What is the true meaning of the Golden Rule?

Oh, man! oh man! reach out for higher truths.

You have groped in darkness long enough, seek the true light and enjoy its benefits by observing the golden rule, which the Nazarene imparted to those who could receive―

Do ye unto others, as ye would that others should do unto you.

You desire to receive the full benefit of that which is to your material benefit, but the majority are loath to give the same which they receive.

Oh, look not too much to your own material wants, but you who have sufficient for your own, see that your brother is supplied.

Father God is the Father alike of all earth's children, great and small, the earth furnishing abundant supply for all alike.

No material body with a heart to feel and comprehend could see his brother in the flesh, famishing by the wayside, without rendering him assistance.

This feeling of charity must develop itself within you. You must develop the spirit of charity, which is democratic in its nature, and must be universally expended in giving to each one alike his portion, both materially and intellectually.

Is the human soul made of energy?

Spirit is the electric spark, which makes possible material or physical life. 

Without spirit, there could be no material or physical or animal life, and this physical or material or animal life cannot in any case survive the departure of the spirit life within.

Whither art thou going?

A man lay dying. The world vanished from his sight and he was left alone with the question—

Whither art thou going?

That question, filling him with fear and trembling, He lay writhing on his bed of agony when suddenly, he beheld ten shapes closing him in, cold and pitiless—

God's Holy Commandments.

And one after another, they lifted up their voice. The first saying, Unhappy man, how many gods hast thou allowed to enter into thy sinful heart? The second, How many idols hast thou set up in His stead? The third, How often hast thou taken the name of the Lord thy God in vain? The fourth, How hast thou kept the Sabbath day and caused others to keep it? The fifth, How hast thou honoured thy father and mother and those that were set in authority over thee? The sixth, How hast thou acted by thy brother, doing unto him as thou wouldst he should do unto thee?

And on they went, the ten of them, each with the voice of judgment, confounding his soul. 

And the dying man, anguished and hopeless, had not a word to say. He felt convicted and knew he was lost. At last, he cried despairingly—

I know I have sinned, but can you not leave me to die in peace? And they made answer, We cannot leave thee unless One will take our place to whom you shall yield yourself body and soul to all eternity, abiding by His judgment. Will you do that?

The sick man considered, He was afraid of the One even, and his heart, beating feebly, shook with fear. Yet, at last, he said, I would rather have the One judge me since I cannot answer you ten.

And behold at his word, the dread accusers vanished and there appeared in their stead One, holy and compassionate, just and forgiving.

And the dying sinner looked to Him. Death had a hold of him already, but he felt the breath of life. He remembered all at once what in far-off days he had heard of One dying for many, recalling the holy lessons of his childhood at his mother's knee when she told him of the Lord that is mighty to save. He had forgotten it, living a life of folly and sin, but it was coming back to him even now.

And looking again, behold, he knew Him that stood by his side.

And faith gathered strength, a smile of blessed trust lighting up his face, and with dying lips, he cried, Let me be thine, Lord, Thine only, now and forever! Have mercy on me, O Christ, and redeem my spirit! He sank in death, but peace had been given him.

Letters from Hell

What have you failed today?

I know it now—I know it—who shall free me from even such guilt? 

Do you see that tree? 

Often and often I sink down beneath it with groans of regret, for on its branches are gathered the opportunities of a wasted life. 

They keep falling down on me, ready to crush me.

I am often driven thither by the lashes of the awful inevitable. How happy I might have been—how much I might have done in the days of golden possibility. 

But I would not!

As a blind man, I walked in life, careless of light. It is dark now, but I can see—I do see the failure of my days.

Letters from Hell

How to activate your spiritual ears?

Spirits have the power to introduce thoughts into your brain. 

They do this by whispering in your ear, the ear of the spirit body, not the material body. The spirit body is asleep, so to speak, whilst the material body is awake, hence they can only communicate with the spiritual body in a peculiar manner.

You have heard it said that if you whisper in the ear of a sleeping man, you will make him dream of what you have whispered. 

This may be true or not, but if so the case is precisely the same as spirits' mode of communicating thoughts to the semi-conscious spirit body whence they penetrate into the brain of the physical body and are used by the owner as his own ideas. Thus, you are always in communication with the spirit world though you do not know it, and if you would take the trouble to enquire of anyone who has had the experience of impressionable mediumship, you would find that the words come into his head one after another, as distinctly as if someone were dictating them. 

All the most brilliant geniuses of any age have been such.

They could not have originated the ideas, which are conveyed by the works of men like Shakespeare, Spenser, Milton, Dante, Plato, Aristotle, and others, unless the writers or speakers had been inspired by men from the spirit world. 

This is the secret of all inspiration. You see it at work in everyday life just the same. From the spirit side, seen behind the scenes, as it were, the process is so simple and commonplace that he who runs may read.

Spirits have much to tell you for your own good—it makes them happy to impart knowledge, hence they seek out an impressionable mind and pour into his brain the thoughts, which they are full of.

What does oneness of humanity mean?

What a wonderful realisation it is―

What a consciousness of the oneness of all humanity it gives you to know that the mind of each human being has an influence upon every other human being―

What a responsibility it is when you see that the influence is in proportion to the connection you have with the Universal Mind!

When the objective mind has no connection with the subjective mind, as in the case of an idiot―or very slightly connected, as in the case of an insane person, that mind makes no impression on the surrounding minds. But look at the individual whose life has been one of conscious concentration, and who has consequently strengthened, not only his magnetic force, but his connection with the Universal Mind―that mind will sway audiences, as his spoken words never could. If he is a writer, his readers will feel the vibrations of his thought force, as he impresses through his pen his great power upon their minds.

It is through the subjective mind that you really meet each other, not only your friends on this planet, but those in other realms and spheres.

Every normal human being is connected with the subjective mind in a degree―or his objective mind would be unable to comprehend the meaning of anything the physical senses report to it―it is to unite still more closely with the subjective mind that all this mental training is necessary.

Learn to concentrate―you are not any brighter than another―it is only that one has greater concentration developed than another.

―Spirit Ione

Conscious Concentration?

What a wonderful realisation it is―

What a consciousness of the oneness of all humanity it gives you to know that the mind of each human being has an influence upon every other human being―

What a responsibility it is when you see that the influence is in proportion to the connection you have with the Universal Mind!

When the objective mind has no connection with the subjective mind, as in the case of an idiot, or very slightly connected, as in the case of an insane person, that mind makes no impression on the surrounding minds. But look at the individual whose life has been one of conscious concentration, and who has consequently strengthened, not only his magnetic force, but his connection with the Universal Mind―that mind will sway audiences, as his spoken words never could. If he is a writer, his readers will feel the vibrations of his thought force, as he impresses through his pen his great power upon their minds.

It is through the subjective mind that you really meet each other, not only your friends on this planet, but those in other realms and spheres.

Every normal human being is connected with the subjective mind in a degree, or his objective mind would be unable to comprehend the meaning of anything the physical senses report to it―it is to unite still more closely with the subjective mind that all this mental training is necessary.

Learn to concentrate―you are not any brighter than another―it is only that one has greater concentration developed than another.

―Spirit Ione

What does forgiving others do for us?

The Saviour Christ, realising how much each one has to forgive the other, put in his own prayer that most protective sentence—

Forgive us, as we forgive them.

The position is this, the Father neither judges you, nor does forgiveness in the earthly sense ever come into the relationship between Him and you. The many expressions, regarding forgiveness, which appear in the sacred texts were used solely and only to try and dissipate that deeply-rooted belief that God Almighty was the Ruler and Condemnor.

You have been told that if you injure another and do not seek to right the wrong when you pass out of physical life, that deed has to be worked out with pain and effort.

You are conscious too that it is a dangerous thing to withhold forgiveness because it blocks the progress of the one who is beyond your range of knowledge or understanding, in the sense that no visible act of theirs can right the wrong. While it is true that those who have passed out of the body are hindered and hampered in a most terrible way by the lack of forgiveness from those on earth, yet it is unidirectional.

It is like this—

When you are free from the body, there are a multitude of things, which have to be done—there are those so-called sins of commission and omission, and these, each one, have to be made good, so that the pattern of the life may be true to the design of the God-spirit within.

It would be grossly unfair if the absence of the necessary forgiveness should hinder the progress of the soul now gifted with spiritual sight in any direction, but the one concerned.

Who are the adversaries?

 You have spoken of adversaries. Who are they?

The antagonistic spirits who strive to mar our mission and its progress in imitating our work and gaining influence over the deluded. 

These are spirits who have chosen evil―have put aside promptings and influences of good and have banded themselves under the leadership of intelligence still more evil to malign us and to hamper our work. 

They are the foes of God and man―enemies of goodness―ministers of evil. We wage perpetual war against them. 

It is very startling to hear of such a powerful organisation of evil. There are some, you know, who deny the existence of evil altogether and teach that all is good though disguised. 

As the soul lives in the earth-life, so its tastes, predilections, habits and antipathies are with it still. It has not changed save in the accident of being freed from the body. The soul that has been low in taste and impure in habit does not change its nature by passing from the earth-sphere any more than the soul that has been truthful, pure and progressive becomes base and bad by death. 

Wonderful that you do not recognise this truth!

You would not fancy a pure and upright soul degenerating after it has passed from your gaze. Yet you fable a purification of that which has become by habit impure and unholy, hating God and goodness and choosing sensuality and sin. The one is no more possible than the other. 

The soul's character has been a daily, hourly growth. The soul has cultivated habits that have become ingrained in its individuality. 

The spirit that has yielded to the lusts of a sensual body becomes their slave. It would not be happy amid purity and refinement. It would sigh for its old haunts and habits. They are of its essence. 

So you see that the legions of the adversaries are simply the masses of unprogressed, undeveloped spirit who have banded together from affinity against all that is pure and good. 

They can only progress by penitence―through the instruction of higher intelligences and by gradual and laborious undoing of sin and sinful habit. 

The idea that there is no such thing as evil―no antagonism to good―no banded company of adversaries who resist progress and truth and fight against the dissemination of what advantages humanity is an open device of the evil ones for our bewilderment.

Spirit Teachings

You have spoken of adversaries. Who are they?

 You have spoken of adversaries. Who are they?

The antagonistic spirits who strive to mar our mission and its progress in imitating our work and gaining influence over the deluded. 

These are spirits who have chosen evil―have put aside promptings and influences of good and have banded themselves under the leadership of intelligence still more evil to malign us and to hamper our work. 

They are the foes of God and man―enemies of goodness―ministers of evil. We wage perpetual war against them. 

It is very startling to hear of such a powerful organisation of evil. There are some, you know, who deny the existence of evil altogether and teach that all is good though disguised. 

As the soul lives in the earth-life, so its tastes, predilections, habits and antipathies are with it still. It has not changed save in the accident of being freed from the body. The soul that has been low in taste and impure in habit does not change its nature by passing from the earth-sphere any more than the soul that has been truthful, pure and progressive becomes base and bad by death. 

Wonderful that you do not recognise this truth!

You would not fancy a pure and upright soul degenerating after it has passed from your gaze. Yet you fable a purification of that which has become by habit impure and unholy, hating God and goodness and choosing sensuality and sin. The one is no more possible than the other. 

The soul's character has been a daily, hourly growth. The soul has cultivated habits that have become ingrained in its individuality. 

The spirit that has yielded to the lusts of a sensual body becomes their slave. It would not be happy amid purity and refinement. It would sigh for its old haunts and habits. They are of its essence. 

So you see that the legions of the adversaries are simply the masses of unprogressed, undeveloped spirit who have banded together from affinity against all that is pure and good. 

They can only progress by penitence―through the instruction of higher intelligences and by gradual and laborious undoing of sin and sinful habit. 

The idea that there is no such thing as evil―no antagonism to good―no banded company of adversaries who resist progress and truth and fight against the dissemination of what advantages humanity is an open device of the evil ones for our bewilderment.

Spirit Teachings

Everyone’s got skin in this game?

Sometimes looking at life's big systems—whether it's the economy, nature, or human behaviour—makes you realize how interconnected everything is. When the rules of the game apply to everyone equally, the entire dynamic becomes a lot more grounded.