The Power of Mind

How can you learn to remember spirit travels? 

By training the brain to remember physical experiences correctly and thoroughly—a sort of memory training course. Start by thinking and trying to recall everything you did yesterday, remembering it not only in minute detail but in proper sequence; then try to remember in the same way and as fully what you did the day before yesterday, and the day before that, and so on—it requires a great deal of practice and a great deal of patience, but it is the best foundation for recalling psychic and spiritual experiences. Through these material scenes, you are forcing the memory back as regards time. You would not need to force the memory back so far in this respect to recall spiritual experiences, but you would need to force it further as regards distance. As I have often told you, time has no meaning for us here, but distance has—though to those of us who advance it becomes of less and less significance; it has to be reckoned with, however, by the newcomer. For travelling under particular conditions, we have to learn to control the forces and powers within ourselves so as to be able to go through certain experiences. A novice is only allowed to walk about here as if he were on the earth; if he has to go on a journey guides go with in order to protect him—in fact they have to work and concentrate on him to keep him intact during his voyage through space! (Yes, what I am saying is literally a fact). If a newcomer took himself from here to the earth plane (if he could), his body would be almost falling to pieces; it would be flopping about because the currents and forces in the atmosphere would be too powerful for him. When I come to you I concentrate and will my body to stiffen and consolidate, and not until I feel I have absolute mental command over myself in detail, even down to my toes and ears, do I start. I had to learn how to locate in my mind the exact place or distance from my mind to where my toes would be (we measure everything from the head in this case), for I must set the mental picture to get exactly five toes on each foot. I must then switch off and yet retain the idea while I think of what the top of my head looks like (I know it seems to you a troublesome thing to have to do, but remember our consciousness or mind can hold a hundredfold what yours will). I do all this because as soon as I get in touch with these atmospheric forces I have to hold myself together strongly to resist them. Now, if I am not in a hurry to reach my destination, I do not trouble to do anything further than to keep a clear picture of myself in the proportions in which I appear in my own sphere, and I project my thoughts all the time to the place to which I am going, but the first consideration is always my body. If I were in a great hurry, directly I started I should get the picture of myself very clear, and then I should quickly but gradually contract my body from within (yes, I know it sounds extraordinary, but you must remember there is an elasticity about our bodies—only an advanced spirit can do this, not a newcomer). I begin by drawing my whole consciousness within myself, and in so doing I draw upward and inward each part of my body, making myself very self-centred and bringing my extremities nearer to my consciousness. I have told you my body is made of atoms, but because they are minutely fine I can actually consolidate them into a very small space, there is so much God-force holding them together. When I get near my destination I gradually and consciously expand my body to its normal dimensions. I only contract my body in this way for emergency travelling, and I know spirits who have been here many years and who cannot do it; it is only intended for those who have serious and special work to do, in which case it is expedient.

I know it sounds difficult to realise, and I will try and explain it further, but you must understand that in our sphere mind does govern matter. On earth, it is often the other way. There, for instance, suppose a man's liver is out of order, his mind gets depressed; my mind, here, would mend whatever part of me was not quite right (if that were possible). In our own conditions our bodies are quite as solid as yours, but, in as far as they are matter, they are completely under the control of the trained mind. Your physical body contains a good proportion of water (I don't know how much, but you could easily inquire). Suppose that water could be temporally expelled into the atmosphere, your body would become much lighter and would shrink. My body here has certain gases and moisture in it (in greater proportion than the amount of actual atoms it contains); to contract my body I expel those gases and that moisture, and this enables me to draw the atoms closer in. When I get near my destination, the atoms of my body, my life force, my consciousness, and my spirit are all there—it's only the gases and moisture that are missing. I, in order to regain my normal size, draw in the gases and moisture of your sphere, and it is better for me to do so though it's not absolutely essential. The advantage is this—that through absorbing a certain amount of the physical condition around you I am more easily able to get into touch with you and earth things.

The spirits who travel to earth comparatively slowly, and do not go through this experience, arrive of course just as they left their own sphere, and their bodies therefore contain their normal moisture and gases; they are unable on this account to perceive and understand physical and material conditions so well. Sometimes spirits returning to earth do not have the faintest idea of the physical conditions around them; they don't even know where they are, they only know they are near someone they love. This puzzles people on earth, and they say, Why, John Willie, two years ago you said you could only sense me, and now you say you can see me and everything quite clearly! and John Willie may not have the desire or ability to explain all he has learnt in the interval. Now, I know some sentimental people will say, Fancy my bright boy having to take these horrible old earth conditions again! Yes, but it's only for a little while, and he gets rid of them before he gets home.

At a materialising seance sometimes miniature figures are seen, and the usual and rather vague explanation is that the power was not sufficient to build them up to the normal size. It is alleged this happens with mediums whose powers are dwindling. If this were the case, the guides would only materialise the faces and heads of the spirits. My theory is this—these miniature figures are those of spirits who have contracted their bodies for travelling (as I have just explained), and, finding themselves in the limiting and curious conditions prevalent at a materialising seance, where extraordinary power is being manipulated, are unable to reabsorb the materials they require at the moment to regain their normal proportions. You need not pity them; they are not like flies in a spider's web, they can withdraw if they wish and return later, but they do not do so, for they know they may lose their opportunity of materialising, for the material must be used immediately it is ready. One can imagine it might be painful and rather terrifying to a sitter who does not understand, and who says, Has my dear boy shrunk to that size; he was such a fine figure when he was here! Apropos of all I have said about mind controlling matter, it is quite wonderful how much can be done in this way on earth under certain conditions. Experiments have proved that it is possible to make a red mark or raise a blister on a hypnotised patient's body by merely touching him with a finger and telling him this would be the result. The body has obeyed the command of the mind.

Claude (Spirit)

Maroon Bells, Maroon Lake, Colorado—John Fowler—Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic