Spiritual Enlightenment

Was Jesus any other than a brother of our humanity – a gifted and distinguished medium?

No – none other – absolutely none other. He was the child of our great Father, God, and our brother, gifted as all God's children are gifted, according to their own capacities of reception. Whoever can receive largely becomes largely gifted and is able to give much to those by whom they are surrounded. Jesus could receive largely from the fountain of wisdom and truth and he became a shining light, not only to the age in which he lived but that light that continued to shine down the ages until today it is radiant as ever to us.

Theodore Parker (Spirit)

Can a spirit, after leaving the form, take cognisance of material forms any farther than what is seen by the medium?

A spirit that has passed through the chemical change called death perceives the external of all physical forms through the electro-magnetic aura that emanates from the external forms that have an earthly existence, for instance, when I am apart from this physical body – this medium – should I wish to see any object in this room, I would first seek to come within the atmosphere or magnetic sphere of this medium or some other that might be in this locality. When the scientific man desires to gain a clear understanding of the heavens, he takes his glass that he may come into rapport with the heavenly bodies through the peculiar power of the glass. The spirit uses the medium or the magnetic life that passes from these mediums on precisely the same conditions by which they may come into rapport with these external forms. There are heavenly bodies so far distant from your external vision that you cannot, without some extra aid, see but if you can obtain the necessary extra aid, you can see them. So with regard to these objects. We can see them; we can feel them. We can smell the aroma of your flowers by coming into rapport with them but in our proper spiritual state we see only the spiritual part of these flowers.

Father Henry Fitz James (Spirit) 

Do spirits measure time as we do? 

No, they do not. There is no time nor place in the spirit-world proper. If they measure time at all, it is according to your understanding of time. It is in accordance with the rules of earth, the rules of these external forms – not with the internal, the spirit.

Is spirit the product of matter or matter of spirit or are both eternal?

Your speaker believes they are both eternal. There are certain intelligences who contend that matter is the result of spirit and certain others who contend that spirit is the result of matter. I believe that you cannot separate spirit from matter. I believe that spirit acts on matter – matter changes its forms to satisfy the requirements of spirit. The mechanic must first have the idea or the thought of the article he wishes to construct before it comes into the objective world. Here you see spirit behind the form and so I believe it ever is. But as spirit is dependent, for its mode of manifestation, on matter, so matter is dependent for its existence on spirit. The two act in concert together. One would be a non-entity without the other. This world and the world of mind are wedded together. These forms and their indwelling life are wedded together. Mind and matter go hand in hand throughout eternity, I believe.

Matter is transmuted from one form of being to another. Is it equally true of spirit? Is animal life transmuted into human, human into angelic and back again into human?

The spirit or essence of life, we believe, is the same yesterday, today and forever. In essence it never changes. It was always perfect, is and will always be perfect. It is only the external that changes. I may influence the dog or the horse; he may obey my will and, to that extent, he may become my medium or subject through which my spirit manifests, precisely similar to that which is seen through the physical form. Indeed, the spirit has all forms by which it manifests itself to the external world. The mechanic manifests his life in constructing these objects. The artist, when he pictures his thoughts, places his life there. The astronomer, when he searches out worlds, throws his life there. The geologist, when he enters in thought down deep into the heart of the earth, throws his life there. Soul goes everywhere. Soul has dominion over the fish of the sea and the fowls of the air; over all things that ever have been, are or ever will be. All things become mediums through which the soul manifests. You are mistaken when you suppose that these physical forms are the only machines through which the soul, the intelligent part, manifests itself. Look abroad throughout the universe and you will see that you are mistaken. Mind is exerted everywhere and you cannot exert your mind on any one object or in any one direction without throwing your life there and that life has become incorporated into the object. The artist manifests through his glorious landscape; the sculptor through the grand form of marble, which seems as though it would speak. His life is there; though the marble utters no sound, though it gives back not even a sigh to your admiration, still the artist's life is there. If you will only search into this glorious science of life, you will see for a certainty that mind is acting everywhere; not only through these forms but through every conceivable form that has an existence.

T. Starr King (Spirit)