interaction with other souls, and they have their plans, too.) The people we meet and the experiences that are set up help us to learn - this is destiny .

From a similar stable of thought, the spiritual researcher and author Ian Lawton believed that everything is not planned down to the last detail, so that: 5

Our lives are not predetermined, and we have complete free will to depart from our 'plan'.

Again from Brian Weiss: 6

It is free will that lets us choose what we eat, our cars, our clothes, our vacations. Free will allows us to select our partners as well, though it is probably destiny that draws us to them and they to us.

This rational approach is one which I favour and it seems to allay many of the problems that we have with predestination. Based on their research into Near Death Experiences Peter & Elizabeth Fenwick came to the conclusion that: 7

...they seem to show a deterministic world in which events are preordained. It even seems as though some of these events are designed to help personal development. But within these experiences there is a contradiction between a future which seems to be determined and the existence of free choice. The idea of predetermination is a difficult one for most of us to accept; we like to think that we can make choices, bring about change and so exercise some sort of control over our lives. It may make more sense to look on these events as some kind of preparation.

To summarise this link between fate and destiny I use a communication received and recorded in the book ‘Precognition and Human Survival’ by the Wesleyan minister and psychic researcher Drayton Thomas: 8

I am convinced on excellent grounds that one's life-course is planned in a broadly general way and that, so far as one wills to know and do the right, one is co- operating with unseen guidance and the result is assured. Variations of the route are open to us, but the goal is reached by them all. Only those who wilfully, or carelessly, elect to live for present pleasure rather than for future good will entirely miss their way. We are free within limits and sufficient guidance is available for those who seek it

In parallel with this broadly planned set of objectives, there are other aspects of learning which allow, when we return to the Spirit World at the end of our life, a ‘higher level’ to be reached and hence our rise of spirituality will be all the more rapid. These ‘extras’, or additional facets, hinge upon understanding the Cosmic Laws which apply to everything

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:17:06 15.19 Spiritual Development and Freewill Page 3 of 21 that we undertake. For example, realising the impact of the Law of Cause and Effect makes us very conscious of the implications of what we do and realising the existence of a Spirit World and the potential guidance which emanates from it, colours what we do in life. There are other Universal Laws and understanding their impact will compel us to live a life which is not centred upon ‘self’ but focussed on helping others. This is where our freewill enters the fray.

We have choice to exercise our free will in what actions we undertake. Or, as Martin Israel remarked in his book ‘Healing as a Sacrament’: 9

Freedom necessitates choice.

In fact, the existence of man’s freewill, too, is one of the Cosmic Laws and it is inviolate, or as St Bernard of Clairvaux remarked: 10

…the Creator endowed man with this prerogative of His divine dignity - to choose.

...or as the Venerable Basil Wilberforce, the one-time Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons in and Archdeacon of Westminster, put it: 11

To choose is man’s act.

This is available not only to humans but to all sentient creatures and we can all exercise this right, as the spirit communicator who channelled information through Irene Bays knew: 12

...for all have freewill and all can use it.

…and this is the greatest power that we possess. In the 18 th century the mystic William Law concurred with this: 13

…nothing else in its power but the free use of its will…

If we look at the New Testament for evidence of freewill, you will find, as the spiritual healer and mystic Joel Goldsmith did, that: 14

"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" [Galatians 6:7] God has nothing to do with your sowing or your reaping. It is as YOU sow: “He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." [Galatians 6:8]

The Belgian academic Emile Cammaerts believed that this choice is implemented through freewill: 15

Every individual has the power to choose the best way, through his free will .

His view of the ‘best way’ is the ‘spiritual way’. So, every step on our life’s journey we make choices and if we allow these to be driven so that we do the best relative to the Universal Laws that govern us, then we will be taking the spiritual pathway; we will be choosing the ‘good’ rather than the ‘bad’ - although choices are, in most cases, much more complicated than that. Sir Oliver Lodge, the British physicist and psychic researcher, in his

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:17:06 15.19 Spiritual Development and Freewill Page 4 of 21 book ‘Man and the Universe’ discussed freewill and came to the conclusion that each of us humans: 16

...is nevertheless a being which has at length attained to consciousness and free- will, a being unable to be coerced by the whole force of the universe, against his will; a spark of the Divine Spirit, therefore, never more to be quenched. Open still to awful horrors, to agonies of remorse, but to floods of joy also he persists, and his destiny is largely in his own hands; he may proceed up or down, he may advance towards a magnificent ascendancy, he may recede towards depths of infamy. He is not coerced: he is guided and influenced, but he is free to choose. The evil and the good are necessary correlatives; freedom to choose the one involves freedom to choose the other.

There is, of course, Murphy’s Law. This is an adage that is typically stated as: 17

Anything that can go wrong will go wrong .

…which is why Ian Lawton told us that: 18

And even though you've chosen your life plan, other people's free will can get in the way and create obstacles.

This is not surprising because everyone is empowered with freewill and therefore unless everything goes to ‘plan’ there will be situations where some expected choice was not made and this can have a detrimental impact on the life plans of many other people.

Freewill, or the choices you make at any point in your life, will control the choices available to you later in life. This is a self imposed constraint on your freewill. For example, freedom to choose to love another should constrain you as to the choices you will make when you have to consider the feelings, etc of your loved one. The American pastor and author Timothy Keller recognised this and wrote: 19

One of the principles of love - either love for a friend or romantic love - is that you have to lose independence to gain greater intimacy. If you want the 'freedoms' of love - the fulfilment, security, sense of worth that it brings - you must limit your freedom in many ways. You cannot enter a deep relationship and still make unilateral decisions or allow your friend or lover no say in how you live your life. To experience the joy and freedom of love, you must give up your personal autonomy .

It is your choice. You have the freedom to ‘give’ your freewill to another, in the same way as you have the freedom to choose to do ‘good’ or ‘bad’. According to the religious writer and activist Reza Aslan, when referring to freewill, Rationalist theologians 20 adopted and expanded the view that: 21

…humanity was perfectly free to act in either goodness or evil, meaning that the responsibility for salvation rested directly in the hands of the believer.

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Perhaps this ability of a created being to choose its own pathway is a fundamental aspect of everywhere where life exists. Certainly, based on his Near Death Experience, the American clinician Dr Eben Alexander was able to explain that: 22

Evil was present in all the other universes as well, but only in the tiniest amounts. Evil was necessary because without it free will was impossible, and without free will there would be no growth - no forward movement, no chance for us to become what God longed for us to be.

And because the freewill that we have been endowed with empowers us, as the 12 th century Benedictine monk William of St Thierrry noted: 23

…it follows that the will may choose either alternative [good or bad]

More generally, Beatrice Russell was told by a spirit communicator that freewill: 24

…is a condition of deliberate action based on our desires, and it gives us the choice of an action on one hand - and an action on the other.

From a similar Spirit World source, the late father of Winifred Graham remarked that: 25

It is the will that governs everything.

We can use our freewill to spiritually grow or otherwise; it is up to each of us to make the right choice. Red Cloud, speaking through the medium Estelle Roberts, agreed in the exercise of this freedom but noted that always the Cosmic Laws have more impact the more spiritual you become: 26

The more you grow, spiritually, the more your free will places you under the divine law, yet it does not obliterate your individuality. It leaves you your own individuality as a free thinker, as a free person along whatever line you may wish to travel.

This is a double edged sword. The more we expand the greater the responsibility we have to act spiritually. This was realised by the Anglican priest Martin Israel: 27

Free will is God's supreme gift to us but its use entails an enormous responsibility.

Or, as the medium Colin Fry commented: 28

Being free to choose is one of the most important things about being human. Of course freedom of choice also brings with it the burden and responsibility of making the 'right' choices, whatever they may be.

Thus the greater our love for humanity the more responsibility we have towards everyone we meet. Love, the one real emotion of Spirit, is just one of the stimuli for exercise of our free will. Neale Donald Walsch was informed by his spirit communicator that: 29

Every human thought, word, or deed is based in one emotion or another. You have no choice about this, because there is nothing else from which to choose.

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Or in the words of Martin Israel: 30

Desire is the stimulus that sets the will in action.

Of course we must differentiate the emotions that we have and separate them from the decisions that we make on the basis of them Evelyn Underhill remarked: 31

We have to discriminate between our natural passions, which are a true part of His creative material, and the way we handle them, which is left to us.

Another word that is used when referring to freewill is ‘consent’. Through whatever mechanisms happen within us, the balancing of emotions, rationality and all the myriad minor processes that transpire when making any judgement about what to do, the end result is a choice; we either do nothing, do one thing or another. St Bernard of Clairvaux thought that it is freedom of the will: 32

…that makes man a being who is righteous or unrighteous, capable and deserving of being just or unjust, of being happy or sorrowful. It is consent which leads to one of these conditions. This is what is entailed in free will.

Put in theistic terms by the Japanese visionary Mokichi Okada: 33

Each individual has the freedom of will to follow God's path or go astray.

That is, to follow the spiritual way. This was the way of Jesus the Nazarene. He recognised, according to Red Cloud, that: 34

… free will has been given unto each man to allow him to think for himself, act for himself, and to reap what he sows, good or otherwise.

The phrase ‘reaps what he sows’ refers to the Cosmic Law of Cause and Effect. For every action has some implication and whoever undertakes that action is responsible for the consequences. On this point, Dannion Brinkley, whose life was turned upside down by Near Death Experiences, said: 35

For truly, each choice we make in life creates a consequence we will eventually have to face.

This responsibility MUST be borne; it can never be avoided. As the New Age writer and therapist Diana Cooper reported: 36

Earth is a plane of free will. We can choose whether or not to follow the [spiritual] laws. However, we reap the rewards if we do and bear the consequences if we do not.

All the Universal Laws operate perfectly. Nothing can deflect their application; they are relentless. In fact, in George King’s rather quirky book ‘The Three Saviours are Here!’, he provides the ultimate summary that: 37

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God is Law. Nothing can operate outside of this Law, because nothing is stronger than the Absolute Creator-Itself. But if man, born with certain freewill, wishes to mould the pattern of his life in one direction, he is allowed to do this…

Back in the 18 th century Emanuel Swedenborg also recognised that God operates through Law. We are told by George Trowbridge that in his book ‘'The True Christian Religion' comes: 38

...there is no real conflict between Omnipotence and free-will. Although God is all powerful, He does not operate arbitrarily, but by law; and it is part of the Divine law that man shall be free in spiritual matters. He is held in equilibrium between the forces of good and of evil, and must make his choice between them. At the same time the ability and will to do good are from the Lord alone, though it is given to man to feel that they are from himself. All he can do, however, is to dispose his mind and heart to receive the Divine influences. The origin of evil is in man's free- will, which enables him to pervert the Divine blessings...

In ‘Divine Providence’ another book by Swedenborg, he also realised that freewill comes with the application of reason: 39

It is a law of the Divine Providence that man should act from freedom according to reason.

It is, I suspect, much more than reason. The power we have to act brings together all our desires, knowledge, experience and faculties at one point. It is our whole being that acts based on everything that we are. I believe that this was understood by Theophan the Recluse when he wrote: 40

Disturbances of the will demand a corresponding act, because the will is in fact the active power, the essential need of which is to live and function. It maintains under its supervision all powers of the soul and body, and all functions which are at its disposal, all of which are put to use when needed.

It is through the existence of free will that we can act in such a way. What a great boon this is. It means that we are able to choose and again using the words of Red Cloud: 41

That is one blessing that the law has given to all of you, the free will to think for yourselves and to work out your own salvation.

In fact it is probably the bringing together of all knowledge, experience, emotions and reason that actions are undertaken. Whatever direction this takes us we are allowed to proceed. No other being is allowed to interfere with the decisions we make; the freedom to choose. Again, from the voice of Red Cloud we were advised that man’s freewill: 42

…is such that if at any moment he desires once again to dwell in the consciousness of the harmonious law, then automatically he can do so.

We are never prevented from taking the spiritual or material paths. We can choose to satisfy the ‘self’ or otherwise. In broad terms we need self-control. In his book ‘A Primer

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:17:06 15.19 Spiritual Development and Freewill Page 8 of 21 of Moral Philosophy’, the Jesuit priest Henry Keane wrote: 43

But a man's will power may display itself in various ways. It may operate in the direction of self-control…

But we have to be careful that we do not go to the extent of suppressing our ego, but by changing it so that in everything that we do the bias is away from ‘self’ rather than towards it. Differentiating ‘self’ from ‘will’ was given by the Indian philosopher and statesman Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan: 44

The problem of human freedom is confused somewhat by the distinction between the self and the will. The will is only the self in its active side and freedom of the will really means the freedom of the self.

This is different from the view proposed by Aldous Huxley: 45

We have been given free will, in order that we may will our self-will out of existence and so come to live continuously in a "state of grace."

My view is probably somewhere more towards Radhakrishnan’s, where I believe that the soul of each of us is expressed through our self, and what we call our will is just the implementation in a particular circumstance of our self. That is, our freedom to choose what to do is an expression of who we are, what we believe; of our self. This means that if we are so disposed, and we are aware of some of the Cosmic Laws then we can choose to follow a spiritual developmental pathway. Bede Griffiths from his austere ashram in India, wrote: 46

Freedom is the power to assent to the divine life within us, to grow into divine consciousness, but it is also the power to reject the divine life, to centre on the self, and to be enclosed in this world of becoming.

Yes, we have the option to turn away from the spiritual path. In his ‘Confessions’, St Augustine, one of the most important figures in the development of Western Christianity, enquired: 47

…what iniquity was, and found it to be no substance, but the perversion of the will…

To prevent such a thing happening, then we must educate ourselves away from self. We should, according to the ‘Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart’: 48

Be longsuffering in all things and refrain from letting your own will enter into anything.

This is because we get what we deserve – eventually and always. The real difficulty that people have in believing in the Law of Cause and Effect is that the consequences to the perpetrator of an action are not always apparent. In fact, the misdemeanours carried out on earth may not be ‘paid for’ until a later existence. Nevertheless, the Law never fails and from the anonymous author of The Cloud of Unknowing we learn that: 49

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...the soul is free to choose which ever it wants; it gets what it consents to.

Another implication of our freewill, as noted by Michael Newton, is that we are free to make mistakes: 50

...freewill comes with a price, which is the right to make mistakes - and this is how we learn.

This is the essence of life on earth. It is worth noting here that a number of higher spirits, including those communicating through the American medium Phyllis V. Schlemmer, have told us that Earth: 51

...is the only planet of complete and total free will.

...and that we, as individual souls: 52

...are in fact a test-bed for free will.

Whether these represent reality, I do not know, but what I am perfectly aware of is that through experience we learn and through learning we may spiritually develop. We will never achieve our nirvana but at least we can try and aim towards it. Our path will be strewn with a combination of roses and thorns – often more briars than petals. Remember, said the father of Winifred Graham communicating from the Spirit world, that: 53

…it is easy to be a sinner and difficult to be a saint.

Thus we must guard that we use the qualities we have to help us to meet our Life’s Objectives and to benefit mankind. We must realise, as the 19 th century saint of the Russian Orthodox Church Theophan the Recluse informed us, that two of: 54

The essential attributes of the spirit are consciousness and freedom.

...and as such we must not abuse these precious gifts as Emile Cammaerts advised: 55

The gift of freedom is the most dangerous gift God made to man, because it allowed man to misuse all his other gifts, his senses and mind and his power over nature.

The Russian religious and political philosopher Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev reflected this by writing: 56

Human freedom does not only produce things which are precious for the life of humanity, it can also produce the exact opposite, things evil and terrible.

A similar thought must have passed through the mind of the 20 th century British Christian missionary when he simply stated that: 57

Freedom can be misused.

We have the freedom to act according to whatever criteria we feel important at the time. Most of us taking a spiritual pathway, will act for the benefit of others, but sometimes in

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:17:06 15.19 Spiritual Development and Freewill Page 10 of 21 the heat of the moment we may say things which we regret later. This is because the love we have for humanity is not yet deeply engrained in our soul and thus acting for the good is not automatic. Nevertheless, we can strive for this and recognise the freedom that freewill gives to each and every one of us is something to be cherished. In doing this we must recognise that it was given by our Creator to humankind in order for it to learn and thus to spiritually develop – thus wrote Emanuel Swedenborg: 58

...and He further grants to man freedom of choice.

If that is the case then God, in whatever way you can think of, is never going to remove that freedom. William Roache, the British actor and Spiritualist, stated this of God: 59

He's not going to give free will on the one hand and then intervene.

This is a reflection of words written by John Chrysostom, a saint of the Eastern Orthodox Church, who wrote: 60

We must first select good, and then God adds what appertains to His office; He does not act antecedently to our will, so as not to destroy our liberty.

The implications of this are far reaching. Neale Donald Walsch recorded the following from his communicator: 61

There are those who say that [God has] given you free will, yet the same people claim that if you do not obey [God, then He] will send you to hell. What kind of free will is that? Does this not make a mockery of God - to say nothing of any sort of true relationship between us?

C. S. Lewis in one of his broadcast talks in the 1940s also asked the rhetorical question ‘Why do we have freewill?’ to which he replied: 62

God created things which had free will. That means creatures which can go wrong or right. .. Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. A world of automata - of creatures that worked like machines - would hardly be worth creating.

As I have commented before, freewill is a real gift which no one, not even our guides or the highest spirits, can overrule. The communicator who used the hand of John Scott to teach us wrote: 63

It was the will of the Great Power that men should not be left without guidance and yet not deprived of their free choice.

…and this was an echo of the words given to us by Emanuel Swedenborg, who believed that those people getting inspiration from Spirit: 64

…are never instructed what to believe and what to do, and this in order that the human rational principle and human freedom may not perish; that is, that everyone may act from freedom according to reason, to all appearance as from himself.

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Put in much more religious words, the Anglican friar Father Andrew wrote: 65

Predestined to eternal salvation each one of us is. That is God's passionate purpose for us ... It is no favouritism on His part, and no trespassing on the liberty of the free will He has given us. He cannot do anything without our will. He is not a God who deals out trumps to His friends. He is not a God who makes favourites. He will not trespass on our free will.

…and in characteristically plain English from the Irish spiritual writer and medium Lorna Byrne: 66

...we have free choice and neither your guardian angel nor any other angel is allowed to interfere with it.

John Edward McGee known professionally as John Edward, the American television personality and professional psychic medium summarised the impact that our spirit guides and helpers have: 67

They aren't there to make my decisions for me, but to help me find my way to the right ones - even if it sometimes means making things happen so the decision is a little easier. They shine a light, nudge me, and then let me use my free will based on the lessons I've learned.

And this is how they will work with everyone, given the opportunity. If our Divine Source gave all beings this ability, then it will also apply to those discarnate spirits who are in the Spirit World. Beatrice Russell confirmed this: 68

...and this freewill continues to be exercised by us in the 'World of Light'.

St Bernard of Clairvaux who, when writing of free choice, recognised that it: 69

…belongs to everyone as we have already seen. For it belongs to all who have the use of reason. So it is enjoyed by the bad as well as by the good. It is no less in this life than in the life to come.

These statements, when taken to the next stage, provide us with the knowledge that God is passive; God never interferes with our free will. This has tremendous implications for our personal philosophy and the impact of man’s action on his fellow human beings. Dr James Martin, a minister in the Church of Scotland, suggested that there are two factors which militate against us implementing what we fell that our Creator would want: 70

God would wish for us only what is good. But two factors enter into the situation which frequently get in the way of that wish. The first of these is that this world is one in which natural law operates and its process may lead to things like earthquake, flood and fire. Some of the catastrophes that overtake human life find their origin here. Many more find their origin in the second factor, man’s possession of free-will and the consequent possibility of his making wrong choices. Much of human suffering is traceable directly or remotely to human ignorance or human folly or human sin.

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However, staying with this earthly life, there is a consequence of freedom which Søren Kierkegaard, the renegade 19 th century philosopher, touched upon. We are free to make whatever choices in life we feel are appropriate at any one time. For every action we take there is a consequential effect. The difficulty that we have is that of not knowing what that effect will be. If we feel that we have made a mistake in what we did, then perhaps we will reap something not very nice. Ronald Grimsley reported that Kierkegaard believed that: 71

Because existence has constantly to be seen in the light of its possibilities, man is always 'ahead' of himself, ever moving forward to new modes of being; he comes to experience 'dread' as he is made aware of the essentially unpredictable nature of the possibilities opened up to him through the exercise of his freedom.

This may extend our questioning and trigger us to ask ‘How is the effect of any cause decided upon?’ This, I will leave to the chapter on Natural Laws, but for the moment, accept the fact that they exist and that there are always consequences to what you do. The spirit teacher Zodiac advising us from the Spirit World informed us that the Law of Consequences: 72

…is worked out with a precision that man has never yet faced. The sowing and the reaping! God does not interfere with free-will; man himself must choose that which is best.

Yes! We must choose to think, say and do that which is best when looked at from the perspectives of eternity and love. As you spiritually develop this apparent choice that we have for the actions we undertake becomes automatic – we do not have to think about it – we naturally take the right course. Deepak Chopra realised that there is something built-in to our spiritual nature which helped us to achieve this, but he did put it in a rather obscure way: 73

There is a very interesting mechanism that the universe has to help you make spontaneously correct choice. The mechanism has to do with sensations in your body.

Perhaps as we develop our spirituality we are given more and more help, somehow, to make the right choice in everything that we attempt. Maybe it is allowing our soul to have more say in what we do and by bringing it more to the fore in our consciousness, we can sense whether we are doing right or not – our conscience is changing.

Another question which lies unanswered in my mind is that of the degree of freedom that we have. Is everyone the same in this respect? Silver Birch is reported to have indicated that we can learn to use our free will appropriately: 74

To each one of you there is given that amount of free will which, as you evolve, you learn to exercise.

Another inspired writer who referred to the development of free will was Roy Dixon-Smith who wrote: 75

It is not quite apparent that the two main principles in the plan and purpose of life

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are firstly the laws of cause and effect which operate conjointly on the spiritual, mental, emotional and physical levels, and secondly the gradual development of freewill in relation to intelligence.

I can understand the development of choice but free will is another matter. Anyway, let me move away from things which I cannot resolve to more firm ground and re-emphasise using words from Michael Newton, that each of us have some degree of freewill: 76

All souls have the power of choice in their lives because…

…he added:

…without free will our lessons would mean nothing.

It is through our free will that the lessons of life are experienced and hopefully learned. It is interesting that if I always make the right choices then I will not learn anything. However, how many of us are so saintly that that will happen. All we hope to do is to continuously refine our abilities so that all of the time our intentions are the best and most of the time we do the right thing. This improvement in our characteristics is consolidated in our soul and manifested through our conscience, as the worldly monk Thomas Merton suggested: 77

I cannot make good choices unless I develop a mature and prudent conscience that gives me an accurate account of my motives, my intentions, and my moral acts.

In the same book, Thomas also remarked that the level of our spiritual development is seen through the decisions that we take: 78

Our development is measured by our acts of free choice, and we make ourselves according to the pattern of our desires.

The converse is also true according to Brian Weiss: 79

Our souls are all the same age, which is ageless, but some souls advance more quickly than others. .. How quickly we progress depends on our free will.

Chicken and egg! What came first; freewill or spiritual development? Perhaps it is development more in parallel than one before the other. However it happens, we should always learn from the actions we take so that our experiences and understanding increases. Hence we can make the statement, along with the medium Julie Soskin, that all the actions we choose to perform help us to develop: 80

You have freewill, but you are not recognising that your will works for you, if you allow it.

What a boon freewill is! But we have to use it; we have to be active. Evelyn Underhill, in her poetic way of expressing her views, said: 81

Reason comes to the foot of the mountain, it is the industrious will urged by the passionate heart which climbs the slope.

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And again from Thomas Merton’s ‘The New Man’ it is what we do that is important: 82

The free man is the one whose choices have given him the power to stand on his own two feet and determine his own life according to the higher light and spirit that are in him.

Embedded in all of this, and central to it, is our understanding of the Laws which apply to living – on earth and everywhere else. Estelle Robert’s guide Red Cloud stressed the importance of such understanding: 83

If man will only endeavour to understand the Law he will begin to catch a glimpse of the reality of free will in his midst.

Often, comprehending the Cosmic Laws and their implications can be given to us through meditation and contemplation. Martin Israel used the term meditation; I prefer to use ‘contemplation’ where a particular subject is contemplated in the silence. Martin said: 84

The proper use of the will is the basis of discipline. In the early stages of the ascent to God we should have the desire to serve Him sufficiently to be prepared to give of a little of our time to worship Him. Thus the will must be active enough to cause us to retire from the work in which we are engaged, whatever it is, and move to God in silent meditation. This is one of the reasons why time is set aside assiduously for the inner life is an essential part of our spiritual development.

Through this process we also become aware of the insignificance of our ego. We must set ‘self’ to the back of our minds when exercising our freewill; it must not be any part of the intentions of our actions. If our own personal desires are to the fore, then the wrong motives will be apparent. We are allowed to choose wrongly and succumb to temptations. Father Andrew described it as: 85

Temptation could never be the direct will of God. ...but it is the permissive will of God

We are allowed to be less than good. However, in all our actions, we must focus on the highest possible objective which we can conceive; for many people, including Emile Cammaerts, it is the love of God: 86

The love of God implies the duty of sacrificing all competition to a supernatural authority which, being perfect, cannot infringe upon freedom, that is to say upon the free choice between good and evil.

Surrendering to God’s will, as Emile suggests, is great as an objective but what does it mean and how do I know what it means for me? I will develop this a little.

One element of creation was the establishment of an environment for souls to develop. It has always been our Creator’s intention that souls, in whatever guise, help and support each other. This guidance has, is and will always be there not only for souls in the Spirit World but for those incarnated on earth, as you and I. This support is available to us through our guides and spirit helpers. The more sensitive or spiritually developed we are the closer becomes the link between spirit and human.

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A second facet of creation was the creation of a hierarchy of spirits to carry out God’s objectives (whatever they may be). The position that any spirit takes in this structure depends upon its spirituality – the ‘higher’ spirits helping those at the next lowest level, etc. As you gather, we, on earth, are quite close to the lower levels of this structure. At each level there exists the possibility for a spirit to ‘descend’ to the next lower level to help those at that lower level.

The third created special environment is the earth which is populated by souls who have decided to experience situations which cannot be found or replicated in the Spirit World. Prior to incarnation we agree, with other ‘higher’ spirits including our guide, those objectives which our life on earth is to have. These are unique to each of us.

Over and above these Life Objectives, our development as a soul depends on appreciating the Cosmic Laws and to live by them as best we can.

Now I can answer what it means when we use the phrase ‘doing God’s will’ or ‘surrendering to Divine will’. This means seeking, discovering and implementing the three aspects of: • your Life’s Objectives; implement them and learn the necessary experiences, • the Cosmic Laws and live by them, and • help other souls as best you can in their earthly journey. This will entail minimising our own desires and developing how best to support our fellow creatures and the environment in which we live.

…and in all of this accept that there are other spirits who’s objectives are to help us as much and as best they can to develop our spirituality and, incidentally, to develop their own spirituality..

Bear all this in mind, as I and others talk about ‘God’s will’. Teresa of Avila, a prominent Spanish mystic, Carmelite nun, and writer in the 16th century, believed that: 87

It seems clear to me that the will must in some way be united with God’s will.

…which in terms that I have just expressed, we must all try to develop spiritually and accept and implement the three bullet points above. The third one of these was the focus of a letter to Sister Marie-Thérèse de Vioménil from Père De Causade: 88

May my own will never be accomplished except when it is in perfect agreement with Thine

All mystics, in particular, concentrate their whole lives on seeking and implementing the Divine Will. Meister Eckhart’s view was that: 89

We should seek from God what his most precious will is. And it is God's wish in all things that we should give up our own will.

…where surrendering our own will is a way of stating our acceptance of the need to follow our primary objectives. In all of this, the inspiration and intuitive guiding of our spirit friends provides real help. However, many, many people consider this to be direct help

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:17:06 15.19 Spiritual Development and Freewill Page 16 of 21 from God rather than from one or more of his agents. In his book ‘Mr Jones, Meet The Master’, Peter Marshall wrote that God: 90

…can guide us only if we are willing to be guided. Our self-will ties His hands.

And from Thomas Merton, who indicates that the degree of guidance we can get depends solely upon us: 91

...God's special presence in us depends entirely on our own preferences.

As we know, the existence of free will is one of the universal aspects of the soul, and it can never be over-ruled by another soul. This means that whatever we decide to do our choice is sacrosanct – no spirit, not even God, can change it against our will. In Thomas Merton’s book ‘The New Man’ he quotes from St. Jerome [Epistola xxi, n.6] who said: 92

God has given to each one of us free will, the liberty of our own spirit, so that each might live not according to the unconditional domination of God but according to his own choice, not impelled by necessity, but guided by free will…

In his ‘The Humble Approach’, John Templeton seemed to echo this sentiment: 93

It is interesting that God does not force His good upon us. Instead He gives us the free will to claim or reject the blessings of life.

Similarly, St Bernard, according to Aldous Huxley, believed that: 94

Grace is necessary to salvation, free will equally so - but grace in order to give salvation, free will in order to receive it.

This, I believe, again refers to spiritual guidance from the Spirit World. When working closely with those discarnate spirits we have to be careful that we do not get sucked into viewing spiritual phenomena as the goal. I have seen this happen time and time again in spiritual Development Classes which are offered in many churches. People concentrate on the feelings that come with close contact with spirit at the expense of following their real objectives. Even back in 14 th century England this pitfall was recognised and was outlined in ‘The Cloud of Unknowing’: 95

I hope you see now why it is so important that we concentrate our whole energy and attention on this gentle stirring of love in the will. With all due reverence for God's gifts, it is my opinion that we should be quite careless of all delights and consolations of sense or spirit, regardless of how pleasurable or sublime they may be. If they come, welcome them but do not rest in them for fear of growing weak; believe me, you will expend a good deal of energy if you remain long in sweet feelings and tears. Possibly too, you may begin to love God on their account and not for himself. You will know whether or not this is happening if you become upset and irritable when you do not experience them.

The whole of the above implies that we need, as individuals, to seek our destiny; to discover, understand and implement the elements of our own Philosophy of Life. This cannot be imposed upon us. This means that we have to be wary of those environments,

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:17:06 15.19 Spiritual Development and Freewill Page 17 of 21 particularly religions, which constrain our ability to spiritually seek. Red Cloud, the guide of Estelle Roberts, stated that: 96

Having free will in your thinking neither I, nor any clergyman, nor any dogma or creed has the right to dictate to you what you should believe. You have free will.

…and this was further expanded by Red Cloud who informed us that: 97

There are some religions, one especially, that do not allow you to think for yourselves. You are told to live and believe in faith and not trouble with facts. Yet, in your Bible, one of the disciples said, "To your faith add knowledge." Paul taught you, "Work out your own salvation." You can of your own free will believe in and follow any religion you like, but I advise you never to be mesmerised into accepting anything that is not logical. You have free will to do it, if you like. The only thing you will bring over here and have with you in your evolution is the free will expanded by your conscious mind, but instead of thinking for yourselves you allow others to limit you. They are taking away your free will.

Never allow this to happen for if you do, you will spiritually stagnate. Each of us is on a very personal spiritual journey and no one person or organisation can dictate what we must believe and / or restrict what we read or think. If religions are dictating to us as to what we must accept in our Philosophy of Life to order to prevent us from failing too often, they are mistaken. It is through failure and difficulties that we learn and develop our soul, and it is freewill that gives us the wherewithal, as Bede Griffiths commented: 98

So the world is created with free beings, both angelic and human, but freedom means capacity to fail...

The roller-coaster of life provides us with opportunities to build our soul and every action we take is a reflection of the qualities of our inner being and from this ‘real you’ comes the knowledge and experience to exercise your freewill effectively. Dannion Brinkley understood that we are a combination, in some way, of all the choices that we have made in the past: 99

Life is a matter of choice. Everything we manifest in our day-to-day lives is the direct result of our choices along the way, from one experience to the next. Each choice automatically creates a consequence; therefore, our choices need to be made from the perspective of an in-depth, conscious look at all the options at hand. .. In the end, we are the choices we make in life.

…or put another way by the 14 th century Flemish mystic John of Ruysbroeck: 100

You are as holy as you will to be.

The culmination of all the lessons that you have learned are where you are now – sitting reading these words and aspiring to greater things. You have mellowed during your life and become closer to what you understand your God to want from you. John Punshon, widely known in Quaker circles in Britain and the US, recognised this slow maturation: 101

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We are matured to receive God's word, given courage to receive God's challenge, strength to meet God's demands. But we are always left alone to decide whether to respond. That is our free will.

...and, at the end of the day, the choice, as the medium Tony Stockwell noted, is ours and ours alone: 102

...we are given free will and that we ourselves make all life's choices.

In this process, let us hope that we do not repeat mistakes but that we learn quickly; through this route lies happiness as was written in the book ‘Unto Thee I Grant’: 103

The greatest bounties given to man are judgment and will; happy is he who misapplieth them not .

I hope that this chapter has provided an insight into the relationship between Spiritual Development and Freewill. I will leave you with a summary and projection from Drayton Thomas: 104

I am confident that each one is free within wide limits and is therefore responsible for the choice he makes; that in this earthly "vale of soul-making" it is by habitually choosing the worse, the better, or the best that we shape the character of the Self which is "our Soul". As we form its character here, so will it be on our arrival in the Beyond. We shall find ourselves more or less qualified for immediate enjoyment of that life's wider opportunities, or limited by incapacity.

Use your free will correctly and slowly climb your spiritual mountain.

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1 Alan Young, Cosmic Healing, DeVorss & Co, 1988. 6 Saint Germain - Causes of Disease, (Pg 86) 2 Lonnie C. Edwards M.D., Spiritual Laws That Govern Humanity and the Universe, Rosicrucian Order, AMORC, 2015 - Kindle version. Chapter 2: The Continuum of Life and the World of Relationships 3 Brian Leslie Weiss, Same Soul, Many Bodies, Piatkus, 2006. Chapter 10 - John: Free Will and Destiny, (Pg 151) 4 Brian Leslie Weiss, Same Soul, Many Bodies, Piatkus, 2006. Chapter 10 - John: Free Will and Destiny, (Pg 151) 5 Ian Lawton, The Wisdom of the Soul, RSP (Rational Spirituality Press), 2007. Introduction, (Pg 9) 6 Brian Leslie Weiss, Same Soul, Many Bodies, Piatkus, 2006. Chapter 1 – Immortality, (Pg 16 / 17) 7 Peter Fenwick & Elizabeth Fenwick, The Truth in the Light, BCA, 1995. 8 The Life Review, (Pg 127) 8 C Drayton Thomas, Precognition and Human Survival, Psychic Press, Undated. Introduction: Forecast of a Double Event Humanly Unpredictable - Received by the late David Thomas, Barrister-at-Law, (Pg 15 / 16) 9 Martin Israel, Healing as a Sacrament, Darton Longman and Todd, 1984. Chapter 4: The Refashioning of the Will, (Pg 33) 10 St Bernard of Clairvaux, The Love of God, Pickering & Inglis, 1983. Chapter III - Treatise on Grace and Free Choice, (Pg 45) 11 Ven. Basil Wilberforce, D.D, The Secret of the Quiet Mind, Elliot Stock, 1916. “If Thou Hadst Known”, (Pg 79) 12 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part One: Chapter V – Freewill, (Pg 69) 13 William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life - The Spirit of Love, SPCK, 1978. The Spirit of Love: The Second Part - The First Dialogue Between Theogenes, Eusebius, and Theophilus, (Pg 414) 14 Joel S Goldsmith, The Contemplative Life, L N Fowler & Co, 1963. Chapter THREE - Beginning the Contemplative Life, (Pg 45) 15 Emile Cammaerts, The Flower of Grass, The Cresset Press, 1944. Chapter vi - The Impact of Pain, (Pg 133) 16 Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S., Man and the Universe, Methuen & Co, 1912. Section III - Science and Christianity: Chapter IX - The Divine Element in Christianity: VI. Ecce Deus, (Pg 189) 17 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy's_law 18 Ian Lawton, The Wisdom of the Soul, RSP (Rational Spirituality Press), 2007. 4: Reality and Time, (Pg 121) 19 Timothy Keller, The Reason for God, Hodder & Stoughton, 2009. Part 1: The Leap of doubt. THREE Christianity Is A Straitjacket, (Pg 47 / 48) 20 In philosophy, rationalism is the view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification". More formally, rationalism is defined as a methodology or a theory "in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive". 21 Reza Aslan, No god but God, Arrow Books, 2006. 6. This Religion is a Science: The Development of Islamic Theology and Law, (Pg 154) 22 Dr Eben Alexander, Proof of Heaven, Piatkus, 2014. Chapter 9: The Core, (Pg 48) 23 William of St Thierrry, On the Nature and Dignity of Love, Mowbray, 1956. Chapter II - The Origin of Love, (Pg 16) 24 Beatrice Russell, Fragments of Truth from the Unseen. Unknown Publisher, 1951. Freewill, (Pg 13) 25 Winifred Graham, More Letters From Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, 1943. Never Lie Down Under Failure, (Pg 14) 26 Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud Speaks, Tudor Press, 1992. Chapter Five: Freewill, (Pg 25) 27 Martin Israel, The Pearl of Great Price, SPCK, 1988. 6 - The Way of Awareness, (Pg 50) 28 Colin Fry, Life Before Death, Rider & Co, 2008. 1. Are you living or existing? (Pg 12) 29 Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations with God - Book 1 An uncommon dialogue, Hodder & Stoughton, 1997. Chapter 1, (Pg 19) 30 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 14: Freedom and the will, (Pg 108) 31 Evelyn Underhill, The School of Charity, Longmans, Green and Co, 1934. Part I - Chapter II - One God, Creator, (Pg 15) 32 St Bernard of Clairvaux, The Love of God, Pickering & Inglis, 1983. Chapter III - Treatise on Grace and Free Choice, (Pg 28) 33 Mokichi Okada, Johrei - divine light of salvation, Society of Johrei, 1984. Part One: The Road to Salvation: 1 The Trials of Civilisation: Man's Spiritual Being, (Pg 47) 34 Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud Speaks, Tudor Press, 1992. Chapter Five: Freewill, (Pg 26) 35 Dannion Brinkley, Secrets of the Light, Piatkus, 2012. Part 1: There and Back Again - 1 My Lively Dance with Death, (Pg 12)

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36 Diana Cooper, A Little Light on the Spiritual Laws, Hodder & Stoughton, 2000. Introduction, (Pg x) 37 George King, The Three Saviours are Here!, Aetherius Society, 1967. Chapter Two: The Truths of Saint Goo-Ling, (Pg 24) 38 George Trowbridge, Swedenborg - Life and Teaching, Swedenborg Society, 1935. (Pg 154) 39 Emanuel Swedenborg, Divine Providence, Swedenborg Society, 1949. Chapter IV: There are Laws of the Divine Providence, and these are unknown to man, (Pg 44) 40 St. Theophan the Recluse, The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to it, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1995. 7 The Life of the Soul - The Desirous Aspect, (Pg 53) 41 Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud Speaks, Tudor Press, 1992. Chapter Two: Conception of God, (Pg 8) 42 Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud Speaks, Tudor Press, 1992. Chapter Five: Freewill, (Pg 23 / 24) 43 Rev. Henry Keane, A Primer of Moral Philosophy, Catholic Social Guild, Oxford, 1956. Part I: Ethics Chapter I - Human Happiness, (Pg 17) 44 Radhakrishnan, An Idealist View of Life, Unwin, 1980. Chapter VII : Human Personality and its Destiny - 5. Karma and freedom, (Pg 220) 45 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter X: Grace and Free Will, (Pg 165) 46 Bede Griffiths, Return to the Centre, Collins, Fount Paperbacks, 1978. 6. Sin and Redemption, (Pg 52) 47 The Confessions of S. Augustine, Seeley & Co, 1909. Book the Seventh, (XVI) 48 Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, Faber & Faber, 1992. Part Two: St Barsanuphius and St John - Directions in Spiritual Work – 7, (Pg 347) 49 Clifton Wolters, A Study of Wisdom, Fairacres, 1985. (Pg 49) 50 Michael Newton, Life Between Lives, Llewellyn Publications, 2005. Part Five: Life Between Lives - Primary Soulmates, (Pg 130) 51 Phyllis V. Schlemmer, The Only Planet of Choice, Gateway Books, 1996. I: The Universe and its Beings - 3: God and Creation, (Pg 19) 52 Phyllis V. Schlemmer, The Only Planet of Choice, Gateway Books, 1996. VI: Terrestrial Affairs - 19: Adventures in Consciousness, (Pg 281) 53 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Oh! Be Kind, (Pg 40) 54 St. Theophan the Recluse, The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to it, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1995. 20 The Disturbance in the Nature of Man, (Pg 102) 55 Emile Cammaerts, The Flower of Grass, The Cresset Press, 1944. Chapter iii - The Limits of Freedom, (Pg 68) 56 Nicolas Berdyaev, Towards a New Epoch, Geoffrey Bles: The Centerary Press, 1949. The Two Moralities: I, (Pg 32) 57 Norman Grubb, The Spontaneous You, Lutterworth Press, 1966. Chapter 3. Whee Things Went Wrong, and Why, (Pg 23) 58 Emanuel Swedenborg, Divine Providence, Swedenborg Society, 1949. Chapter XI: The Divine Providence appropriates neither evil not good to anyone .. (Pg 267) 59 William Roache, Soul on the Street, Hay House, 2007. Part III: On The Street. 14: The Spiritual Path, (Pg 217) 60 A Monk of the Eastern Church, Orthodox Spirituality, SPCK, 1980. Chapter II: The essentials of Orthodox Spirituality, (Pg 24) 61 Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations with God - Book 1 An uncommon dialogue, Hodder & Stoughton, 1997. Chapter 1, (Pg 39) 62 C S Lewis, Broadcast Talks, Geoffrey Bles: The Centerary Press, 1944. What Christians Believe - Chapter III, (Pg 47) 63 John Scott, I Lent a Hand to a Ghost, Psychic Press, 1950. Communication, (Pg 16) 64 Emanuel Swedenborg, Divine Providence, Swedenborg Society, 1949. Chapter XI: The Divine Providence appropriates neither evil not good to anyone .. (Pg 267) 65 Father Andrew SDC, In the Silence, A.R.Mowbray, 1951. The Epistle to the Ephesians: II. Grace and Peace (i.1-6), (Pg 160) 66 Lorna Byrne, Stairways to Heaven, Coronet, 2011. The Secrets of Your guardian Angel, (Pg xxvii) 67 John Edward, Crossing Over - The Stories Behind the Stories, Jodere Group Inc, 2001. Chapter 2: My Three Signs – Busted, (Pg 50) 68 Beatrice Russell, Fragments of Truth from the Unseen. Unknown Publisher, 1951. Freewill, (Pg 13) 69 St Bernard of Clairvaux, The Love of God, Pickering & Inglis, 1983. Chapter III - Treatise on Grace and Free Choice, (Pg 36) 70 James Martin, Suffering Man, Loving God, Fount Paperbacks, 1990. Chapter Three: ‘Sent’ by God? (Pg 29)

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71 Ronald Grimsley, Kierkegaard, Studio Vista, 1973. 6 Dread, (Pg 59) 72 Gems of Thought, The Greater World Christian Spiritualist Assn, 1989. The Law of Consequences, (Pg 22) 73 Deepak Chopra, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, Bantam Press, 1999. 3: The Law of "Karma", (Pg 43) 74 Anne Dooley, Guidance from Silver Birch, Spiritualist Press, 1966. Chapter Four: Problem of Suffering, (Pg 41) 75 Roy Dixon-Smith, New Light on Survival, Rider & Co, 1952. Part Two: Chapter VII: Philosophy, (Pg 137) 76 Michael Newton, Life Between Lives, Llewellyn Publications, 2005. Part Five: Life Between Lives - Primary Soulmates, (Pg 130) 77 Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island, Burns & Oates, 1997. 3. Conscience, Freedom, and Prayer, (Pg 23) 78 Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island, Burns & Oates, 1997. 12: Recollection, (Pg 193) 79 Brian Leslie Weiss, Same Soul, Many Bodies, Piatkus, 2006. Chapter 1 – Immortality, (Pg 16) 80 Julie Soskin, Transformation, College of Psychic Studies, 1995. Chapter 11 - The Centre of Equilibrium, (Pg 95) 81 Evelyn Underhill, The Essentials of Mysticism, Oneworld, 1999. The Place of Will, Intellect and Feeling in Prayer, (Pg 83) 82 Thomas Merton, The New Man, Burns & Oates, 1985. Life in Christ, (Pg 126) 83 Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud Speaks, Tudor Press, 1992. Chapter Five: Freewill, (Pg 22) 84 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 14: Freedom and the will, (Pg 111) 85 Father Andrew SDC, In the Silence, A.R.Mowbray, 1951. Growth in Holiness: VI. Temptation, (Pg 48) 86 Emile Cammaerts, The Flower of Grass, The Cresset Press, 1944. Chapter iii - The Limits of Freedom, (Pg 56) 87 Teresa of Avila, Selections from The Interior Castle, Harper Collins, 2004. The Fourth Dwelling Places - Chapter 2, (Pg 36) 88 Algar Labouchere Thorold, The Spiritual Letters of Père De Causade, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1934. Book I - The esteem and love of Self-abandonment, Letter IX - to Sister Marie-Thérèse de Vioménil, (Pg 17) 89 Oliver Davies, Meister Eckhart - Selected Writings, Penguin Books, 1994. The talks of instruction - 11 What we should do when God hides Himself, (Pg 19) 90 Peter Marshall, Mr Jones, Meet The Master, Peter Davies, 1955. Mr Jones, Meet The Master, (Pg 162) 91 Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation, Hollis and Carter, 1949. Chapter 3 - Pray for Your Own Discovery, (Pg 33) 92 Thomas Merton, The New Man, Burns & Oates, 1985. Life in Christ, (Pg 129) 93 John M Templeton, The Humble Approach - Scientists Discover God, Collins, 1981. IX. The Benefits of Competition, (Pg 81) 94 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter X: Grace and Free Will, (Pg 173) 95 The Cloud of Unknowing and The Book of Privy Counselling, Doubleday, 1973. The Cloud of Unknowing: Chapter 50, (Pg 112) 96 Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud Speaks, Tudor Press, 1992. Chapter Fifteen: Where is Spiritualism Leading You? (Pg 73) 97 Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud Speaks, Tudor Press, 1992. Chapter Five: Freewill, (Pg 25) 98 Bede Griffiths, A New Vision of Reality, Fount, 1992. 12 Synthesis: Towards a Unifying Plan, (Pg 271) 99 Dannion Brinkley, Secrets of the Light, Piatkus, 2012. Part 2: The Fourfold Path to Power - 12 The Power in Choice, (Pg 109) 100 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter X: Grace and Free Will, (Pg 174) 101 John Punshon, Encounter With Silence, Friends United Press, 1989. An Experience of Unprogrammed Worship - The Leaven and the Heavenly Light, (Pg 53) 102 Tony Stockwell, Spirited, Hodder Mobius, 2005. Chapter 6 'God Works in Mysterious Ways..', (Pg 118) 103 Unto Thee I Grant, Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, 1966. Book Nine: Man Considered in Regard to His Infirmities and their Effects. Chapter VI- Of judgment, (Pg 64) 104 C Drayton Thomas, Precognition and Human Survival, Psychic Press, Undated. Conclusions - The interaction of Fixed Fate and Free Will, (Pg 111)

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15.20: Spiritual Development and Spiritual Experiences

Spiritual (or Religious or Mystical) Experiences are a natural consequence of developing your spirituality. According to Herbert Benson they have been described by Karen Armstrong as: 1

...the experience of God that silent contemplation engenders 'mystical' because unlike the reading of scripture and other reason-based forms of worship, this experience is intuitive and non-verbal .

The book ‘Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart’ discusses the notes of the mystics and saints, and remarks, in its introduction, that: 2

Only those can understand such notes as are following the path of that kind of life. For those who have not entered this path, it is quite an unknown science. But even those who have entered upon it cannot understand everything in those notes at once. Their ideas and conceptions become more and more clear as they advance further and penetrate deeper into the country of the spirit. As personal experiences of spiritual life accumulate, indications derived from experience, which had been noted down by the holy fathers, gradually become more clear and intelligible to them.

Thus, the more we develop, the more experiences we will have and through this our spiritual understanding will increase. There is a whole raft of different types of experience from basic awareness of Spirit through to the mystical experiences of the Masters. Of the former, I give a brief example which was documented by Harriet Brown: 3

Five years ago, I didn't believe in spiritual experiences. Or at least I didn't believe I would ever feel anything transcendent or mystical. I knew others did, or said they did, but those people were seekers. They went to energy healers and astrologers. They prayed and meditated and maybe, I thought, talked themselves into believing they'd had an out-of-the-ordinary moment.

I wasn't that type of person. Though I'd love to believe in a higher power, I just don't. I'm a science journalist, an agnostic empiricist who appreciates the cultural aspects of being Jewish but not the religious ones. So when that image of water and love enveloped me in a sense of peace I'd never felt before, I didn't know what to make of it. It wasn't the sort of thing I could easily bring up with others; I couldn't imagine saying, "By the way, last week I had this vision—let me tell you about it!" Eventually, though, I described it to a friend who said, "It sounds like you've had a spiritual experience."

It turns out I'm in good company. According to a study at the University of Chicago, about half of all Americans say they've had such an experience, which might range from a sense of well-being while watching a sunset to a classic near-death journey. These occurrences are, necessarily, deeply personal and hard to articulate. "What one person calls a religious experience—which could be intense and life-changing— another might call a simple ten-second prayer," explains Patrick McNamara, PhD,

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director of the Evolutionary Neurobehavior Laboratory at the Boston University School of Medicine.

Often this type of experience is a door-opener from which we become aware of Spirit and which may stimulate us to investigate and develop further. Other such examples of personal experiences abound right across the internet and in thousands of books. From the internet can be gained other people’s triggers and the accounts of their many experiences such as: 4

After Death Communication, Angel Communication, Coincidence, Near Death Experiences, Pre-Birth Experiences, Out-of-Body Experiences, Meditating, Healing, Dreams and Visions, and Reincarnation.

There are myriad others which are far less emotive. However, many people ignore these triggers. They put them to one side as being too difficult to think about or even attempt to understand. They do so at their peril, because, as the mystical writer Evelyn Underhill remarked: 5

We see therefore that St. Paul's admonition "Whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things be of good report, think on these things" is a piece of practical advice of which the importance can hardly be exaggerated ; for it deals with the conditions under which man makes his own mortality. Suggestion, in fact, is one of the most powerful agents either of self- destruction or of self-advancement which are within our grasp: and those who speak of the results of psycho-therapy, or the certitudes of religious experience, as "mere suggestion" are unfortunate in their choice of an adjective. If then we wish to explore all those mental resources which can be turned to the purposes of the spiritual life, this is one which we must not neglect.

In trying to get a feel for some sort of definition, I felt that the one from the Spiritual Science Research Foundation gives an appreciation of the breadth of the field. The SSRF defines: 6

...that which is experienced through the medium of the five senses, mind and intellect as an ‘experience’. For example, the experience of eating one’s favourite dish, feeling love for one’s child, resolving a problem at work by using one’s intellect, etc., fall into the category of an ‘experience’. Experiencing something which is beyond the comprehension of the five senses, mind and intellect constitutes a ‘spiritual experience’. Even if one can perceive an event through the five senses, mind and intellect but the reason behind it is beyond the gross intellect of mankind, it still constitutes a spiritual experience.

Other experiences may be considered as quite ‘ordinary’ and more associated with emotion than spirituality. Leslie D Weatherhead, a preacher in the Protestant tradition itemised a couple: 7

...any man who has had an experience of beauty, truth or goodness, recognising them as such, has had an experience of God.

But remember that any spiritual experience is only a fraction of your spiritual development,

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:17:36 15.20 Spiritual Development and Spiritual Experiences Page 3 of 9 as the priest Martin Israel noted: 8

Spiritual experience is a small part of the spiritual life.

Small, maybe, but necessary according to the Indian philosopher and statesman Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan: 9

Intuition, faith, spiritual experience, or the testimony of scriptures in theological language is necessary for knowledge and life.

I cannot hope to itemise all the possible ways in which you can live through the thrill of a spiritual experience. Nevertheless, I can broadly classify them into, at one end of the scale, psychic experiences and abilities and, at the other, are the real and ecstatic mystical experiences. In the middle are two really interesting ones; those which come from Spirit as inspirations and those which just seem to happen and, for an instant, totally alter our understanding.

Whilst psychic experiences are developable and desired by many who seek spirituality through Spiritualism, they can be very dangerous in so far as they detract from one’s spiritual advancement. Meister Eckhart believed that we ought to just accept any such side effects of spiritual development but not seek them. In his book about this great German mystic, Cyprian Smith recorded that he: 10

…makes a brief reference to experiences of precognition or foreknowledge, even admitting to having had some such experiences himself from time to time; but here again he mentions this only in passing as an example of some of the 'side-effects' which can occur when the grace of God is at work within us.

The use of the term ‘side-effects’ is a good one, because as your spirituality improves so does your connection with Spirit and consequently your psychic abilities and your potential for spiritual experiences are enhanced. Welcome them, if you must, but don’t be distracted by them; don’t let them become the focus of your life. As if to stress this point, Walter Hilton, the 14 th Century English mystic who was born just after Meister Eckhart’s death, wrote that we should: 11

…not covet spiritual experiences nor pay any attention to them if they come.

Turning from the West to the mystics of the East, Rabia el-Adawiya was reported by the mystic and Sufi Idries Shah, in ‘Thinkers of the East’ as saying to one with psychic abilities: 12

Your power of remaining still in the water is one which is possessed by fish. My capacity, of flying in the air, can be done by a fly. These abilities are no part of real truth - they may become the foundation of self-esteem and competitiveness, not spirituality.

In another of his books ‘The Way of the Sufi’ Idries Shah mentions that Abdul-Qadir of Gilan of the Chishti Order of Sufis, warned his disciples about his ability to teach altered transcendental states: 13

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I transmit the science of producing 'states'. This, used alone, causes damage. He who uses it only will become famous, even powerful. He will lead men to worship 'states', until they will almost be unable to return to the Sufi Path.

There are so many faculties which emerge during spiritual development that it is often hard not to be side-tracked by them. It is through these that worldly accolades arrive and which boost our ego at the expense of humility and our service to others. The Ampleforth trained Benedictine monk Aelred Graham, in discussing what he called religious experience, suggested that we must: 14

...bear in mind that St Thomas is not concerned with the accidental by-products of mysticism, but with its basis theology. In what we may call the epiphenomena of the spiritual life, he had, like St Paul, but slight interest. Corporeal and intellectual visions, ecstasies, locutions, levitations, and the rest might prove, like the power 'to speak with tongues of men and of angels,' to be no more significant than 'sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.'

Other well respected mystics have taken this same line of dismissing the importance of psychic trivia and other strengths which develop consequentially with increased spirituality. At the start of the 17 th century the Spanish theologian and mystic Tomas de Jesus wrote, according to Kathleen Pond, the following comments on the back flyleaf of one of his manuscripts: 15

Souls should not rely on visions and private revelations, nor consider that perfection consists in attaining to them, for although there are some genuine ones, many are false and deceitful, and the more they are sought after and esteemed, the more one goes astray.

The medium Stephen O'Brien provides us with one specific example of such phenomena. In his book ‘Visions of Another World’ he recalls that: 16

...under certain circumstances I could be taken from my physical body and astral- project. My mind could dissociate with its environment and in my spirit body travel to lovation in the spirit realm. Such an experience is perfectly real, substantial and overwhelmingly convincing to any sceptic who may have tasted it.

Stephen accepted that this happened and used it to enhance his understanding of the Spirit World. What he did not do was to allow it to distract him from his primary objectives in life. It is possible that all of us could experience this type of event, because as another medium and researcher Alan Crossley realised: 17

Everyone is endowed with psychic faculties, whether they are aware of them or not.

Spiritualist churches rely on this fact to promote their version of spiritual development, and anyone can join their development classes. On this I give a word of warning. Many of them are intent on developing an individual’s psychic abilities in order to fit them to be rostrum mediums rather than developing their connection with Spirit and the consequential personal spiritual development. Pamela Young was fortunate because in the development classes that she attended: 18

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We were all being trained to be receptive and creative rather than being trained to be mediums in the Spiritualist sense.

So be warned! Don’t be side-tracked by clairvoyance and any of the other abilities which may be gifted to you during your spiritual development.

Of Mystical experiences I will be devoting a whole section, so I’ll just refer to comments by Frederick Crossfield Happold who informed us that all of us, who are by no means mystics, can experience something spiritual: 19

While in its highest forms mystical experience is known only to the true mystic, the contemplative, in whom it can become a permanent state of illuminated consciousness, there is a mass of evidence to show that real mystical experience is not confined to them. Ordinary men and women who would make no claim to advanced spirituality and would certainly not call themselves contemplatives have known the experience of direct illumination, though of less intensity and very frequently, perhaps only once or twice in a lifetime, through which they have gained that intimate contact with the Numinous, which is known in a more perfect and permanent form to the true contemplative.

The frequency of inspiration also appears to reflect an increase in your spirituality. Of inspiration, Bede Griffiths commented: 20

The experience of the subtle world depends on an intuitive insight.

…and it also seems to be a circular dependency as Leslie Weatherhead recognised: 21

Spiritual reality is reached, not through argument, but through experience…

Thus spirituality increases our ability to be inspired and this received intuitive insight normally leads to increased spirituality. For many, who may not be attuned to the influences of Spirit, perhaps ignore or even don’t appreciate the implications of what they are being given. Quoting Walter Hilton again, he recognised that: 22

…if something does not comfort you, or you're not yet ready to accept it, don't waste too much time on it. Put it aside until another time, and give yourself to prayer or another occupation.

Hence, our capacity to accept a spiritual prompting depends on our ability to recognise and understand it. John Tauler, and his mentor Meister Eckhart, used an analogy to represent this; they referred to ‘emptying one’s glass’. The more you empty yourself of ‘self’ the greater is your capacity to be filled by the Divine – you cannot put wine into a glass that is already filled with water. This was noted by White Eagle who said: 23

But if the mind is crammed how can the man receive impressions from the higher worlds, or become aware of the angel at his side?

Expressing this thought in a different way the philosopher Ralph Waldo Trine wrote: 24

The human will has its limitations. So far and no farther says the law. The Divine

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Will has no limitations. It is supreme. All things are open and subject to you, says the law, and so, in the degree that the human will is transmuted into the Divine, in the degree that it comes harmony with, and so acts in conjunction with the Divine, does it become supreme.

Thus, as our spirituality increases, our ability to receive spiritual experiences is enhanced, as the 14 th century English anchorite Julian of Norwich documented: 25

And then we shall, with his precious grace, through our own humble and continual prayers, come to him now in this life by many mysterious touches of precious spiritual revelations and feelings, apportioned to us as our simplicity can bear it...

And Evelyn Underhill expressed it as: 26

As our humble receptiveness deepens and our eyes become more and more disciplined to that strange radiance, we see something we never noticed before; penetrating, purifying and quickening us, enhancing our sense of the mystery and significance of our own life, its mingled homeliness and wonder.

Assuming that we have travelled far enough along the spiritual pathway to recognise what we are being given by Spirit, we should, according to the French priest and spiritual director Abbé Henri de Tourville, always: 27

…be very open to receive any guidance of this kind. These are the most valuable encounters of life and are those which we later recognise as being the experiences which have given us the most solid hopes of salvation.

The idea of being given spiritual experiences is to stimulate us to progress as far and as much as we are capable of. Inspiration is the key to this.

The one spiritual experience which I have not yet explored is that of ‘knowing’. As I find this very difficult to describe, I will give two personal examples. Firstly, two dear friends and I were discussing the overall contents of a spiritual web site for which I was organising (not writing) the content. After about a couple of hours of discussion we agreed on a structure and at that very moment I had my first ‘knowing’ experience. I felt that I knew everything; all the natural laws fell into place; the whole of creation was there for me to understand. How elated I felt. This only lasted for a moment, after which I could not remember what I felt I knew that few seconds earlier.

The second, very different example was when my wife and I decided to move house; to downsize. We made the decision on Thursday August 9th 2007 and our actual move took place on Friday 9 th November 2007. The day that we resolved to move I stood on the lawn at the back of the house looking towards our conservatory. I was not thinking of anything in particular but at that moment I knew everything about the move was right. I cannot explain what I felt of what came into my head other than a certainty and a knowing that the move was the right thing to do and that all would be OK – and it was.

Bearing these two types of knowing in mind, you can appreciate the words of Aldous Huxley who, having become interested in spirituality later in his life, wrote: 28

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...the highest form of the love of God is an immediate spiritual intuition, by which, "knower, known and knowledge are made one"

This unity of thought underpins most spiritual experiences which Tony Stockwell described as: 29

...a sense of total oneness with everything good, a sense of being totally accepted, held and loved.

...and Tony also added that he: 30

...felt completely and utterly in tune with nature. This experience only lasted for thirty seconds, but while it did I felt I could see and hear for a million miles beyond my normal vision and hearing and I was totally and utterly in sync with the universe.

As with most descriptions of spiritual experiences, this focuses on the effect on Tony, the recipient, rather than the experience itself. This is because at this point language fails us. The momentary nature of such events and the difficulty in putting them into words was given to Winifred Graham by her deceased father: 31

The glorious truths of Eternity are not easy to explain, but they burst upon you in a flash when the veil is lifted, and you see it all in a moment, as clearly as if you had been a spirit here, ever since you were born.

Evelyn Underhill referred to these ‘knowing’ occasions as: 32

…bewildering moments of lucidity, splendid glimpses, whose brevity is due to the weakness of the newly opened and unpractised 'eye which looks upon Eternity…

…and, according to Richard Whitwell, the French Jesuit priest, writer, and spiritual director Père De Caussade confirmed that it is those momentary experiences which bring so much to us: 33

That which really instructs us is not that which we receive through the outward mind, and which we call learning, but in the experience which God provides, and which thus comes to us from one moment to another.

Whilst many people do recognise the value of spiritual experiences, they all have difficulty in describing them satisfactorily; the language of the material is not at all suited to describing experiences which are spiritual.

In addition to this, all spiritual experiences are unique; unique to you or to me. Just to confirm this, albeit from a physical perspective, in his book ‘In The Blood’ the Welsh geneticist Professor Steve Jones observed that: 34

Human diversity far transcends that shown in the face. A few technical tricks used for searching for small differences in the structure of DNA show that everyone is genetically unique.

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This uniqueness of soul and experience applies whether on earth or in the Spirit World, as Maurice Barbanell, speaking from the Spirit World, told us: 35

The expression 'everyone does their own thing' that is so prevalent in your level, really applies to this one.

It is your spiritual experience alone and impact that it has on you personally that is really important. The psychotherapist Sue Minns reflected this by writing: 36

Direct experience - your own individual experience - is what is important to you and your soul.

In conclusion, we have to realise that all our spiritual experiences are part of our life’s jigsaw; all need to be understood and composed in order to gain the most from all of them. Again, referring to Walter Hilton: 37

The more we climb, the more clearly diverse spiritual realities are seen as "all of a piece" - inseparable elements in a single whole.

Never dismiss a spiritual experience; cherish the feeling and use it as another step on your spiritual ladder.

1 Herbert Benson, MD with Marg Stark, Timeless Healing - The Power and Biology of Belief, Scribner, 1996. Chapter 7: The Faith Factor and the Spiritual Experience - Mysticism Common to Us All, (Pg 158) 2 Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, Faber & Faber, 1992. Introduction, (Pg 14) 3 http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Science-Behind-Spiritual-Experiences

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4 http://www.beyondreligion.com/su_personal/ 5 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter IV Psychology and the life of the Spirit: (II) Contemplation and Suggestion, (Pg 105) 6 http://www.spiritualresearchfoundation.org/what-is-spiritual-experience 7 Leslie D Weatherhead, How Can I Find God?, Hodder & Stoughton, 1965. Part II: How may we find Him? - I: What does finding God mean? (Pg 64) 8 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 16: Discerning the spiritual path, (Pg 130) 9 Radhakrishnan, An Idealist View of Life, Unwin, 1980. Chapter IV : Intellect and Intuition - 17. Hegel, (Pg 137) 10 Cyprian Smith, The Way of Paradox [spiritual life as taught by Meister Eckhart], Darton Longman and Todd, 1996. 7 The Way and the Goal, (Pg 88) 11 Walter Hilton, The Stairway of Perfection, Image Books, 1979. Book Two: Chapter Forty-One, (Pg 320) 12 Idries Shah, Thinkers of the East, Penguin Books, 1974. Rabia el-Adawiya, (Pg 39) 13 Idries Shah, The Way of the Sufi, Penguin Books, 1975. Part Three: Four Major Orders. 1: Chishti Order, (Pg 140) 14 Dom Aelred Graham, Christian Thought in Action, The Catholic Book Club, 1958. Chapter Seven: Orthodoxy and Religious Experience, (Pg 112) 15 Kathleen Pond(ed), The Spirit of the Spanish Mystics, Burns & Oates,1958. Saint Teresa of Avila - Counsels of my Holy Mother, Teresa of Jesus, which she communicated in revelation after her Death to Certain Persons of my Order, (Pg 89) 16 Stephen O'Brien, Visions of Another World, The Aquarian Press, 1989. 7 The Coming of White Owl, (Pg 85) 17 Alan E Crossley, The Enigma of Psychic Phenomena, Alan E Crossley, 1974. Chapter 5 Psychic Development, (Pg 77) 18 Pamela Young, Hope Street, Coronet, 2011. Part Three: Pamela's Journey, (Pg 188) 19 F C Happold, Religious Faith and Twentieth-Century Man, Pelican Books, 1966. 10 The Nature of the Mystical, (Pg 115) 20 Bede Griffiths, A New Vision of Reality, Fount, 1992. 12 Synthesis: Towards a Unifying Plan, (Pg 266) 21 Leslie D Weatherhead, How Can I Find God?, Hodder & Stoughton, 1965. Part II: How may we find Him? - II: Where shall I begin? (Pg 82) 22 Walter Hilton, The Stairway of Perfection, Image Books, 1979. Book One: Chapter Ninety-Three, (Pg 187) 23 White Eagle, Spiritual Unfoldment 1, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1994. I: A Simple Approach – A healthy Mind in a healthy body, (Pg 19) 24 Ralph Waldo Trine, In Tune with the Infinite, G Bell & Sons, 1931. Chapter III The Supreme Fact of Human Life, (Pg 30/31) 25 Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, Penguin Books, 1998. The Long Text – 43, (Pg 104) 26 Evelyn Underhill, The School of Charity, Longmans, Green and Co, 1934. Part I - Chapter III - One Lord, (Pg 28) 27 Abbé Henri de Tourville, Letters of Direction, Mowbray, 1939. XVIII – Suffering, (Pg 99) 28 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter V: Charity, (Pg 85) 29 Tony Stockwell, Spirited, Hodder Mobius, 2005. Chapter 4 Time Past, Time Present, (Pg 72) 30 Tony Stockwell, Spirited, Hodder Mobius, 2005. Chapter 2 First Meetings, (Pg 10) 31 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Opening Soul Windows, (Pg 24) 32 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part TWO:The Mystic Way: Chapter III - The Purification of the Self, (Pg 230) 33 Richard Whitwell, J.P. de Caussade - A Spiritual Study, The Instant Publishers, undated. Chapter V - The Present Moment, (Pg 30) 34 Steve Jones, In The Blood: God, Genes and Destiny, Harper Collins, 1996. Chapter I: The Paradox of Armageddon, (Pg 49) 35 Marie Cherrie, The Barbanell Report, Pilgrim Books, 1987. Part I: Eighteen - 25th September 1985, (Pg 103) 36 Sue Minns, Soulwork - Foundations for Spiritual Growth, College of Psychic Studies, 2003. Chapter 12: Helpful Practices. (Pg 155) 37 Walter Hilton, The Stairway of Perfection, Image Books, 1979. Introduction: IV. The Stairway; Rising Spiral in Image Development, (Pg 18)

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15.21: Spiritual Development and Contemplation

There is a set of diffuse boundaries between contemplation, meditation and prayer. In very simple terms - prayer is talking, contemplation is listening when considering a particular subject and meditation is listening with a totally unfocussed mind. Because this chapter endeavours to link the much larger section on contemplation with that of spiritual development, I will use the word contemplation to embrace all three aspects of contemplation, meditation and prayer.

Contemplation is vital if you are to develop your spirituality. Alexandra David-Néel, the Belgian-French explorer, anarchist, spiritualist, Buddhist and writer, in her ‘The Secret Oral Teachings in Tibetan Buddhist Sects’ this point was stressed when she wrote: 1

'Lhag thong', the transcendent insight which sees beyond appearances and penetrates below the surface is able, like any other facility, to be developed and cultivated.

Silence is a necessary adjunct to contemplation. Whatever mechanism you choose to use and whatever method you elect to follow, all involve silence. Be still and link with the Spirit World regularly as the North American born clergyman and academic Morton Kelsey recommended: 2

…the life of the soul in most people needs to be sustained by regular practice of silence, day after day, month after month, year after year.

Sitting quietly at specific times and on specific days is like making and meeting an appointment with Spirit. They will be there for you, if you will make the effort and be there for your development. John Edward, the American medium, said, in his early days that he: 3

…started to meditate regularly...

And allow contemplation to become a natural part of your life, through which you can draw yourself closer to those in the Spirit World who are there to guide and support your spiritual progress. You can consider it as providing spiritual nourishment. This analogy was used by Evelyn Underhill to stress the importance of spending time in quiet contemplation: 4

In spite of this, many people seem to take it for granted that if a man believes in and desires to live a spiritual life, he can live it in utter independence of spiritual food. He believes in God, loves his neighbour, wants to do good, and just goes ahead. The result of this is that the life of the God-fearing citizen or the Social Christian, as now conceived and practised, is generally the starved life. It leaves no time for the silence, the withdrawal, the quiet attention to the spiritual, which is essential if it is to develop all its powers. Yet the literature of the Spirit is full of warnings on this subject. Taste and see that the Lord is sweet. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. In quietness and confidence shall be your strength. These are practical statements; addressed, not to specialists but to ordinary men and women, with a normal psycho-physical make-up. They are literally true now, or can be if we

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choose. They do not involve any peculiar training, or unnatural effort. A sliding scale goes from the simplest prayer-experience of the ordinary man to that complete self-loss and complete self-finding, which is called the transforming union of the saint ; and somewhere in this series, every human soul can find a place.

I do need to mention that over doing it can have its downsides as Major J H Webster observed when his wife delved too deeply: 5

Whether these periods of silent meditation were too frequent or too long, or both, it is difficult to say, but that the development was too intense soon became apparent. I know now what I failed to appreciate at the time, viz: that Margaret's sensitivity, an indispensable adjunct to her mediumship, had been steadily increasing until it reached a point which made her, not exactly temperamentally difficult, but something approaching that state.

However, don’t be put off by this, because most of us do not spend nearly enough time in quiet contemplation. Maurice Barbanell, communicating through the medium Marie Cherrie many years after he had passed to spirit, noted that: 6

One constantly realises over here that more time should have been spent in contemplation.

You will notice that I have not mentioned or recommended any particular religion. This is deliberate, as the link, support and guidance that you get from the Spirit World are not dependent upon any specific dogma or creed. John Blofeld, a British writer on Asian thought and religion, especially Taoism and Chinese Buddhism, stressed the need for stillness but not the need for an organised religious basis: 7

What is needed for entrance to the path is not a particular religion with this or that dogma, but simply a holy state of mind - a conviction that something illimitable and sublime lies beyond the realm of shifting thought and vision, something to be apprehended in the stillness of our innermost being. .. The initial aim must be profound inner stillness, for the chief barriers to attainment are the ceaseless waves of thought that distract the mind from its sacred quest.

Evelyn Underhill, too, emphasised the need for times of stillness during our spiritual journey: 8

In spite of this, many people seem to take it for granted that if a man believes in and desires to live a spiritual life, he can live it in utter independence of spiritual food. He believes in God, loves his neighbour, wants to do good, and just goes ahead. The result of this is that the life of the God-fearing citizen or the Social Christian, as now conceived and practised, is generally the starved life. It leaves no time for the silence, the withdrawal, the quiet attention to the spiritual, which is essential if it is to develop all its powers. Yet the literature of the Spirit is full of warnings on this subject. Taste and see that the Lord is sweet. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. In quietness and confidence shall be your strength. These are practical statements; addressed, not to specialists but to ordinary men and women, with a normal psycho-physical make-up. They are

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literally true now, or can be if we choose. They do not involve any peculiar training, or unnatural effort. A sliding scale goes from the simplest prayer- experience of the ordinary man to that complete self-loss and complete self- finding, which is called the transforming union of the saint ; and somewhere in this series, every human soul can find a place.

The contemplative stillness runs as a golden thread throughout your entire spiritual journey. It is during that time when Spirit draws very close, your understanding increases and your spiritual gifts develop. This was recognised by Malcolm Muggeridge. He was a tart-tongued agnostic for most of his life who converted to Catholicism at the age of 80; he then wrote: 9

Just as at the centre of a hurricane there is stillness, and above the clouds a clear sky, so it is possible to make a little clearing in the jungle of our human will for a rendezvous with God. He will always turn up, though in what guise and in what circumstances cannot be seen.

In parallel with stillness comes patience. Everything matures at its natural pace and spirituality is one where growth is very slow. Each step along the path has to be consolidated before the next one can be taken; your spirituality must be based on strong foundations. During one of Geraldine Pengelly’s quiet contemplative moments, her guide said to her: 10

Our final thought to end this sitting is that the word of the moment is 'patience'. As we have said before, child, a tree does not grow overnight; it needs time to be nourished to grow tall and straight. The nourishment for you is being given each time you sit in circle.

And noting our impatience in most things that we do, Meister Eckhart from his vantage of the 14 th century warned us that: 11

If we expect too much too quickly, we may end up with nothing at all. Also, our spiritual life is not simply a matter of our seeking God; it is a matter of God seeking us. Sometimes the best policy is just to be still and wait. So in everything we do - our prayer, our work, our relations with others, and even our general spiritual quest - it is perhaps best always to balance striving with detachment, love and restraint.

We must be careful not to attempt to totally withdraw from the world and our worldly responsibilities. For most of us, meeting our Life’s Objectives rests in our approach to the world around us; to the people and to the environment. Chuang Tsu, the Chinese ancient philosopher and Taoist, recognised this many hundreds of years ago: 12

…the perfect man can transcend the limits of the human and yet not withdraw from the world.

Withdrawal is never the answer; we have to take our responsibilities in the world seriously. However, it is spiritually important to take time out and refresh ourselves. In his devotional book which centred on the 23 rd Psalm, the Protestant theologian Leslie Weatherhead suggested that because ours is a busy age, and there are two ways of getting

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One is to stop thinking, and the other is, from time to time, to stop and think.

In other words, regularly contemplate. During such times, it is possible to use all sorts of mechanisms some of which may help us in living the right sort of life. Evelyn Underhill suggested that the Lord’s Prayer may be one such tool: 14

For these seven clauses [of the paternoster] represent the seven fundamental characters of the one indivisible relation between the spirit of man and the Eternal God; they are seven lessons in prayer, forming together a complete direction for the conduct of our inner life.

It is these objectives which act as the ‘stairway to heaven’. Don’t try to seek any particular skills or abilities during your time of contemplation, but just accept that which you are given. Andrew Harvey informed us that: 15

All disappointments spring from your hunting for satisfactions. If only you could stop, all imaginable joys Would be rolled like pearls at your feet.

Certainly you must guard against deliberately attracting specific spirits to you, as the great spiritual healer advised: 16

The purpose is for meditation and, through this means, for the mind to attune to Spirit, which is very different from sitting to attract spirit people to you.

Accept, therefore, that you will be led along the right spiritual pathway during your contemplative times. Be still and at peace, and await inspired moments with patience.

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1 Alexandra David-Néel, The Secret Oral Teachings in Tibetan Buddhist Sects, City Lights Books, 1981. Chapter IV, (Pg 73) 2 Morton T Kelsey, The Other Side of Silence, SPCK, 1985. Part Three: Preparation for the Inward Journey - 10. Silence: Discovering the Way Inward, (Pg 108) 3 John Edward, After Life - Answers from the Other Side, Princess Books, 2004. Chapter Seven: Teachers, (Pg 130) 4 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter VI The Life of the Spirit in the Individual, (Pg 160 / 161) 5 Major J H Webster, Through Clouds of Doubt, The Psychic Book Club, 1939. Chapter XII - A Crisis, (Pg 132) 6 Marie Cherrie, The Barbanell Report, Pilgrim Books, 1987. Part I: Twelve - 8th February 1985, (Pg 66) 7 John Blofeld, Beyond the Gods, E P Dutton & Co, 1974. Chapter 1 - The Wish-fulfilling Gem, (Pg 21) 8 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter VI The Life of the Spirit in the Individual, (Pg 160 / 161) 9 Malcolm Muggeridge, Conversion: A Spiritual Journey, Collins, Fount Paperbacks, 1989. 2: Rapture, (Pg 22) 10 Geraldine Pengelly, The Red Man Cometh, Athena Press, 2006. Everything Happens for a Reason, (Pg 109) 11 Cyprian Smith, The Way of Paradox [spiritual life as taught by Meister Eckhart], Darton Longman and Todd, 1996. 7 The Way and the Goal, (Pg 99) 12 Chuang Tsu, Musings of a Chinese Mystic, John Murray, 1927. Introduction, (Pg 34) 13 Leslie D Weatherhead, A Shepherd Remembers - A Devotional Study of The Twenty-Third Psalm, Hodder & Stoughton, 1960. Chapter 9: Goodness and Mercy Shall Follow Me, (Pg 193) 14 Evelyn Underhill, The Fruits of the Spirit; Light of Christ; Abba, Longmans, Green and Co, 1957. Abba: Chapter I - Introductory, (Pg 5) 15 Andrew Harvey, The Way of Passion, Souvenir Press, 2002. Chapter 11 - In Love, As Love, For Love, (Pg 312) 16 Harry Edwards, Spirit Healing, The Harry Edwards Spiritual Healing Sanctuary, 1978. Part One: Spirit Healing - Chapter Five - The Healing Gift, (Pg 44)

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15.22: Spiritual Development and Happiness

If only we could all accept the opening lyrics of the Ken Dodd song: 1

Happiness, happiness, the greatest gift that I possess I thank the Lord I've been blessed With more than my share of happiness

Most people, in contrast to this, through worldly activities, are seeking happiness. This has ever been the case as St Augustine wrote in his ‘The City of God (De Civitate Dei)’ around the start of the 5 th century: 2

For joy and peace are desired alike of all men.

Perhaps this is because many do not have a sense of joy; happiness seems to be very elusive and transient. It is a state of well-being which is characterised by positive emotions ranging from contentedness through to ecstasy. It is often equated with good fortune, pleasure, contentment and joy.

Happiness is of such fundamental importance to the human condition that "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” were deemed to be unalienable rights by the United States Declaration of Independence: 3

In the preface to his book ‘The Secret of Happiness’ , the American evangelist Billy Graham looked at the life of Jesus the Nazarene in order to provide a better view of happiness: 4

If by happiness we mean serenity, confidence, contentment, peace, joy and soul- satisfaction, the Jesus was supremely ‘happy’. We never read of His laughing, though I am sure He did. He was not given to pleasure seeking, hilariousness, jokes or poking fun at others. Not was His happiness dependent on outward circumstances. He did not have to have an outward stimulus to make Him happy. He had learned a secret that allowed Him to live above the circumstances of life and fear of the future. He moved with calmness, certainty and serenity through the most trying circumstances...

From philosophical and spiritual perspectives happiness is not just an emotional state but a consequence of living the ‘good life’. Happiness is not the result of doing something, it is the trigger or driver which stimulates activity; it is difficult to find in this materially centred world. In her book ‘Stonehenge’ the English historian Rosemary Hill reminded us that Thomas Hardy, in ‘Tess of the D'Urbervilles’, wrote that human beings: 5

…that had, in its infancy, built Stonehenge was now he believed, 'too extremely developed for its corporeal conditions ... This planet does not supply the materials for happiness.'

If we focus all our attention on the material aspects of our earthly life, then I think that Thomas Hardy is quite right in his conclusion. What we must do is to concentrate on higher ideals. Imperator, the spirit communicator who used William Stainton Moses as the

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Do you need to be told that true happiness is to be had only by living up to the highest ideal? That the idler and the sluggard know it not? That the vicious man and the evil-doer, who sins of choice and by preference, have no part in it? That peace on earth springs up only in the soul that soars heavenwards, and finds its happiness in viewing the dangers and difficulties that have been over-passed? Do you need to be told again that the angels watch over such to bear them up—that the ministers count it honour to support them, and that no final harm can fasten on the spirit which keeps a high ideal before it? Victory is assured: but it would not be victory were it found without a struggle in selfish and inglorious ease, by those who would not value what every idle hand might pluck. Victory comes after conflict: peace after tribulation: development after steady growth.

If this is the case then we can achieve greater happiness in life if we follow our spiritual development pathway and try to subdue the mortal aspects. The magnificent artist, poet and mystic William Blake, quoted by Malcolm Muggeridge, said: 7

I am wrapped in mortality, my flesh is a prison, my bones the bars of death. What is mortality but the things related to the body, which dies? What is immortality but the things related to the spirit, which lives eternally? What is joy of heaven but improvement of the things of the spirit?

This ought to be the essence of our lives; to improve our spiritual standing and thereby we can gain greater happiness than we could otherwise attain. Put in very simple terms, as did the actor and Spiritualist William Roache: 8

Spiritual development should be a joy.

Let us have a look at what many of the great teachers have understood of the relationship between happiness and spiritual development. Back in the 13 th century the Italian medieval scholastic theologian and philosopher, Bonaventure understood the link between the two when he wrote: 9

Since happiness is nothing else than the enjoyment of the Supreme Good, and the Supreme Good is above us, no one can enjoy happiness unless he rise above himself, not, indeed, by bodily ascent, but by ascent of the heart.

Where ‘ascent of the heart’ is synonymous with what I term spiritual development; seeking the greatest Good; being thankful for what we have, wanting to understand and seek the truths of life and doing what we can for our fellow travellers. It is through this that joy will be found – a point made by the South African born mystic Martin Israel: 10

The fruit of spirituality is joy - a constant joy in every situation. For the earth is good, and life is worthwhile despite its many dark moments.

Joy is consequence of development; a consequence of the slow but sure spiritual progress. In his book ‘The Laws of the Sun’, the Japanese visionary Ryuho Okawa, whilst discussing enlightenment, wrote: 11

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True human happiness lies in a measure of spiritual joy and progress every day…

…and in this growth the English Anglo-Catholic writer and pacifist Evelyn Underhill wrote that she believed that our soul will be: 12

…full of contentment and joy...

If you recognise that before we were born into this life we existed as a spirit in the Afterlife, then you will have no objection to the comment from the teacher from the Spirit World White Eagle when he observed: 13

…the road to human development leads back to happiness, not away from it.

That is recognising the happiness that most of us have enjoyed when we lived as entities in the Spirit World. Other people have expressed a similar view. A friend of The Rev. C. Drayton Thomas, speaking from the Spirit World, revealed that: 14

The more I realised the sort of place and conditions I was in, the happier I became.

…and Drayton also reported that: 15

A distinguished scientist said to me, shortly after his passing: "Religion was to me just as vital, nay more so, than science. Therefore I was prepared spiritually as well as mentally, not only for which I expected but for anything I might find. I have met many old friends and relatives and it is very delightful to find that they are all living in their very best and happiest period of life.

This happiness is not a consequence of doing nothing. Discarnates are never idle as in a chapter on ‘Happiness in the Life Beyond Death’ another friend of Drayton told us: 16

I wished to tell you how happy I am, and how very busy.

This, I believe, is also true in this worldly life which will stimulate us to even greater effort in our spiritual development, as Ryuho Okawa realised: 17

Human happiness is not to be found in inactivity and inertia but in daily spiritual progress.

These who are active and busy in their lives on Earth seem to be happier than those who are not. I have found that this is particularly true for those who have retired. And, of course, spiritual progress is followed, probably more avidly, by spirits as well as us on the earth plane. The verbatim reports, which she calls ‘scripts’, that Helen Greaves recorded of conversations she had with her deceased friend Francis Banks, record that: 18

Progress is as open here, more so indeed, and as satisfying in reward as any success on the earth plane.

Hence if we can achieve a state of spiritual awareness and understanding then perhaps we too will be able to similarly achieve a state of happiness. William Ralph Inge, author,

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Anglican priest, professor of divinity at Cambridge, and Dean of St Paul's Cathedral, once wrote that: 19

…whenever we are hitting the mark we feel happy, even in the midst of toil and pain.

There is an inner realisation when we know that we are on the right spiritual pathway; when we recognise that we are doing the right things, at the right time and for the right reason. This gives us a sense of not pride or arrogance but contentedness. This, too, was recognised by the Catholic theologian and Jesuit Ladislaus Boros in his autobiographical book ‘Open Spirit’: 20

If you live life, if you love happiness, if you love love, then you are on your way to God.

Living the spiritual life equates, in many commentators’ belief, to living a life directed towards or in conjunction with God. Sherwood Eliot Wirt, from his theological perspective, took this stance: 21

But O, how happy are those who have placed their love on him who can never be absent from them!

…and later in the same book he summarised this with: 22

Happy is the man who gives himself to God!

This means that we can tell whether a person is following their spiritual pathway - given themselves to God - by their degree of happiness expressed in their day-to-day lives. Evelyn Underhill recognised this and wrote in ‘The Fruits of the Spirit’: 23 24

...the real sign that God the Giver of Life, has been received into our souls will be joy and peace.

And the more spiritual we are then, according to the 18 th century visionary Emanuel Swedenborg, the happier we will be: 25

...the more nearly anyone is conjoined to the Lord the happier he becomes.

From my understanding, this represents a proximity to our spiritual objectives. In his book ‘The Book of Secrets’, Deepak Chopra offered an insight into this: 26

...whatever brings a person deepest joy is a reliable guide to follow into the future. An even more reliable guide is to follow your awareness as it grows.

…spiritual awareness, that is. To add weight to this, Carl Wickland, during one of his communications through his wife’s mediumship, was informed that: 27

You can only attain 'Heaven,' or happiness, as you develop .

Part of this development will be a recognition and acceptance of the necessary links that we

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:18:31 15.22 Spiritual Development and Happiness Page 5 of 29 need to make to our spirit guides and friends, or as the Welsh born medium Stephen O'Brien expressed it: 28

Being in touch with the Worlds of Light brings great joy and happiness.

Just being in contact with the Spirit World gains us nothing. It is through this link, however, that we can obtain an understanding of the great truths of life and therefore live according to them; being grateful to our Creator and helping others in the best way that we can. This is often referred to as ‘doing the will of God’ or following your spiritual pathway. In the words of Thomas Merton: 29

Our happiness consists in doing the will of God. But the essence of this happiness does not lie merely in an agreement of wills. It consists in a union with God. And the union of wills which makes us happy in God must ultimately be something deeper than an agreement.

This union with God, which I will expand in a later chapter, is something that we can never achieve on earth. It can only be attained after an eternity of service. Nevertheless, we can use this as a goal as was articulated in the book ‘Unto Thee I Grant’ when referring to the person reaching for spirituality: 30

Goodness is the race which God hath set him to run, and happiness the goal; which none can arrive at till he hath finished his course and received his crown in the mansions of eternity.

Frederic Harton also refers to union with the Supreme and sets it in the context of the words of St Paul: 31

Of fruits [of the spirit] S. Paul enumerates nine: "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance."... Every soul in whom the Gifts are at work will exhibit their fruit in some way, but all will not exhibit each one in its fullness. Further, we need not believe the Pauline list to be exhaustive: balanced it is, and nine is a perfect number; but, as is the case of Isaiah's enumeration of the Gifts, this list is far more rhetorical than scientific. It is a wonderful basket of fruit: love, the characteristic of God Himself; joy, that joy which the world is ever seeking and never finds because it is found only in simple union with God; peace, which is the fruit of surrender; then the three social fruits longsuffering, gentleness and goodness; and lastly the ascetic fruits, faith, meekness, temperance.

To underline this difficulty of finding happiness in worldly pursuits, the mystic Henry Thomas Hamblin recognised that: 32

What all the world is seeking for is happiness, and yet cannot find it. Those who live the spiritual life experience something far greater than mere happiness, and that is inward joy...

This is a useful reminder that although happiness is only one of the benefits of spiritual development, it is one which is difficult to sustain by other means. The only other way which touches the same ‘nerve’ is through the love that two people have for each other; the

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:18:31 15.22 Spiritual Development and Happiness Page 6 of 29 passion for proximity; the desire never to be parted; the drive for complete unity. Using a quotation from Carl Wickland again: 33

When you are in rapport with the Great Spirit you will feel happy.

Progress is incremental; step by step we slowly evolve. According to Sherwood Wirt, the French Roman Catholic archbishop and theologian François Fénelon understood that each small progression will bring us enhanced joy: 34

As soon as we discover a new insight into our faith, we are transported with joy.

This, really, is confirmation of the stance taken by the Buddhists, who believe that there is great joy to be had from discovering new insights; expanded enlightenment. The Reverend William Houff, in his book ‘Infinity in Your Hand’ understood, from his own experience, that: 35

The bliss of spiritual growth and enlightenment is not a mere figure of speech. The laughing Bodhisattva is firmly established in the Buddhist tradition. But the bliss is the joy of discovery. And the laughter is the good humour of acceptance. In both cases it is an ‘aha!’ expressed in the full exuberance of knowing and feeling wholeness. Indeed, humour has a very prominent place in spiritual traditions.

This is what religions should bring to their followers. According to the theologian Hugh Ross Mackintosh, the German theologian and philosopher Friedrich Schleiermacher felt that: 36

...men must be led back to the elementary but life-giving perception that religion is an experience, not given for cold analysis but to be lived in and enjoyed.

This knowledge of joy that spiritual development can give has also been conveyed to us by discarnate spirits who provide us with their experiences through appropriate mediums. One such spirit, Imperator, communicating through William Stainton Moses said: 37

Happiness is found in progress and in gradual assimilation to the Godlike and the perfect.

And Geraldine Pangelly was told that the gift of spiritual awareness: 38

...is precious and will bring much joy. It must also be said that it can bring unrest, because you see the truth. The Truth sometimes hurts...

I think that in the above quotation the spirit communicator was referring to the reality that, when we recognise a new truth or gain more detail about one we already know about, our life must change in order for us to begin to accept, understand and then live according to that new knowledge. Spiritual development brings that responsibility; the more we know the more difficult it often becomes. This applies to all the natural laws of the cosmos and which form the basis for our spiritual understanding. These truths seem to be one of the keys to unlocking the door to spiritual development. A discarnate spirit by the name of Dr. Root, speaking through the trance mediumship of Mrs Wickland, said of truth: 39

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There has never been real happiness on earth and there will not be so long as people are kept in ignorance of the truth of religion.

The first and primary truth is the existence of a Divine Creator – not the anthropomorphic God of ‘simple religion’, nor the capricious and fickle God of the Old Testament, nor the God which only works through dogma and creeds but that Deity which is ineffable and passive to whom we will eventually return. In a book by P. Franklin Chambers, Baron Von Hügel is reputed to have said: 40

What a happiness, what a joy it is, to be quite sure that there is a God; not anything built up by mere reasoning, no clever or subtle hypothesis, nothing particularly French or German or English.

Not only that God exists, but that we are part of the ineffable plan that divine purpose which drives creation. Expressing this in his Jesuit terms, Père De Caussade wrote: 41

Every condition of the body and soul, everything that happens both inwardly and outwardly, what each moment reveals, is the fulfilment of divine purpose – it is happiness.

This realisation of the existence of the Creator and its link with happiness, as Colum Hayward knew, was also a feature of the teaching of White Eagle: 42

Happiness is the realisation of God in the heart. Happiness is the result of praise and thanksgiving, of faith, of acceptance; a quiet tranquil realisation of the love of God. This brings the soul perfect and indescribable happiness. God is happiness.

Indescribable it is, unfortunately. Many have attempted to put their feeling onto paper but it never seems to work – words cannot describe the joy sufficiently well. One of the many mystics who realised the futility of even trying to do this was the 17 th century French mystic Madame Guyon who exclaimed: 43

O happiness which cannot be expressed!

Going someway towards giving a ‘feel’ as to what are the components of happiness, the Unitarian minister William Houff recalled that: 44

Freedom, peace, and happiness, they [the Taoists] taught could be achieved only by recognition and conformity to natural and not human laws.

And staying with the Oriental theme, the Chinese-American author and physician Adeline Yen Mah identified that: 45

The four most vital ingredients for happiness are: health, congenial relationships, gainful employment and appreciation of life's blessings.

These may be four of the necessary components, but I think perhaps that these are not always sufficient. There is, running as a thread through the lives of ‘happy’ people, a strong spiritual element – some would say a link to God. This connection is not a sentimental link, but one which impacts on our lives and the lives of those around us. Knowing within my

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:18:31 15.22 Spiritual Development and Happiness Page 8 of 29 inner self that God exists stimulated me to look further and try to uncover the Cosmic Laws; those truths which determine our lives both now and in the Afterlife. Searching and finding led to greater understanding and this, in turn, lead to a fundamental contentedness which tends to underpin all that I do. Whether in the first instance, I was born with a level of contentedness and this triggered my spiritual search for truth, I do not know – chicken and egg, perhaps. Being content with your life is important and probably all to do with how well your needs are perceived to be satisfied relative to your innate aspirations. Have a look at Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs 46 and see where you fit. Certainly we need to meet our Physiological needs - these include the most basic needs that are vital to survival, such as the need for water, air, food, and sleep - and security requirements. The latter include a desire for steady employment, health care, safe neighbourhoods, and shelter from the environment. The three other categories in the hierarchy are Social, Esteem and Self- actualising needs. If, based on our own personal assessment of our total environment, we believe that most of our needs are met, then we will have a contented approach to life and others and we can say, with Lao Tzu, as quoted by John Blofeld: 47

'He who is contented always has enough.' This is a principle completely lost sight of by present-day society.

John expanded this and believed that: 48

…the secret of happiness lies in learning to have few wants. A simple dwelling, a few sets of garments to suit the changing seasons, plain food tasty enough to tempt the appetite - these are what is needed for tranquil living.

Others have also considered that happiness starts with being contented. In Swami Paramananda’s exposition on ‘The Upanishads’ he took an excerpt from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: 49

Supreme happiness is gained via contentment.

Go into any of the modern ‘gadget’ shops and you will perhaps be able to blend with the thoughts recorded by Jostein Gaarder: 50

The story goes that one day Socrates stood gazing at a stall that sold all kinds of wares. Finally he said, 'What a lot of things I don’t need!' This statement could be the motto for the Cynic school of philosophy, founded by Antisthenes in Athens around 400 B.C. Antisthenes had been a pupil of Socrates, and had become particularly interested in his frugality. The Cynics emphasized that true happiness is not found in external advantages such as material luxury, political power, or good health. True happiness lies in not being dependent on such random and fleeting things. And because happiness does not consist in benefits of this kind, it is within everyone’s reach. Moreover, having once been attained, it can never be lost.

Carl Jung also articulated the problem in a similar way: 51

Reforms by advances, that is, by new methods or gadgets, are of course impressive at first, but in the long run they are dubious and in any case dearly paid for. They

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by no means increase the contentment or happiness of people on the whole. Mostly, they are deceptive sweetenings of existence, like speedier communications which unpleasantly accelerate the tempo of life and leave us with less time than ever before. Omnis festinatio ex parte diaboli est all haste is of the devil, as the old masters used to say.

And in more down to earth parlance, Colin Fry recalled that: 52

There is an old proverb that states, 'He who is rich is he who is happy with what he owns.'

I suppose the start of all this debate about what makes us content and happy may well have been triggered by Plato, who noticed that: 53

...the essence of happiness is the possession of what is good...

Is it our choice? Is it up to us to choose happiness; to choose to be contented? If you look at life as being a learning experience based on our own soul’s desire to progress, then we ought to be happy no matter what befalls us. It all depends on how we look at our life and the events which impact it. Thus we should take the advice of the 17 th century Spanish mystic Baltasar Gracián: 54

Things look different when seen in a different light. So look at them in the light of happiness. Don’t confuse good and bad. This is why some people find contentment in everything, and others sorrow.

Following on from this, the American medium Silvia Brown wrote: 55

God didn't create any of us to be miserable. What misery we wrote into our blueprints is there for us to overcome, not to put up with and even encourage.

A similar thesis was at the heart of John Wesley’s life. According to John M. Todd, Wesley accused Thomas à Kempis of being unreasonable and in his early years wrote: 56

I cannot think that when God sent us into the world, He had irreversibly decreed that we should be perpetually miserable in it. If our taking up of the cross implies our bidding adieu to all joy and satisfaction, how is it reconcilable with what Solomon affirms of religion: 'that her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace'.

This positive and joyful approach to life John R H Moorman told us was one which was engendered by St Francis of Assisi: 57

…endeavoured, both by his example and by his teaching, to impress upon all men, and especially his own disciples, the duty of cultivating a joyful spirit.

This approach was also taken by the mystic Julian of Norwich. In her treatise about her life, Anna Maria Reynolds used a quotation from Bernhard Häring which indicated that Julian’s joyfulness was all-pervasive: 58

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She finds it necessary to discuss 'joy' and 'bliss' and their synonyms in no fewer that fifty-five different places in the 'Revelations', or at least once every three pages for the entire book.

Perhaps this is because, as another expert on Julian’s life John Swanson stated: 59

...Julian is a happy woman and an optimist...

I am positive that this was because of her unshakable belief and her pursuance of the spirit life. It is only through this route that it can be achieved, or as was expressed in ‘God and the Evolving Universe’ as: 60

...joy is a fundamental aspect of higher human functioning.

It is through your attitude to life that you exhibit a happy or neutral or sad aspect. There is no way that you can or should avoid the difficulties in life, but being contented will colour your approach to them. In the book ‘Unto Thee I Grant’ is written: 61

Grief is natural to the mortal world, and is always about thee; pleasure is a guest, and visiteth thee but by thine invitation; use well thy mind, and sorrow shall be passed behind thee; be prudent, and the visits of joy shall remain long with thee.

It is easy to say but, as the spirit father of Winifred Graham, communicating from the Spirit World, told her: 62

The most helpful thing to do on earth is to cultivate a happy mind that can be in tune with any atmosphere or surroundings. This sounds difficult, and to some impossible, but it may be acquired like other talents.

The difficulties of changing to a happy approach were also recognised by Dannion Brinkley whose spiritual journey starts as a consequence of his Near Death Experiences: 63

We must stand strong in our conviction that life is a joyous opportunity to experience its awesome wonderment and adventure. Choosing to be happy in a world filled with sadness is no short order.

Staying with Near Death Experiences (NDEs), Peter & Elizabeth Fenwick understood from their research that: 64

When happiness [during an NDE] is experienced it seems to be overwhelming, something quite different from ordinary, everyday happiness.

And perhaps this will be the case when we eventually arrive in the Spirit World – but that is yet to come. Another question which springs to mind is ‘Does cultivating a happier approach to life make a difference to your health? Harry Edwards, that very distinguished 20 th century spiritual healer, believed so. In his book ‘Spirit Healing’ he wrote: 65

Four years ago [c1956] I published a statement that most forms of cancer, especially breast cancers in women, resulted from frustrations and inner-self unrest. Now we see eminent physicians like Sir Heneage Ogilvie expressing similar

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views. Saying, "A happy man never gets cancer".

I have no reason to support or to reject these statements, but I do feel that having a contented and joyful attitude can help to overcome life’s ups and downs in work, in relationships and in health. Perhaps the observation of Leslie D Weatherhead is also worthy of note: 66

Far more people are ill because they are unhappy, than are unhappy because they are ill.

Alan Young, in discussing the healing, recalled a statement by White Eagle who said: 67

Happiness is essential to good health, and inner happiness comes from knowing God. A happy soul does not die of disease, because every cell is under the control of God.

This may certainly be the ultimate goal for humanity, but at the moment I cannot see anyone achieving this state. In fact, I do recognise that happiness is a lot more difficult to achieve than modern commercials and advertising slogans try to make us believe. Abbot Christopher Jamison’s introductory analysis for his book ‘Finding Happiness’ is spot-on: 68

In Britain today [2008] , we are wealthier than ever and yet it seems there is a general feeling of dissatisfaction. Our society's obsession with seeking happiness through consumption and pleasure often leads to the very opposite.

This is an echo of the thoughts on happiness expressed fifty years before by the Rev. Henry Keane: 69

Quite obviously it is not to be found in certain external things such as wealth, honour, reputation, influence or power. For all these are only partial goods, i.e., they do not satisfy the whole man. Also, they are too transitory and depend too much on others to give or take away. As Aristotle says, they are too 'superficial' to be that for which we are seeking.

Even our work, hobbies or play can be barriers to happiness as was communicated through the mediumship of John Scott: 70

There are times on earth when work is almost a vice, a habit which pushes out rightful happiness.

...or as Theophan the Recluse, a well-known saint in the Russian Orthodox Church, realised: 71

...as long as you are not living in the spirit, do not expect happiness.

And of course, as I have mentioned before, you do not do things to gain happiness, you do things because you have a contented aspect. This was expressed in the book ‘Conversations with God - Book 1 An uncommon dialogue’ by the spirit communicator of Neale Donald Walsch: 72

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In the true order of things one does not do something in order to be happy - one is happy and, hence, does something. One does not do some things in order to be compassionate; one is compassionate and, hence, acts in a certain way.

This is the opposite of what we are meant to believe. All those companies who try to convince you that you will only be happy if you buy their products are increasing in number. They are appealing to the ‘self’ and its gratification through the five senses. Christopher Jamison recognised that this does not work in sustaining anyone’s long term happiness: 73

...external choices [based on the 5 senses] can alleviate symptoms [of unhappiness] , but they don't lead to that interior delight that is the real source of happiness.

We are being duped! We have to rise above this deceptive materialistic life and realise, with Colin Fry, that: 74

…one reason why we are hearing and reading much more about people's search for spirituality and meaning is that we live in an age where we have many possessions but they're not making us happy.

Thus, as Malcolm Muggeridge concluded: 75

True happiness ... lies in forgetfulness, not indulgence, of the self; in escape from carnal appetites, not in their satisfaction. We live in a dark, self-enclosed prison which is all we see or know if our glance is fixed downwards. To lift it upwards, becoming aware of the wide luminous universe outside - this alone is happiness. At the highest level such happiness is the ecstasy which mystics have tried to describe.

We have to suppress those animal instincts that often are perceived to lead to happiness. Again taking three quotes from the Christopher Jamison’s book ‘Finding Happiness’: 76

So understanding our own sexuality and containing the sexual demon that can grip any of us is a key step on the journey towards finding happiness.

…and: 77

Our communal happiness and our individual happiness depend on our ability to acknowledge and curb our greed.

Thereby making sure that we do not, as many people do, believe that: 78

…self-indulgence as a way of counteracting unhappiness.

Chasing after financial excess too is not the gateway to happiness. This was nicely expressed by Carl Jung: 79

There were far deeper reasons for happiness and unhappiness than one's allotment of pocket money.

Realising the important things in life, which supplant those which stem from our base

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:18:31 15.22 Spiritual Development and Happiness Page 13 of 29 instincts, moves us closer to a joyful experience of existence. Evelyn Underhill made this point when she wrote: 80

Joy and Peace come into our lives then, when we mind more about God than we do about ourselves, when we realise what the things that matter really are...

…and, putting a more religious slant on it, the German mystic Jacob Boehme said: 81

For if a man brings his desire and will into God ... and desires God’s love, the same love appears to him with its wholly friendly joyful look, through which the eternal light of reason is ignited; then everything becomes light.

So, accept your lot; don’t ‘kick against the goads’; take the words of the Catholic theologian and Jesuit Ladislaus Boros to heart: 82

According to Dante, the essential man develops when his life no longer sets obstacles to the grace and friendship of God, and he is willing to be made totally happy by God.

In other words, the essential element in achieving true happiness is spiritual development which was rightly expressed by White Eagle as: 83

You can purify your own physical atoms by right thinking, right speech, right action, right living, judging no man; then, imperceptibly, will come a raising of your consciousness, a happiness of which you have not dreamed, and a gracious and gentle power will grow within you which will make all crooked places straight, and which will open your prison doors—even as the angel touched the door of Peter's prison and set him free.

This idea of ‘right living’, according to John Kenneth Mozley, was encapsulated in a letter written by Sir Henry Jones which might have been written over the moral outlook of the New Testament: 84

"Right doing," he says, "is an uncommonly happy way of living." And again, elsewhere, the good life is a "joyous achievement," "the best that can be," since "it 'has the nature of things at its back."

Mozley suggested that for "nature of things" read ‘God’ but I would say ‘spiritual development and the guidance of the Spirit World’. The spiritual healer and medium Agnes Sanford realised that this path can be helped significantly by help given to us from the Spirit World: 85

We feel the high and holy joys of eternity and also the deep and tender joys of this small earth... More and more we become aware, as we walk as children of light, of the tremendous force of this heavenly co-operation.

And stressing the link between spiritual development and happiness, the psychic Heidi Sawyer stated that: 86

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Spiritual development is the strongest form of self-improvement towards inner peace and happiness that I have ever seen.

Such development is a journey; a process that is eternal. We never really can conceive of reaching our goal; it is so far away. Nevertheless we can gain so much from the journey itself. An ancient Taoist proverb tells us that:

The Journey is the Reward

Which I suppose was the basis for Robert Louis Stevenson’s view that:

To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour.

More recently Adeline Yen Mah observed that when she was talking about happiness to different people, she was: 87

Repeatedly told that their happiest years were spent on the 'journey' towards their goal. The striving and the expectation of achievement were consistently more exhilarating than the fulfilment of the dream itself.

So we don’t have to have reached our spiritual endpoint to be happy. I’ll interject a little caveat here. What we have to avoid is making happiness our goal, because it actually arrives as a by-product of our spiritual development, or as Billy Graham said: 88

The trouble with most of us is that we make happiness our goal instead of aiming at something higher, loftier, and nobler.

Nevertheless, we can gain it now through spiritual development and with all the help that we can gain from our spirit guides and helpers. On this point, the communicator who used John Scott’s mediumship as a channel for his teachings, advised us: 89

Any man who strongly vows to be happy and contented can be so and will receive every assistance to that end. When he has achieved happiness he may know he is advancing spiritually and through joy doing what hundreds of priests and religious person are striving to do by prayers and adoration, and he will do it agreeably to his nature.

John’s spirit friend also confirmed that our feeling and intuition may serve us more in this respect than all the intellect, logic and reasoning. Man ought to: 90

…rely more upon his feelings, which are generally right, and less upon his reasonings, which more often are wrong. He would be far happier.

Use of our intuition was also stressed in ‘Unto Thee I Grant’: 91

The nearest approach thou canst make to happiness is to enjoy from Heaven understanding and health.

These quotations implicitly tell us that we ought not to try and walk our pathway alone.

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There are many spirits whose objective is to help us and to nudge us along the right spiritual track. According to Sherwood Wirt, Blaise Pascal, that 17 th century French mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher, viewed this combined effort as a necessary blessing: 92

All men seek happiness. This is without exception... Surely such a mass of evidence, gathered over so long a time, should convince us of our inability to reach the good life by our own efforts.

We must not therefore lose sight of this support as White Eagle believed: 93

...the soul can only know the promised land by becoming an inhabitant of it, by living patiently and happily and never losing sight of the guiding light from above, never allowing the light to go out of the heart. Thus the very simplest soul - a child indeed - can enter there.

Finding happiness within ourselves comes with spiritual development. There seems to be a contentedness, even though we still have to come to terms with the vicissitudes of life. It is in joyful recognition that we must advance and do it in cooperation with our guides. Again using the words of White Eagle: 94

We too can regain that sense of joy within ourselves, through developing our own trust in God's plan for our lives, and it will bring us closer to the angels.

He also noted that this proximity to our spirit helpers also adds to our happiness: 95

Any activity of mind or body which breaks down rigidity encourages trust. This kind of movement can bring a feeling of liberation from restriction - the spontaneity and lack of structure in it allows plenty of opportunity for the controlling mind to be put in abeyance, and for the joy of the intuition and spirit to flood in.

It is often understood that the process of development is one of recollection. As we progress, our additional understanding and experience lifts us more and more towards Spirit, and more and more are we able to bring to mind our previous soul experiences. In this context, words given to Neale Donald Walsch included: 96

Yes, yes - it does get easier. The more you remember, the more you are able to experience, the more you know, so to speak. And the more you know, the more you remember. It is a circle. So yes, it gets easier, it gets better, it becomes even more joyful.

Back in ancient China about 2500 years ago the teacher and philosopher Confucius was developing his own ideas about personal development. In the book ‘The Path’ the authors Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh accepted that although Confucius’s focus is not on one’s own happiness: 97

...he was intimately familiar with the deep happiness that comes from striving to become a better human being.

The joy of development! Even though I have experienced it, I cannot even attempt to

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:18:31 15.22 Spiritual Development and Happiness Page 16 of 29 express it. It is something deep within the recesses of the soul which colours everything that you do. It seems to be catching too provided we open our hearts to those around us. Give the air of a happy soul, even in those dark times, and you will see the benefits reflected not only in others but in yourself. In Neale Donald Walsch’s third book his spirit communicator tells us that: 98

Happiness is a state of mind. And like all states of mind, it reproduces itself in physical form. Act as if you are [happy] , and you will draw it to you. What you act so you become.

...or as Theophan the Recluse understood it: 99

...whoever considers himself to be happy is happy.

Put a different way by the philanthropist John Templeton: 100

Happiness sought eludes. Happiness given returns. The pursuit of happiness is never successful because happiness is always a by-product.

…and ever the man of words, Emerson, the great poet-philosopher, once wrote: 101

Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself.

That is what this chapter is about. It is through spiritual development that happiness can be gained. It is a consequence of all we do and not something we pursue as an objective in its own right. Similarly, happiness is a personal acquisition; it does not depend upon anyone else (although others may try to scupper it) as Michael Newton observed: 102

People often equate love with happiness. Yet happiness is a state of mind that must develop within you and not be dependent upon someone else. The most healthy kind of love is one where you already feel good about yourself and so extending your love to someone else is totally unselfish.

There are many traits that an aspiring acolyte needs to possess in order to move forward spiritually and they fit hand-in-glove with each other. All those which I have, in previous chapters, identified with what I call the collective noun ‘love’, I include here. So no matter in what form we express love, we ought to take the words of the higher spirit communicating through the medium Phyllis V. Schlemmer to heart: 103

Express yourself in words of love and words of joy, for that makes the Universe happy - for when there is happiness, joy and laughter in the Universe, it is a time a great celebration. This is what Planet Earth must do: humankind must not take itself too seriously! It must begin to experience within itself the joy of its divinity, the joy of its oneness with the Universe.

That is joy given forth as laughter and happiness. Laughter and religion don’t often get linked although they should be. Michael E. Tymn in his book ‘The Articulate Dead’ discussed the life of who was often asked to comment on various subjects

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Me thinks that of all the gifts from Thy prolific hand, laughter, next to love, is the dearest.

Laughter and joy reflect love in the same way as love is reflected through happiness, or in the words of Julie Soskin: 105

Joy is the resonance of love, and love has come into your hearts.

...and this is because of our spiritual development in which our whole way of looking at events and activities has changed. Expanding our spirituality or becoming closer to God, is the route to building our happiness. White Eagle commented that: 106

Happiness is the realisation of God in the heart. Happiness is the result of praise and thanksgiving, of faith, of acceptance; a quiet, tranquil realisation of the love of God. This brings to the soul perfect and indescribable happiness. God is happiness.

All the properties that we associate with love seem to build up one on top of another to release that spark of happiness. This love component was also recognised by the spirit who channelled his teachings through Neale Donald Walsch: 107

Release the joy that is inside of another, and you release the joy that is inside of you. ... It can be done with something as simple as a smile. Or a compliment. Or a loving glance. And it can be accomplished with something as elegant as making love. With these devices can you release joy in another, and with many more.

One in particular was mentioned by the father of Winifred Graham who remarked: 108

...for the way to create happiness is to call on that great gift of inward peace that is always near to the soul.

Although it is probably a consequence of all the other spiritual changes that have occurred within us that gives vent through our joyfulness. Whatever the cause, one thing that we do know, as Drayton Thomas wrote, is that happiness has an impact on us and those around us: 109

...happiness changes people greatly.

This community effect was noticed by Martin Israel: 110

...knowing that abiding happiness is never individual and solitary but always shared and communal.

That being the case, we can appreciate that we are but one cog in the huge cosmic wheel. We must play our part – and one aspect of that is to be happy and to spread happiness. In the communications received by Julie Soskin this point was stressed: 111

The time of learning through suffering is over; it is now time to learn through joy.

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Joy is possible for everyone and is within everyone's domain. The joy of being part of the whole cosmos, the realisation that everything works together as one enormous ever-changing pattern, and this ever-changing pattern is made up of the same constituents.

Both you and I are one of those components. So don’t diminish the impact that you can have on the world; one small action can have huge consequences. I’ll just inject a paragraph from another chapter to expand this notion.

Given that the cosmos is so enormous, is it conceivable that you and I could have any significant effect? Edward Lorenz believed so. He was an American meteorologist who, in 1961, was using a numerical computer model to rerun a weather prediction, when, as a shortcut on a number in the sequence, he entered the decimal 0.506 instead of entering the full 0.506127. The result was a completely different weather scenario. This sensitive dependence on initial conditions came to be known as the butterfly effect. The phrase refers to the idea that a butterfly's wings might create tiny changes in the atmosphere that may ultimately alter the path of a tornado or delay, accelerate or even prevent the occurrence of a tornado in another location. Had the butterfly not flapped its wings, the trajectory of the system might have been vastly different. So a very small event could have tremendous consequences. This all started from running a computer programme which, you may argue, is not a real situation. However, it does illustrate the point that even the little things that we do may have a real impact for humanity – you never know how far your life will ripple on the universal sea.

Ultimate happiness we will never achieve in this lifetime. It is a goal, however, to aim for. Tolstoy, that grand Russian novelist who swung between idealism and depression, loneliness and fame, also recognised that total perfection was out of our reach. This was recorded by Malcolm Muggeridge who said that Tolstoy: 112

…knew quite well, and never tired of saying (notably in his book The Kingdom of God Is within You) that the perfection envisaged in the Gospels is unattainable in earthly terms, whether through good works or revolutionary changes. It is in aspiring after this perfection, as pilgrims passing through the world, that our intrinsically imperfect natures can be redeemed, he insisted, and the world be made happier, more just and more brotherly place to live.

This is the essence of progress; working together to increase the general level of spirituality and happiness. Some mystics have very different ways of expressing this notion. The young Simone Weil wrote: 113

What we love is perfect joy itself. When we know this, even hope becomes superfluous; it no longer has any meaning. The only thing left to hope for is the grace not to be disobedient here below. The rest is the affair of God alone and does not concern us.

And in my phraseology this means that we should aim at perfection through our spiritual journey and hope that we will not be deflected from that singular pathway. Whatever else happens we ought to accept with a smile knowing it is all for our own benefit and that of humanity. From brother to brother we can spread our happiness for the benefit of humankind, as Abbot Jamison reminded us: 114

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We have to enable each person to live out the discipline of self awareness not only for personal happiness but also for society's happiness.

During our spiritual development, slowly and deliberately we come to understand what our life’s objectives are. This knowledge is very enriching and empowering; it gives us the wherewithal to understand our actions and make sure that they dovetail with our Philosophy of Life. One facet of this is recognising that service to humanity and the environment is paramount. Again from Christopher Jamison’s book ‘Finding Happiness’: 115

If we are to find happiness, we need to go beyond the world of simply feeling good and avoiding harm to enter the world of knowing good and doing good.

This ‘doing good’ or as I would say, ‘serving humanity’ even though it is not always easy, itself brings happiness. It is an underpinning thread which is never severed by the difficulties of life. Harry Emerson, recalling the advice from the Spirit World wrote: 116

Do not all spirit teachers tell us that service is the key to happiness?

This corresponded with the conclusion gained by Brian Weiss after many years researching into reincarnation, past life regression, future-life progression and survival of the human soul after death: 117

Religious people tell us that happiness comes from filling one's heart with love, from faith and hope, from practicing charity and dispensing kindness. They are actually right.

Many others have agreed that service is part of spiritual development and that it brings happiness. Paul Miller referred to the advice given by Imperator (Stainton Moses' primary guide) and recalled: 118

You have learned that man needs no external Saviour, and that duty honestly performed to self, brother and to God is the only passport to true happiness.

So knowing that you have an ability which you can share with others, apply yourself; don’t just think about it. The Rev. Henry Keane captured this idea with: 119

Happiness is something which is active and which energises. It is the perfection of human nature, and perfection is found not in being able to act but in acting. Mere capacity is not enough. Hence happiness must be an active and not a passive state.

…and from the book ‘Unto Thee I Grant’: 120

Do the good that thou knowest, and happiness shall be unto thee. Labour is more thy business here than speculative thought.

In his book ‘Man and the Universe’, the physicist and psychic researcher Sir Oliver Lodge quoted the New Testament [Matt xxv. 21, 30]: 121

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...the path of duty is the path of joy...

Using the pseudonym John Oxenham, the prolific English journalist William Arthur Dunkerley, from the perspective of an Out of Body Experience, agreed that work underpinned happiness in the Spirit World: 122

Life without work could never be happy. It never was down below there. And here, where every man's work is the work he loves best, service is a joy...

It is in giving of yourself and your love that happiness emerges. The beliefs of the mystic Don Miguel Ruiz, as recorded by Mary Carroll Nelson, also followed this line: 123

It is the love that comes from you rather than the love that comes to you that makes you happy .

If you live your life as you should, according to your own personal objectives and in line with your Philosophy of Life then happiness just falls out naturally. In Vida Reed Stone’s thought provoking channelled poem ‘Behold My Song’ this idea was expressed as: 124

There is no need for prayer, for struggle, for strain. Completion of happiness is found in just living - just being the fulfilment of the currents of My Life.

All this is well known to most of the occupants of the Spirit World. Time and time again we are given the relationship between recognising the Cosmic Laws, applying them to our lives through service to others thereby engendering happiness for ourselves and those around us. Acceptance of and adherence to these Laws is part of your spiritual progress. Imperator, talking to us through William Stainton Moses recommended that we live by these laws: 125

You may better direct your attention for the present to man’s condition as an incarnated spirit, and seek to learn how progressive development, in obedience to the laws which govern him, leads to happiness in the present and advancement in the immediate future.

It is through knowledge of these laws that this can be implemented as suggested by the Persian mystic Al Ghazzali: 126

The basis for happiness in this world is knowledge.

...providing it is acted upon and reflected in our actions. One aspect of the Law is the fact of the existence of the Spirit World and this, so a communicator using Mrs Wickland as his channel said: 127

If you had an understanding of the life hereafter and of progression in the spirit world you would soon find happiness through serving others.

Bearing this in mind, therefore, we ought to be far more generous in spreading the joy we have within us. In the opening narrative of his book ‘New Light on Survival’ Roy Dixon- Smith observed that: 128

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Realisation that the happiness we give so easily to those who love us lives on in their memories after death would surely make us all more liberal in the gift of it.

Thus, one very obvious way of doing this is to always try to reflect your happiness to others; be a reflector of contentedness. Show it in your attitude, in the way you work, rest and play. Even doing this honestly and without affectation will attract others to a less material way of life. Malcolm Muggeridge in his book about the life of Mother Teresa quoted her as saying: 129

Joy is prayer - joy is strength - Joy is love - Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.

In so doing we can serve humanity. We could take it further, as suggested in the book ‘Unto Thee I Grant’: 130

Joys of the understanding are the blessings of God; and He appointeth to every one his portion in what measure seemeth good unto Himself. Hath he endowed thee with wisdom? Hath He enlightened thy mind with the knowledge of truth? Communicate it to the ignorant, for their instruction; communicate it to the wise, for thine own improvement .

Later in the same book this latter point was expanded into: 131

He who rejoiceth in the happiness of another increaseth by it his own .

…or ‘what goes round comes round’. This happens consequentially. Don’t spread your happiness specifically just to gain more; it doesn’t work like that. In that case it would stem from greed rather than love for humankind. You ought to be serving without even thinking about reward for your actions. We should follow the mystics’ line, as told to us by Martin Israel: 132

The spiritual integrity of the mystic is inseparably related to the happiness of his fellows.

This sort of happiness is supported by a balance within. We do have to live in the world (earn a living, support our family, etc) as well as to spiritually develop. Each of us must strike an appropriate balance between these two aspects of life if we are to meet our obligations. We all have perturbations in our life which seem to throw us off track. If we have a contented outlook on life, then we can take such difficulties in our stride and restore our balance quickly. On this topic Sir Oliver Lodge wrote: 133

Anything out of gear is a source of disquiet, of inefficiency, and of pain; health and happiness result from a restoration of harmony.

Harmony, balance call it what you will, is necessary in all our lives. The pivotal point between spiritual and material, which will vary over time as you develop, is important to get right. Jostein Gaarder gained this knowledge from the ancients. He wrote: 134

The ethics of both Plato and Aristotle contain echoes of Greek medicine: only by exercising balance and temperance will I achieve a happy or 'harmonious' life.

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The degree by which you need to restore balance depends on your approach to life and your inherent happiness. For those, such as the mystics, who always accept whatever life throws at them, then their contentedness will shine through. This is in contrast to those who shout ‘Why me?’ ‘What have I done to deserve this?’ Understanding the Cosmic Laws and their effect will quash the latter approach. Knowing that you have been instrumental in setting your own objectives before you were born and knowing that you are living for a purpose will, in many respects, force you to treat all aspects of disharmony as important experiences. Therefore whatever tribulations you encounter, there will still be a thread of happiness which is never destroyed. Then, perhaps, we could agree with Father Andrew: 135

It is possible, as many people have testified, to know intense joy in the midst of great suffering.

…or in the simple terms of Thomas Merton: 136

...joy is above pain.

We have to be careful that we do not get into a masochistic frame of mind. Some mystics have done this I think to their detriment. One such aesthete was Simone Weil who in her autobiographical treatise stated that: 137

Joy and suffering are two equally precious gifts which must both of them be savoured to the full...

No! Don’t relish suffering; accept it and strive to learn from it and emerge with your happiness shining on full beam. If you don’t then the suffering may take over as recognised in the ancient book ‘Unto Thee I Grant’: 138

As the pearl is dissolved by the vinegar, which seemeth at first only to obscure its surface: so is thine happiness, O man! swallowed up by the heaviness of heart, though at first it seemeth only to cover its shadow.

We learn from our difficulties which we experience in life and for which we should be grateful. We were not incarnated just to suffer but to learn and to enjoy the process. Henry Thomas Hamblin believed that his God: 139

...does not want us to suffer, but insists upon our learning certain lessons; and through these to attain to a certain stage of development. What Life desires is to lead us to our highest joy, and so, if we co-operate with life then we find that the path to freedom is a joyous and harmonious one.

A totally different way of expressing a similar point was made by Billy Graham. He looked at it from the opposite perspective: 140

The happiness which brings enduring worth to life is not the superficial happiness that is dependent on circumstances. It is the happiness and contentment that fills the soul even in the midst of the most distressing of circumstances and the most bitter environment. It is the kind of happiness that grins when things go wrong and smiles through the tears. The happiness for which our souls ache is one undisturbed by

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success or failure, one which will root deeply inside us and give inward relaxation, peace and contentment, no matter what the surface problems may be. That kind of happiness stands in need of no outward stimulus.

That is the crux of living; to learn through life’s trials and come to balance our spiritual and worldly based lives appropriately. Although, in discussing balance, I have tended to refer to the two poles of meeting our material obligations and spiritual development, there is one aspect which I have not touched on; that of play. Taking time out for recreation may be an important part of your life – and so it ought to be. With this too there is a balance as Laurie Worger noticed: 141

...for joy and recreation are very necessary in good balance.

In this context we should take the advice of Brian Weiss who proclaimed that: 142

The earth life is a gift. It is a school to learn how love manifests in the physical dimensions where bodies and emotions exist. But the school has many playgrounds, and those need to be used. The physical life is meant to be enjoyed. This is one reason you have been given the senses. Be good people. Have fun and enjoy yourselves. Enjoy the simple yet abundant pleasures of life while not harming other people or other things, like nature.

…and from Julie Soskin: 143

Understand the joy of communication, the joy of experience, the joy of being whatever you are. Whatever shape you have chosen to take, whatever colour you radiate, you are a joy to the whole, to all of us. Therefore enjoy yourselves.

Treating life in this way, with joy in our hearts, will make for a really good life; you will develop appropriately, have the right attitude to everyone and every experience. You have to be careful that you don’t fall into the trap of trying to measure your happiness by metrics which are not spiritual. Acclamation of your peers is one such measure to be avoided. Robin Waterfield, a British classical scholar, reflected the view of Abbé Henri de Tourville who advised that: 144

...we should not measure your satisfaction by what others approve of in you, but by what you yourself approve of in you, in your personal character, in your own inner way of being; free in spirit, unfettered, at peace, daring and calm.

In fact, it is likely that fame and accolades from your peers will produce the opposite of happiness as Beatrice Russell advised us: 145

Does fame bring happiness to a man? Not only does it not do so, but it is often a means of unhappiness...

So we must realise that the only basis for real happiness is spiritual not through meeting our material passions. Things haven’t changed a great deal in the last 2000 years at least. In the book ‘Features of the Church Fathers’ we are told that St. Augustine reckoned that: 146

People do not know what happiness is when they think they can have happiness

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without God.

...and how many celebrities find real happiness?

Perhaps those of us who are following a spiritual pathway ought to somehow stimulate like minded people to put pen to paper and tell the world about the happiness we have found. The communicator who used John Scott as his medium recognised that: 147

Your world is comparatively a gloomy place. You have arrived at a point in civilisation which does not make for happiness, whatever may be its other advantages.

To counter this, he also suggested: 148

There is a vast amount of happiness in the world and as much laughter as tears and sobbing. Why does no one write learned treatises on the reason of happiness? You take it for granted and never seek its source.

Through this process we can explain our experiences and ‘prove’ that spiritual development leads to increased happiness. Perhaps we could provide an updated, deeper and more relevant version of the 19 th century English translation of a 14 th century German mystical text known as the ‘Theologia Germanica’: 149

And then, when the man neither careth for, nor seeketh, nor desireth, anything but the Eternal Good alone, and seeketh not himself, nor his own things, but the honour of God only, he is made a partaker of all manner of joy, bliss, peace, rest and consolation, and so the man is henceforth in the Kingdom of Heaven.

From the Eastern religious tradition, so William Houff tells us, there is a secondary Hindu scripture called ‘The Ramayana’ in which is written that there are primarily three things that are real: 150

Brahman, human folly, and laughter. The first two are beyond comprehension, So we must do what we can with the third.

There is one consolation for all us ‘oldies’ and it was offered by Dean Inge: 151

Middle aged men are often happier than the young…

As for me … I will continue to grow in spiritual stature as best I can and give to all those that I meet the happiness that I feel in my soul.

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1 Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, EMI Music Publishing 2 St Augustine, The City of God (De Civitate Dei), J M Dent, 1945. Volume Two: The Nineteenth Book: Chapter XII, (Pg 247) 3 http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html 4 Billy Graham, The Secret of Happiness, Educational Book Exhibits, 1974. Preface 5 Rosemary Hill, Stonehenge, Profile Books, 2008. 5: The Age of Darwin, (Pg 145) 6 William Stainton Moses, Spirit Teachings, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Section XXXI, (Pg 278) 7 Malcolm Muggeridge, A Third Testament, The Plough Publishing House, 2002. (Pg 46) 8 William Roache, Soul on the Street, Hay House, 2007. Part III: On The Street. 10: Thinking Things Through, (Pg 164) 9 Bonaventure, The Journey of the Mind to God, Hackett, 1993. Chapter One: The Steps in the Ascent to God and the Consideration of Him through his Vestiges in the Universe, (Pg 5) 10 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 16: Discerning the spiritual path, (Pg 136) 11 Ryuho Okawa, The Laws of the Sun, Element, 1996. Chapter Four: Ultimate Enlightenment - Shakyamuni's Enlightenment, (Pg 87) 12 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part TWO:The Mystic Way: Chapter II - The Awakening of the Self, (Pg 187) 13 Colum Hayward, Eyes of the Spirit, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1987. Chapter Four - Self- healing and healing, (Pg 81) 14 The Rev. C. Drayton Thomas, Beyond Life's Sunset, Psychic Press, Undated. Chapter VIII: Happiness in the Life Beyond Death, (Pg 53 / 54) 15 The Rev. C. Drayton Thomas, Beyond Life's Sunset, Psychic Press, Undated. Chapter VIII: Happiness in the Life Beyond Death, (Pg 54) 16 The Rev. C. Drayton Thomas, Beyond Life's Sunset, Psychic Press, Undated. Chapter VIII: Happiness in the Life Beyond Death, (Pg 55) 17 Ryuho Okawa, The Laws of the Sun, Element, 1996. Chapter Four: Ultimate Enlightenment - Shakyamuni's Enlightenment, (Pg 87) 18 Helen Greaves, Testimony of Light, Neville Spearman, 1995. The Scripts, (Pg 88) 19 Dean Inge, Goodness and Truth, Mowbray, 1958. Sermon 21: Finishing the Work God Gave Us, (Pg 184) 20 Ladislaus Boros, Open Spirit, Search Press, 1974. Dante and Vision, (Pg 154) 21 Sherwood Eliot Wirt, Exploring the Spiritual Life, Lion Books, 1985. 4 - From The Life of God in the Soul of Man by Henry Scougal, (Pg 54) 22 Sherwood Eliot Wirt, Exploring the Spiritual Life, Lion Books, 1985. 5 - From Letters of Spiritual Counsel by Francois de la Mothe Fenelon, (Pg 71) 23 Lumsden Barkway, An Anthology of the Love of God (from the writings of Evelyn Underhill), Mowbray, 1953. I The Nature of Pure Love: Love and its Sequence (The Fruits of the Spirit), (Pg 35) 24 Evelyn Underhill, The Fruits of the Spirit; Light of Christ; Abba, Longmans, Green and Co, 1957. The Fruits of the Spirit: Part I; II Joy and Peace, (Pg 11) 25 Emanuel Swedenborg, Divine Providence, Swedenborg Society, 1949. Chapter II: Divine Providence of the Lord has for its end a Heaven from the Human Race, (Pg 28) 26 Deepak Chopra, The Book of Secrets, Rider & Co, 2004. Secret #4 - What you seek, you already are. (Pg 56) 27 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XIII: Orthodoxy - Experience, November 18, 1919, (Pg 356 / 357) 28 Stephen O'Brien, Visions of Another World, The Aquarian Press, 1989. 16 Behind the Scenes, (Pg 201) 29 Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island, Burns & Oates, 1997. 4, Pure Intention, (Pg 45) 30 Unto Thee I Grant, Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, 1966. Book One: The obligations that relate to Man, Considered as an individual. Chapter VII- Contentment, (Pg 11) 31 F P Harton, The Elements of the Spiritual Life: A study in Ascetical Theology, SPCK, 1950. Part I - Chapter VI The Gifts of the Spirit, (Pg 85) 32 Henry Thomas Hamblin, The Book of Daily Readings, The Rally, 1944. February 2, (Pg 25) 33 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XVI: Philosophy - Experience, May 12, 1921, (Pg 450) 34 Sherwood Eliot Wirt, Exploring the Spiritual Life, Lion Books, 1985. 5 - From Letters of Spiritual Counsel by Francois de la Mothe Fenelon, (Pg 72) 35 William Houff, Infinity in Your Hand, Skinner House Books, 1994. Chapter 12: Better Living through Mysticism - After letting go of the banana, (Pg 138)

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36 Hugh Ross Mackintosh, Types of Modern Theology, Nisbet, 1949. II: The Theology of Feeling (A), Schleiermacher’s Interpretation of Religion – Chapter 3: His Conception of Religion in the ‘Addresses’, (Pg 43) 37 William Stainton Moses, Spirit Teachings, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Section X, (Pg 77) 38 Geraldine Pengelly, The Red Man Cometh, Athena Press, 2006. Everything Happens for a Reason, (Pg 93) 39 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XVI: Philosophy - Experience, December 24, 1919, (Pg 453) 40 P. Franklin Chambers, Baron Von Hugel: Man of God. An introductory Anthology compiled with a biographical preface, Geoffrey Bles: The Centenary Press, 1946. A Biographical Preface, (Pg 28) 41 Père De Caussade, The Sacrament of the Present Moment, Fount, 1987. 9: God’s transcendent Will and the Supremacy of Our Duty to the Present Moment – The Only Source of Perfection, (Pg 98) 42 Colum Hayward, Eyes of the Spirit, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1987. Chapter Six - The Principles of the Lodge, (Pg 120) 43 Madame Guyon, Spiritual Torrents, Christian Books, 1984. Part II: Chapter X, (Pg 89) 44 William Houff, Infinity in Your Hand, Skinner House Books, 1994. Chapter 10: Taoism, the Natural Spirituality - Or, the joy of dragging one's tail in the mud, (Pg 111) 45 Adeline Yen Mah, Watching The Tree, Harper Collins, 2001. 11 Frog at the Bottom of a Well, (Pg 214) 46 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs 47 John Blofeld, Beyond the Gods, E P Dutton & Co, 1974. Chapter 8 - Remedies for Discontent? (Pg 153) 48 John Blofeld, Beyond the Gods, E P Dutton & Co, 1974. Chapter 3 - The Path of Observation and Acceptance, (Pg 56) 49 Swami Paramananda, The Upanishads, Grange Books, 2004. The Threads of Union (excerpts from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali) - Part Two: On Spiritual Disciplines: 2.42, (Pg 116) 50 Jostein Gaarder, Sophie's World, Phoenix, 1995. Hellenism, (Pg 101 / 102) 51 Carl Gustav Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Fontana, 1995. VIII The Tower, (Pg 264) 52 Colin Fry, Life Before Death, Rider & Co, 2008. 2. Believing: the power of positive thinking, (Pg 43 / 44) 53 Plato; Selected Passages, Humphrey Milford, OUP, 1945. Chapter II - The Spiritual Life: Love, (Pg 64) 54 Baltasar Gracián, The Art of Worldly Wisdom - A pocket Oracle, Mandarin, 1995. Aphorism 224: (Pg 127) 55 Sylvia Browne, The Other Side and Back, Piatkus, 2000. 3 Your Personal Life: A Spiritual Psychic's view of relationships and families, (Pg 88) 56 John M. Todd, John Wesley and the Catholic Church, The Catholic Book Club, 1958. Chapter Two: The Early Years, (Pg 36) 57 John R H Moorman, Saint Francis of Assisi, SPCK, 1979. 4 The Apostolate, (Pg 84) 58 Robert Llewelyn (ed), Julian - Woman of our Day, Darton Longman and Todd, 1986. Woman of Hope by Anna Maria Reynolds CP, (Pg 21) 59 Robert Llewelyn (ed), Julian - Woman of our Day, Darton Longman and Todd, 1986. Guide for the Inexpert Mystic by John Swanson OJN, (Pg 87) 60 James Redfield, Michael Murphy, Silvia Timbers, God and the Evolving Universe, Bantam Press, 2002. Part Two - The Emerging Human Being; 7: Ecstasy, (Pg 115) 61 Unto Thee I Grant, Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, 1966. Book Nine: Man Considered in Regard to His Infirmities and their Effects. Chapter V- Misery, (Pg 63) 62 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Teach Happiness, (Pg 78) 63 Dannion Brinkley, Secrets of the Light, Piatkus, 2012. Part 2: The Fourfold Path to Power - 12 The Power in Choice, (Pg 111) 64 Peter Fenwick & Elizabeth Fenwick, The Truth in the Light, BCA, 1995. 5 Coming Home, (Pg 70) 65 Harry Edwards, Spirit Healing, The Harry Edwards Spiritual Healing Sanctuary, 1978. Part One: Spirit Healing - Chapter Seven - Healing and the Medical Profession, (Pg 63) 66 Leslie D Weatherhead, The Christian Agnostic, Hodder & Stoughton, 1966. Chapter VII: The Church and the Churches, (Pg 112) 67 Alan Young, Cosmic Healing, DeVorss & Co, 1988. 9 White Eagle – Healing, (Pg 118) 68 Christopher Jamison, Finding Happiness, Phoenix, 2008. Introduction, (Pg 1 / 2) 69 Rev. Henry Keane, A Primer of Moral Philosophy, Catholic Social Guild, Oxford, 1956. Part I: Ethics Chapter I - Human Happiness, (Pg 21) 70 John Scott, I Lent a Hand to a Ghost, Psychic Press, 1950. Hereafter, (Pg 149) 71 St. Theophan the Recluse, The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to it, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1995. 13 Life According to the Spirit, (Pg 77) 72 Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations with God - Book 1 An uncommon dialogue, Hodder & Stoughton, 1997. Chapter 12, (Pg 185)

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73 Christopher Jamison, Finding Happiness, Phoenix, 2008. Part ONE Purity of Heart: 2. Blessed are the Pure in Heart - The Modern Heart, (Pg 38) 74 Colin Fry, Life Before Death, Rider & Co, 2008. 6. Searching: the quest for spirituality, (Pg 109) 75 Malcolm Muggeridge, Conversion: A Spiritual Journey, Collins, Fount Paperbacks, 1989. 6: The Teacher, (Pg 55) 76 Christopher Jamison, Finding Happiness, Phoenix, 2008. Part TWO Eight Thoughts: Third Thought Lust - Matter-of-Fact, (Pg 94 / 95) 77 Christopher Jamison, Finding Happiness, Phoenix, 2008. Part TWO Eight Thoughts: Fourth Thought Greed - Our Greedy Culture, (Pg 117) 78 Christopher Jamison, Finding Happiness, Phoenix, 2008. Part TWO Eight Thoughts: Fourth Thought Greed - Resisting the Greedy Culture, (Pg 127) 79 Carl Gustav Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Fontana, 1995. II School Years, (Pg 89) 80 Evelyn Underhill, The Fruits of the Spirit; Light of Christ; Abba, Longmans, Green and Co, 1957. The Fruits of the Spirit: Part I; II Joy and Peace, (Pg 14) 81 Jacob Boehme, The Way to Christ, Paulist Press, 1978. The Fourth Treatise on True Resignation (1622) Chapter One, (para 12) 82 Ladislaus Boros, Open Spirit, Search Press, 1974. Dante and Vision, (Pg 146) 83 White Eagle, The Quiet Mind, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1984. The Master Soul is Constant: .. is Tolerant: Happiness Beyond Your Dreams, (Pg 34) 84 J. K. Mozley, D.D., The Doctrine of God, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1928. The Doctrine of God: II - God in Relation to the Universe and to Man, (Pg 76 / 77) 85 Agnes Sanford, The Healing Light, Arthur James, 1985. Chapter XV: For the Healing of the World, (Pg 187) 86 Heidi Sawyer, Why My Mother Didn't Want Me To Be Psychic, Hay House, 2008. Chapter 5: When Choosing a Psychic - Consider ... Spiritual development, (Pg 66) 87 Adeline Yen Mah, Watching The Tree, Harper Collins, 2001. 11 Frog at the Bottom of a Well, (Pg 217) 88 Billy Graham, The Secret of Happiness, Educational Book Exhibits, 1974. Chapter V: Happiness through Hunger and Thirst, (Pg 44) 89 John Scott, I Lent a Hand to a Ghost, Psychic Press, 1950. Hereafter, (Pg 148 / 149) 90 John Scott, I Lent a Hand to a Ghost, Psychic Press, 1950. Religion: (Pg 115) 91 Unto Thee I Grant, Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, 1966. Book One: The obligations that relate to Man, Considered as an individual. Chapter VIII- Temperance, (Pg 11) 92 Sherwood Eliot Wirt, Exploring the Spiritual Life, Lion Books, 1985. 1 - From Pensees by Blaise Pascal, (Pg 7) 93 White Eagle on the Intuition and Initiation, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 2004. Part One: What the Intuition is, and is not - VI: The Purpose of the Intuition, (Pg 59) 94 Walking with the Angels - A Path of Service, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1998. Part One - 3. A Natural and Joyous Path of Service, (Pg 30) 95 Walking with the Angels - A Path of Service, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1998. Part One - 9. The Angelic Qualities of Humility and Simplicity, (Pg 68) 96 Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations with God - Book 1 An uncommon dialogue, Hodder & Stoughton, 1997. Chapter 9, (Pg 157) 97 Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh, The Path, Viking, 2016. 3: On Relationships: Confucius and As-If Rituals, (Pg 52) 98 Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations with God - Book 3 An uncommon dialogue, Hodder & Stoughton, 1999. Chapter 1, (Pg 15) 99 St. Theophan the Recluse, The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to it, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1995. 13 Life According to the Spirit, (Pg 77) 100 John M Templeton, The Humble Approach - Scientists Discover God, Collins, 1981. XII. Love and Happiness. The True Test, (Pg 100) 101 Harry Emerson, Listen My Son, The Psychic Book Club, 1945. Chapter Fifteen: Proved by a Triviality, (Pg 78) 102 Michael Newton, Destiny of Souls: New Case Studies of Life Between Lives, Llewellyn Publications, 2005. 7: Community Dynamics, (Pg 262) 103 Phyllis V. Schlemmer, The Only Planet of Choice, Gateway Books, 1996. VI: Terrestrial Affairs - 19: Adventures in Consciousness, (Pg 269) 104 Michael E. Tymn, The Articulate Dead, Galde Press, 2008. Part IV: Other Intriguing Cases of Spirit Communication - Eighteen: The Mystery of Patience Worth, (Pg 193)

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105 Julie Soskin, Transformation, College of Psychic Studies, 1995. Chapter 7 - The Crazy God is You, (Pg 56) 106 White Eagle, The Quiet Mind, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1984. The Master Soul is Constant: .. Is Patient, Trusting in God's Goodness and His Perfect Plan: Happiness, (Pg 96) 107 Neale Donald Walsch, Friendship with God, Hodder & Stoughton, 1999. Thirteen, (Pg 266) 108 Winifred Graham, More Letters From Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, 1943. Fear of the Unknown, (Pg 76) 109 The Rev. C. Drayton Thomas, Beyond Life's Sunset, Psychic Press, Undated. Chapter III: The New Body, (Pg 19) 110 Martin Israel, The Pearl of Great Price, SPCK, 1988. 1 – Intimations, (Pg 6) 111 Julie Soskin, Transformation, College of Psychic Studies, 1995. Chapter 7 - The Crazy God is You, (Pg 55) 112 Malcolm Muggeridge, A Third Testament, The Plough Publishing House, 2002. (Pg 142) 113 Simone Weil, Waiting on God, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1952. Letters of Farewell; Letter VI; Last Thoughts. (Pg 39) 114 Christopher Jamison, Finding Happiness, Phoenix, 2008. Part TWO Eight Thoughts: First Thought Acedia - Know Thyself, (Pg 59) 115 Christopher Jamison, Finding Happiness, Phoenix, 2008. Introduction, (Pg 5) 116 Harry Emerson, Listen My Son, The Psychic Book Club, 1945. Chapter Two: Years of Spiritual Black- out, (Pg 18) 117 Brian Leslie Weiss, Many Lives, Many Masters, Judy Piatkus, 2002. Chapter Sixteen, (Pg 210) 118 Paul Miller, Cavalcade of the Spirit, Volume I, The Psychic Book Club, 1943. The Moses of Spiritualism, (Pg 66) 119 Rev. Henry Keane, A Primer of Moral Philosophy, Catholic Social Guild, Oxford, 1956. Part I: Ethics Chapter I - Human Happiness, (Pg 15) 120 Unto Thee I Grant, Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, 1966. Book Nine: Man Considered in Regard to His Infirmities and their Effects. Chapter VII- Presumption, (Pg 68) 121 Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S., Man and the Universe, Methuen & Co, 1912. Section III - Science and Christianity: Chapter VI - Suggestions Towards the Re-interpretation of Christian Doctrine: II Reality, (Pg 127) 122 John Oxenham, Out of the Body, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter IX, (Pg 66) 123 Mary Carroll Nelson, Beyond Fear - The Teachings of Don Miguel Ruiz on Freedom and Joy, Rider & Co, 2003. Chapter Six: Tools for Transformation - Part One: The Mitote and the Inventory, (Pg 74) 124 Vida Reed Stone, Behold My Song, Willing Publishing Company, 1947. Behold My Song, (Pg 54) 125 William Stainton Moses, Spirit Teachings, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Section XIX, (Pg 153 / 154) 126 Al Ghazzali, The Book of Knowledge, SH. Muhammad Ashraf, 1991. Section I - Evidence (for the Excellence of Knowledge) from Reason, (Pg 26) 127 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XII: Selfishness - Experience, November 5, 1916, (Pg 284) 128 Roy Dixon-Smith, New Light on Survival, Rider & Co, 1952. Part One: Chapter I: The Opening Narrative, (Pg 29) 129 Malcolm Muggeridge, Something Beautiful for God, Collins, 1973. Mother Teresa's Way of Love, (Pg 68) 130 Unto Thee I Grant, Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, 1966. Book Five: Providence; Or The Accidental Differences of Men. Chapter I- Wise and Ignorant, (Pg 27) 131 Unto Thee I Grant, Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, 1966. Book Ten: Of the Affections of Man, Which Are Hurtful to Himself and Others. Chapter IV- Cruelty, Hatred, and Envy, (Pg 78) 132 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 15: Mysticism and spirituality, (Pg 123) 133 Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S., Man and the Universe, Methuen & Co, 1912. Section III - Science and Christianity: Chapter VI - Suggestions Towards the Re-interpretation of Christian Doctrine: II Reality, (Pg 126) 134 Jostein Gaarder, Sophie's World, Phoenix, 1995.Aristotle, (Pg 90) 135 Father Andrew SDC, In the Silence, A.R.Mowbray, 1951. Union with the Will of God: VIII. Equanimity [calmness], (Pg 93) 136 Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation, Hollis and Carter, 1949. Chapter 24 – Renunciation, (Pg 173) 137 Simone Weil, Waiting on God, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1952. Essays: The Love of God and Affliction, (Pg 75) 138 Unto Thee I Grant, Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, 1966. Book Ten: Of the Affections of Man, Which Are Hurtful to Himself and Others. Chapter V- Heaviness of Heart, (Pg 80)

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139 Henry Thomas Hamblin, Divine Adjustment, The Science of Thought Press, 1998. Chapter Thirteen: Growth and Development, (Pg 151) 140 Billy Graham, The Secret of Happiness, Educational Book Exhibits, 1974. Chapter I: The Search for Happiness, (Pg 2) 141 Laurie Worger, My Treasures For You, The Percival Book Company, 1965. Chapter 17: The Child of Love, (Pg 160) 142 Brian Leslie Weiss, Same Soul, Many Bodies, Piatkus, 2006. Chapter 2 - George: Anger Management, (Pg 29) 143 Julie Soskin, Transformation, College of Psychic Studies, 1995. Chapter 13 - The Union of Spirit and Matter, (Pg 115) 144 Robin Waterfield, Streams of Grace, Fount, 1985. (Pg 41) 145 Beatrice Russell, Fragments of Truth from the Unseen. Unknown Publisher, 1951. False Values, (Pg 34) 146 'Reader', Features of the Church Fathers, Heath Cranton Limited, 1935. Second Century and Onwards: St. Augustine on St. John's Gospel, (Pg 75) 147 John Scott, I Lent a Hand to a Ghost, Psychic Press, 1950. Hereafter, (Pg 148) 148 John Scott, I Lent a Hand to a Ghost, Psychic Press, 1950. General, (Pg 186) 149 Susanna Winkworth, Theologia Germanica, Macmillan & Co, 1874. Chapter XI, (Pg 36) 150 William Houff, Infinity in Your Hand, Skinner House Books, 1994. Chapter 17: From the Sublime to the Ridiculous – The saga of the dung beetle, (Pg 193 / 194) 151 Dean Inge, Goodness and Truth, Mowbray, 1958. Sermon 20: The Stages of Life, (Pg 173)

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15.23: Spiritual Development and Materialism

From a philosophical perspective, ‘Materialism’ is a system of thought which regards the physical world as the only reality and therefore denies the existence of a God and as such it is incompatible with many of the world’s religions including the Abrahamic religions of Christianity, Islam and Judaism. 1

This is not the way I would like you to look at the word materialism. In simple terms I use the word to mean a preoccupation with or emphasis on physical objects, comforts, and considerations, with a disinterest in or rejection of spiritual values.

If you follow that line, then each of us in our lives have to strike a balance between the material and the spiritual. Each of us will see the fulcrum for this balance at a different place; some more material others more spiritual. Evelyn Underhill in her book ‘The Spiritual Life’ believed that most people set this pivot much too close to the material or as she calls it the ‘visible world’: 2

Most people work so hard developing their correspondence with the visible world, that their power of corresponding with the invisible is left in a rudimentary state. But when, for one reason or another, we begin to wake up a little bit, to lift the nose from the ground and notice that spiritual light and that spiritual atmosphere as real constituents of our human world; then, the whole situation is changed. Our horizon is widened, our experience is enormously enriched, and at the same time our responsibilities are enlarged. For now we get an entirely new idea of what human beings are for, and what they can achieve: and as a result, first our notions about life, our scale of values, begins to change, and then we do.

Yes! Moving the arrow of the compass towards ‘spiritual’ and living our life according to the understood spiritual tenets will enhance everything we do. It is not always so easy to do as to talk about. So much of our early life is concerned with learning about the physical world and how to survive and prosper in it that we have little time for the spiritual. Dharmachari Subhuti captured these difficulties and wrote about enlightenment as: 3

…quite a lot of our ordinary lives is taken up with preventing this from happening. Usually the odds are too great, our own ignorance is too great, the weight of conditioning from the outside world is too great, we just can't make headway against our own confusion, our own superficial psychological conditioning, We can't make headway against the world, what other people tell us, what our parents, or school teachers and so forth, very often tell us.

In other words, as Herbert Benson, an American cardiologist and founder of the Mind/Body Medical Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, we must appreciate that: 4

Western society promotes outward self-improvement, not inward development...

It can all be summed up by referring to a quip from the Scottish comedian Billy Connolly who is credited with the phrase:

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A well balanced person has a drink in each hand...

This amusing phrase expresses the view that the material life and what it can bring is all we should all aspire to. This biased view is real for most people, but wrong for those who are trying to create a spiritual foundation to their lives. Let me try to give you a schematic view of my understanding of the relationship between spiritual development and materialism. In the diagram below, the horizontal coordinate gives a measure of time. It starts with birth follows through life and ends at death. The vertical axis shows increasing spirituality as you move upwards and increasing materialism as you move downwards. Let us assume that we start, at birth, with a high degree of spirituality. Now follow the line which I have indicated as being for ‘most people’. During their life their spirituality declines as the world

mystic

spirituality materialism Spiritually minded

Most people

Birth Death life

Figure 1

through all sorts of factors - parents, education, work, friends - pressurise everyone to regard the physical world as the most important. The essence of this was captured in 1802 by William Wordsworth within his ode ‘Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood’: 5

Heaven lies about us in our infancy! Shades of the prison-house begin to close Upon the growing Boy,

…thus portraying a continual and increasing attachment to the material. Maybe, towards the very end of life when death looms large, there is a turning towards the spiritual perhaps more through fear than a desire to understand.

At the other extreme is the mystic (here I definitely do not mean psychic) who tends to start life with a hefty bias towards the material (good examples would be St Paul, St Francis, St Ignatius, Jalal-ud-Din Rumi) but either gradually or through a ‘Damascus event’ they turn their life around and look only towards the spiritual. This path continues upward throughout their lives.

In between these two extremes fall you, me and most of those who try to move forwards

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:19:02 15.23 Spiritual Development and Materialism Page 3 of 12 spiritually whilst making sure that our material responsibilities are accommodated. Throughout our lives the balance moves slowly but surely towards the spiritual and away from the physical.

The really interesting thing is that the greater a person’s emphasis on the material, the less spiritual they are. We each have a finite capacity, and if we want more ‘spirituality’ we have to remove some of the ‘materialism’. Many mystics refer to a materialistic outlook as looking at the ‘world’, Jacob Boehme was one such highly regarded mystic and he said: 6

Whatever the world rejects, take for yourself. Whatever it does, do not do. Go against the world in all things and you will come to the nearest way to it…

Theophan the Recluse, that doyen of the Russian Orthodox Church, used similar extreme words to indicate the need to reject the pull of materialism: 7

One must be fervent toward God and all that is Divine, but cold toward everything secular and worldly.

Most ancient mystics took this quite extreme view; that the only way to lead a spiritual life was to completely reject any aspect of materialism. This is exemplified by a paragraph from Shankara Acharya’s ‘The Crest Jewel of Wisdom’ written about 1300 years ago in Southern India: 8

He is without doubt free from bondage when there is no distraction by the mirage of sensuous things; perfect discernment, born of clear vision, truly discriminating between the Seer and things seen, cuts the bonds of delusion forged by Glamour, and thereafter the recurring cycle of birth and death ceases for him who has gained deliverance.

This very Eastern approach to ultimate enlightenment, which culminates in freedom from the ‘wheel of life’, seems to be embedded within the psyche of the people. This fact has implications which go way beyond the individual. David Lawrence Edwards, an Anglican priest and prolific author, understood this and wrote: 9

In India, the vitality of Hinduism (and of the minority groups of Muslims, Christians, Jains, Parsis, etc.) is due in part to the widespread Indian agreement that while the economic tasks of nation-building are urgent in order to avert famine, economic advance should not be bought at the price of denying the importance of the individual's spiritual life.

This is in contrast to Western countries where spirituality, that which underpins Christianity, has very little impact on the political direction of nations. The approach seems to mirror the extreme view that spirituality and materialism don’t mix or that you cannot face both the ‘World’ and ‘Spirit’; only one can be the real driver in your life or the life of your nation. Of course, the ‘world’ does tend to view those with a spiritual drive as being a little odd; not one of boys; a little eccentric. Of this, Robin Waterfield noted: 10

So don't be surprised at being different from other people, they need time to catch up. We don't become pioneers in order immediately to rejoin the herd.

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There have been many who have gone before us, covering probably most of the religions, who have lived their lives bucking the common trend. In ‘The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today’ Evelyn Underhill named a few of them: 11

The experiments of St. Benedict, St. Francis, Fox or Wesley, were not therefore the natural products of ages of faith. They each represented the revolt of a heroic soul against surrounding apathy and decadence; an invasion of novelty; a sharp break with society, a new use of antique tradition depending on new contacts with the Spirit. Greatness is seldom in harmony with its own epoch, and spiritual greatness least of all. It is usually startlingly modern, even eccentric at the time at which it appears.

Eccentric and out-of-the-ordinary perhaps we are. I don’t think that those who are not following their spiritual pathway understand the mind and drivers of those who are. The mind-sets are different. It is through being different that we can dismiss the pull of materialism. Thomas Merton had harsh words to say about the majority of people: 12

I have always believed and continue to believe that faith is the only real protection against the absorption of freedom and intelligence in the crass and thoughtless servitude of mass society.

…and having a similar sentiment, Gregory of Sinai, as recorded in the ‘Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart’ had a similar perspective and told us that: 13

For, although all intelligent beings enjoy words, there are very few in this world who rejoice in the words of the Spirit.

Most people will shy away from thinking about spiritual matters or those truths which control our existence. Blaise Pascal, according to Malcolm Muggeridge, believed this to be true: 14

Since men are unable to cure death, misery, ignorance, they image they can find happiness in not thinking about such things.

And from the pen of Thomas A Kempis: 15

To get a little, men run far; But for eternal life many scarce lift a foot once off the ground. Men look for worthless gains.

We ought to do the opposite and follow White Eagle’s advice: 16

Don't bow down to Mammon, and all the material difficulties and problems of the world.

Most people tend to the opposite view, probably without even thinking about it. Spirituality is ignored by the majority. It is a consequence of our upbringing that the difficult questions about life and death are rarely approached. We are conditioned by everyone who tries to ‘educate’ us. Again, using the words of Evelyn Underhill: 17

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Spirituality - correctness of response to God and our eternal surroundings - is most often ignored.

The Spanish mystic and heretic Baltasar Gracián warned of the implications of taking this route and making pursuit of self-gratification the focus of life. He said: 18

If you enter the house of Fortune through the door of pleasure, you will leave through the door of sorrow...

To counter this Christianity, looking at its recent history, does little to help. In fact, all of the major religions don’t stimulate us to ask the pertinent questions. Perhaps it has never been any different. According to Idries Shah, the 12 th century Sufi Sanai is attributed with the thought: 19

Everyone in the ordinary world is asleep. Their religion - the religion of the familiar world - is emptiness, not religion at all.

And much more recently Colin Fry observed: 20

Just because you follow a religion or belong to a church it does not necessarily mean you are living a spiritual life.

This emphasises that ‘religious’ is not the same as ‘spiritual’. In fact many religions, some of which I have experienced myself, do as much harm as does materialism in leading people away from their real spiritual pathway. This is often achieved through constraining and deliberately preventing spiritual thoughts. Peter Spink realised this and remarked: 21

Bigotry 22 and obscurantism 23 of any kind is totally alien to an authentic spiritual path.

So, be careful of others who would disrupt or seek minimise your spirituality. A couple of lines from ‘The Omano Oracle’ of Jack Joseph give vent to this: 24

For there are many, who in ignorance would destroy fragile new growth.

Whilst others could impede your progress, the greatest barrier to spiritual growth is our own thoughts words and deeds. We have to eat and this normally entails working for a living. Morton Kelsey recognised the difficulties that this creates: 25

In fact busy-ness is usually our best excuse for avoiding the responsibility of inner growth.

It is a fallacy that turning to the spiritual detrimentally affects our material welfare. The opposite is true; the more spiritual we become the greater the positive impact on our material being becomes. This was confirmed by the teaching spirit Ramesôye who used William Lilley as his channel. According to Arthur Keith Desmond, he said: 26

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All we [spirit guides and helpers] want to do is to add that which is spiritual: let us not deplete but add. We are here to make you value material things more, to acquire the proper perspective through a spiritual outlook.

Certainly, it is not always easy to balance work with a developing spirituality because the latter stimulates change to our Philosophy of Life which, in turn, changes our attitude to everything; to work, possessions and the accumulation of money. In Carl Wickland’s book ‘Thirty Years Among the Dead’ a couple of discarnates who were both medical practitioners when they lived on earth had comments to make on money-making. Firstly from Dr. Adams: 27

People want to get all they can now, as this is the time to make money, and they say they will make it regardless of the method. They have become so selfish in their money making that their true citizenship is lost.

…and from Dr. Root: 28

Some day this world will conquer selfishness, but I am sorry to say that at present most of the people are insane regarding money making. They seem not to be able to get money enough. There is little honour, only money, money.

I accept that we all need an element of financial security and stability – we need to meet some of our own requirements as indicated in Maslow’s hierarchy. 29 If we cannot satisfy the basic elements of life ( water, air, food, and sleep - and security at least) then survival become a real struggle. Winifred Graham’s father communicating from the Spirit World wrote: 30

Here, money seems one of earth's plagues, a handicap to spirituality, and a burden to all who are unable to make it, when they have none of their own.

How true these statements are. Nationally and individually we do not seem to have the ability to judge progress in any field according to a set of spiritual values. Every progressive step along every avenue, particularly scientific and technological, is marred by some individual, company or nation desirous of exploiting it for material, primarily financial, purposes. There have been many spirit communicators who have attempted, apparently without much success, to divert humanity from this destructive pathway. Nona, an Egyptian princess from 300 years ago provided inspiration for A. J. Howard Hulme and Frederic H. Wood to write: 31

The 'false ideas put into their minds by Materialism' are bearing bitter fruit in Europe today [1936] . Civil war in Spain, mutual fear and distrust in other Continental nations are the terrible aftermath of a war...

Our spirit friends continue to tell us that the desire for power and money ought not to control our lives. John Edward writes that his guides and helpers have: 32

...told me over and over: If you do anything with your abilities specifically for money, we will bang you so hard your head will spin. So here's my rule: It's okay to want to earn a living as a medium, even a good living

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- and okay to succeed. As my colleague Suzane Northrop says, "There's nothing spiritual about poverty." What's not okay is stepping over the fine line between simple human desire and simple human greed.

As always, there is a balance to be struck. Assuming that we have sufficient finances, we still have to guard against being seduced by what else is available to satisfy our perceived material needs. Advertising and commercial pressures abound. Robin Waterfield described it as: 33

The world is changing, with breathtaking rapidity. A period of twenty years today brings more changes than a hundred did previously. .. From now on the world is launched on a course of material transformation which nothing can halt.

And in the very poignant words of Meister Eckhart: 34

Heaven is cheap because it is on sale to everyone at the price they can afford.

Some people try to denigrate those who have spiritual objectives. They, the aspirants, are called names, ascribed as idiots, believed to be mentally subnormal. The opposite is really true. They are trying to seek the spiritual nirvana; heaven; the point at which all spirits meet. François Fénelon, according to Aldous Huxley, agreed and declared that: 35

In the world, when people call anyone simple, they generally mean a foolish, ignorant, credulous person. But real simplicity, so far from being foolish, is almost sublime.

So, ignore all those pointed remarks, snide askance glances and spurious advice and look towards two other forms of inspiration. Firstly use your inner feelings, as Geraldine Pengelly recommended: 36

Do not listen to those who say they have your best interests at heart. Listen to your inner self... To your own self be true.

And secondly, look towards those who always have your best interests at heart – your spirit guides and helpers. This point was well made in the book by Winifred Graham: 37

The world is a place of winding paths, like a maze, and few find the best road. They rush in varying directions like sheep without a shepherd. It would be so helpful if mortals paused to ask the way, and let higher guides show the right direction.

Whilst hardships abound in this uncompromising world, there are many who have more possessions, especially money, than their needs dictate. On the subject of money, Alice, a spirit communicating to Carl Wickland, said from a spiritual perspective that: 38

Money does not make intelligence nor merit.

It often has the opposite effect. Money, itself, is not the corrupter; it is how you view and deal with it that is important. In the words of the author of ‘Unto Thee I Grant’: 39

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If thou be industrious to procure gold, be generous in the disposal of it. Man never is so happy as when he giveth happiness unto another.

This joy in disposition of our material possessions is often missed. To try to re-discover this pleasure we ought, now and again, to take stock of what we have, as Laurie Worger suggested: 40

It is wise to sit quietly sometimes and review our possessions from the point of view of their actuality…

In her novel ‘The Childhood of Jesus’, Geraldine Cummins put the following words into the mouth of the young Jesus: 41

It is hard for the rich man to attain to greatness, or to perform noble deeds. For he is ensnared by his possessions. The care of them filleth his whole mind. Wherefore, he does not perceive the hungry crying child, nor is there room in his mind for heavenly things, not even for the love in thy heart and in my mother's heart and in little children. The ruler and the rich merchant, those who seem first with men, are oft-times last with God.

Returning to Laurie Worger, he also remarked that it is not just money that is important; all the gifts that we have been born with or that we have been able to develop during this life, are for the benefit of a wider set of recipients than just ourselves: 42

When we finally reach the clear understanding that all things from books to bank balance which we have on temporary loan and classify under the false label of "mine", belong to God, from whose bounty they came, we gladly return as many as possible to the "stores" that they may be redistributed for the benefit and help of our fellow men.

This re-distribution should not be in order that we can capitalise on them. Our gifts should be given freely; we should not try to make money out of them by exploiting the needs of others. This is particularly true of those who have been fortunate enough to possess or develop their psychic powers. The teaching spirit Red Cloud, speaking through Estelle Roberts, said of Jesus that he: 43

…knew that he had psychic power, and it always will be a great temptation to those encased in power to use these gifts for material gain instead of for man's spiritual upliftment.

Everyone who pursues a spiritual pathway develops, often unknowingly at first, a link with the Spirit World. Through this process other gifts may be given; particularly those psychic gifts of clairvoyance, clairaudience and clairsentience. These ought not to be the objective of our development, but, if they do arise, they ought to be used appropriately. Taking the words of Red Cloud again: 44

It is much better, as of old, for the materialist to defer developing psychic powers but not spiritual understanding.

Thus the advancement of our spiritual characteristics, of which our soul comprises, is the

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:19:02 15.23 Spiritual Development and Materialism Page 9 of 12 paramount driver for our life. It is, as suggested by William Watkinson in his essay on ‘The Influence of Scepticism on Character’: 45

...for on the prosperity of the soul depends all other prosperity.

We can read into this message that provided this development proceeds then our general prosperity is also enhanced. Certainly a spiritual approach will change many of your other traits – and always for the better. Wouldn’t it be good if all those in charge of organisations, companies and particularly countries realised this fact. In her book ‘The Spiritual Life’ Evelyn Underhill emphasised this point: 46

Therefore the prevalent notion that spirituality and politics have nothing to do with one another is the exact opposite of the truth. Once it is accepted in a realistic sense, the Spiritual Life has everything to do with politics. It means that certain convictions about God and the world become the moral and spiritual imperatives of our life; and this must be decisive for the way we choose to behave about that bit of the world over which we have been given a limited control.

These are great aspirations about which we seem to have little control. However, what we can do is to use our spirituality to strengthen our own Philosophy of Life, so that, at least, in the area where we do have influence we can spread our spirituality and place less and less importance on the material aspects of life. This was outlined in Estelle Roberts’ book ‘Red Cloud Speaks’: 47

So it is today and will be through the ages until humanity begins to realise that it must look past the physical and see the spiritual aspect of mind which governs the physical existence.

We must live within the physical world, encased in a non-durable fleshy casing, taking our responsibilities towards everyone and everything very seriously and yet give an increasingly greater importance to the spiritual nature we are expanding. It is a struggle; and it seems to get harder the more we develop. William Stainton Moses, in his famous and excellent book ‘Spirit Teachings’, was told by his spirit teacher that: 48

Therein is the struggle, as He Himself said, to be in the world, but not of the world. The high ideal is well-nigh impossible for those who have upon them the care of daily toil. Hence it is that we have striven to withdraw you, so far as we can, from the objective side of spirit-intercourse, foreseeing that it would be hurtful to you. You must strive to rise above the material, and to leave it behind. Such intercourse is fitted only for those who can be secluded from the cares of daily life.

It is grasping the awareness of Spirit that is lacking. Now awareness usually comes from encountering something ‘odd’; something which cannot be explained by the normal physical laws; something for which no one has an answer but you want to find one. The idea of death is a good stimulus or the existence of a Spirit World, or trying to find out what life is all about. These are not complicated questions – although the answers have puzzled everyone for millennia. Perhaps the scriptures which are available to all, could provide the trigger if they are approached with an open mind. Mary Baker Eddy, the founding energy behind the creation of Christian Science, years after her death, came to Carl Wickland’s home circle to try to correct the many wrong impressions conveyed by

DAJ 07/11/2019 19:19:02 15.23 Spiritual Development and Materialism Page 10 of 12 that religious off-shoot. In her communications she told the sitters: 49

I wish all could realize and understand how beautiful and simple conditions are if people would only open their eyes to see them. I mean they should open the soul eyes, but they are so material. And everything that is being taught is only matter. People cannot grasp spiritual things. The Bible is a beautiful book if it is read spiritually, not taken literally, and not as history. I wanted to study and learn what is in life, what is the aim of life here on earth.

It is very sad if anyone ignores all the stirrings which try to halt their materialism and nudge them to start thinking about the life eternal. For those who breach this barrier then they should be happy as Hildegard of Bingen expressed: 50

Rejoice therefore, O mankind, and do not mislead yourselves into mockery through ignorance.

...in particular, ignorance of the Natural Laws of the Cosmos. In the book ‘Ancient Egypt Speaks’ knowledge one of the most important Laws is seen to be critical for humanity’s future. Frederic H. Wood wrote: 51

The danger is immediate, and if the race is to be saved from self-destruction brought about by misapplied scientific inventions, some means must be found to bring home to all men the fact that life is continuous: that for each of us the mistakes and wrong-doings of this present life must be worked out in future lives: that payment must be made, individually, and "to the uttermost farthing." "Only knowledge of eternal life will impress people sufficiently to make them desire to change all evil things into good ones. Only the sure knowledge that they carry their load of accumulated responsibilities into the next world will make men feel the necessity for better living. A vague sense of heaven and hell is of no use whatsoever."

Knowing this law to be a fact, the way you approach everything will be different. This is a consequence of the natural law of cause and effect. You will bring spirituality to your material life even though the material aspect of it is declining. Grasping again words from Evelyn Underhill to support this view: 52

I come now to the many people who, greatly desiring the life of communion with God, find no opportunity for attention to Him in an existence which often lacks privacy, and is conditioned by ceaseless household duties, exacting professional responsibilities or long hours of work. The great spiritual teachers, who are not nearly so aloof from normal life as those who do not read them suppose, have often dealt with this situation; which is not new, though it seems to press with peculiar weight upon ourselves. They all make the same answer: that what is asked of us is not necessarily a great deal of time devoted to what we regard as spiritual things, but the constant offering of our wills to God, so that the Practical duties which fill most of our days can become Part of His order and be given spiritual worth. So Père Grou, whose writings are among the best and most Practical guides to the spiritual life that we possess, says, 'We are always praying, when we are doing our duty and turning it into work for God.' He

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adds that among the things which we should regard as spiritual in this sense are our household or professional work, the social duties of our station, friendly visits, kind actions and small courtesies, and also necessary recreation of body and of mind; so long as we link all these by intention with God and the great movement of His Will.

Focus on your spiritual development and try to strike the right balance between your spiritual drivers and the material world in which you have to live and survive. Take note of the advice given by St. Simeon The New Theologian in the ‘Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart’: 53

You should observe three things before all else: 'freedom from all cares', not only cares about bad and vain but even about good things, or in other words, you should become dead to everything; 'your conscience' should be clear in all things, so that it denounces you in nothing; and you should have complete 'absence of passionate attachment', so that your thought inclines towards nothing worldly.

Strike your own balance between the material and the spiritual, making sure that the fulcrum moves steadily in the right direction.

1 http://www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/ 2 Evelyn Underhill, The Spiritual Life, Mowbray, 1984. Part Two: The Spiritual Life as Communion with God, (Pg 42 / 43) 3 Dharmachari Subhuti, The Mythic Context, Padmaloka Books, 1990. The Death of God, (Pg 9 para2) 4 Herbert Benson, MD with Marg Stark, Timeless Healing - The Power and Biology of Belief, Scribner, 1996. Chapter 12: The Ills of Information - The Side Effects of Information, (Pg 261) 5 William Wordsworth, 'Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood' 6 Jacob Boehme, The Way to Christ, Paulist Press, 1978. The Sixth Treatise on the supersensual life (1622), (para 34) 7 St. Theophan the Recluse, The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to it, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1995. 26 The Activity of Grace, (Pg 127 / 128) 8 Shankara Acharya, The Crest Jewel of Wisdom, John M Watkins, 1964. The Crest Jewel of Wisdom - The Uphill Journey, (Pg 56) 9 David L Edwards, Religion and Change, Hodder & Stoughton, 1974. Part One: Chapter 2 - The Social Impact of the Secular Century - The Social Reality of American Religion, (Pg 102) 10 Robin Waterfield, Streams of Grace, Fount, 1985. (Pg 42) 11 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter II: History and The Life of the Spirit, (Pg 38) 12 Thomas Merton, Reflections on My Work, Collins, Fontana Library, 1989. Preface to the Japanese edition of 'The Seven Storey Mountain', (Pg 72) 13 Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, Faber & Faber, 1992. Part One: Gregory of Sinai - Texts on Commandments and Dogmas #96, (Pg 56) 14 Malcolm Muggeridge, A Third Testament, The Plough Publishing House, 2002. (Pg 36) 15 Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Elliot Stock, 1891. Book IV - Book of Inward Consolation, Chapter III 16 White Eagle, The Quiet Mind, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1984. The Master Soul is Constant: Worship the Lord Thy God, (Pg 17) 17 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter VII Education and the Spiritual Life, (Pg 183) 18 Baltasar Gracián, The Art of Worldly Wisdom - A pocket Oracle, Mandarin, 1995. Aphorism 59: (Pg 33) 19 Idries Shah, The Way of the Sufi, Penguin Books, 1975. Part Four: Among the Masters. Emptiness, (Pg 208) 20 Colin Fry, Life Before Death, Rider & Co, 2008. 6. Searching: the quest for spirituality, (Pg 114) 21 Peter Spink, Beyond Belief, Judy Piatkus, 1996. 1: Finding the God Within, (Pg 2 / 3)

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22 Bigotry is the state of mind of someone who, as a result of their prejudices, treats or views other people with fear, distrust or hatred 23 Obscurantism is the practice of deliberately preventing the facts or the full details of some matter from becoming known. 24 Jack Joseph, The Omano Oracle, Medicine Bear Publishing, 1997. Part I - The Oracles, (Pg 48) 25 Morton T Kelsey, The Other Side of Silence, SPCK, 1985. Part Four: The Use of Images in Meditation - 16. Putting Imagination to Work, (Pg 222) 26 Arthur Keith Desmond, The Gift of Healing - The Story of Lilley the Healer, Psychic Press, 1944. Book II: In the Present. Chapter Eighteen: The Ramesôye Speaks, (Pg 141) 27 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XVI: Philosophy - Experience, October 20, 1920, (Pg 435) 28 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XVI: Philosophy - Experience, December 24, 1919, (Pg 453) 29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs 30 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. On the Bliss of Freedom from Money Making, (Pg 29) 31 A. J. Howard Hulme and Frederic H. Wood, Ancient Egypt Speaks, Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter X - Why Ancient Egypt Spoke, (Pg 153 / 154) 32 John Edward, Crossing Over - The Stories Behind the Stories, Jodere Group Inc, 2001. Chapter 2: My Three Signs - Busted. (Pg 51) 33 Robin Waterfield, Streams of Grace, Fount, 1985. (Pg 92) 34 Oliver Davies, Meister Eckhart - Selected Writings, Penguin Books, 1994. Selected German Sermons: Sermon 6, (Pg 131) 35 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter VI: Mortification, Non-Attachment, Right Livelihood, (Pg 112 / 113) 36 Geraldine Pengelly, The Red Man Cometh, Athena Press, 2006. Everything Happens for a Reason, (Pg 89) 37 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Seek the Spiritual Help, (Pg 48) 38 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XII: Selfishness - Experience, October 6, 1920, (Pg 309) 39 Unto Thee I Grant, Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, 1966. Book Ten: Of the Affections of Man, Which Are Hurtful to Himself and Others. Chapter I- Covetousness, (Pg 73) 40 Laurie Worger, My Treasures For You, The Percival Book Company, 1965. Chapter 16: The Influence of Other People, (Pg 150) 41 Geraldine Cummins, The Childhood of Jesus, Psychic Press, 1972. Chapter XXVII, (Pg 125) 42 Laurie Worger, My Treasures For You, The Percival Book Company, 1965. Chapter 16: The Influence of Other People, (Pg 152) 43 Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud Speaks, Tudor Press, 1992. Chapter Six: Man's Highest Estate in Matter, (Pg 31) 44 Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud Speaks, Tudor Press, 1992. Chapter Nineteen: Questions and Answers, (Pg 101) 45 William L Watkinson, The Influence of Scepticism on Character, Charles H Kelly, 1898. The Influence of Scepticism on Character. Chapter II, (Pg 62) 46 Evelyn Underhill, The Spiritual Life, Mowbray, 1984. Part Three: The Spiritual Life as Co-operation with God, (Pg 81) 47 Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud Speaks, Tudor Press, 1992. Chapter Six: Man's Highest Estate in Matter, (Pg 29) 48 William Stainton Moses, Spirit Teachings, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Section XXX, (Pg 258 / 259) 49 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XIV: Christian Science - Experience, August 23, 1922, (Pg 391) 50 The Personal Correspondence of Hildegard of Bingen, Oxford University Press, 2006. Chapter 13: Songs and Hymns. Letter 75 A Meditation, (Pg 168) 51 A. J. Howard Hulme and Frederic H. Wood, Ancient Egypt Speaks, Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter X - Why Ancient Egypt Spoke, (Pg 154 / 155) 52 Evelyn Underhill, The Spiritual Life, Mowbray, 1984. Part Four: Some Questions and Difficulties, (Pg 117 / 118 / 119) 53 Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, Faber & Faber, 1992. Part One: St. Simeon The New Theologian - Three Methods of Attention and Prayer, (Pg 158)

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