Nowadays, the term “spiritualism” denotes communication of many different kinds with the Emotional World through a medium. The origin and history of the spiritualistic movement have already been described.
Our look at the etheric envelope fully described the etheric mechanism that made spiritualistic phenomena possible. Now, we must consider the value of this method of communicating with the unseen world and the nature of the sources from which the communications may come.
In the early days of the Theosophical Society, H. P. Blavatsky wrote with considerable intensity on the subject of spiritualism, stressing its uncertainty and the preponderance of impersonations over actual appearances. These views have largely coloured and determined the unfavourable attitude most members of the Theosophical Society took towards spiritualism.
On the other hand, Leadbeater affirms that his personal experience has been more favourable. He spent some years experimenting with spiritualism and believed that he had repeatedly seen practically all the phenomena that may be read about in the literature. In his experience, he found that most of the apparitions were genuine. The messages they gave are often uninteresting, and their religious teaching he describes as being usually “Christianity and water”: nevertheless, as far as it goes, it was liberal and in advance of the bigoted orthodox position. Leadbeater pointed out that Spiritualists and Theosophists had much important ground in common, e.g., (1) that life after death is an actual, vivid, ever-present certainty and (2) that eternal progress and ultimate happiness, for everyone, good and bad alike, is also a certainty. These two items are of such tremendous and paramount importance, constituting as they make so enormous an advance from the ordinary orthodox position, that it seems somewhat regrettable that, at the time, Spiritualists and Theosophists couldn’t join hands on these broad issues and agree to differ upon minor points, until at least the world at large was converted to that much of the truth. This work had ample room for the two bodies of seekers after truth.
At the turn of the 20th Century, those who wished to see phenomena and those who could not believe anything without ocular demonstration would naturally gravitate towards spiritualism. On the other hand, those who wanted more philosophy than spiritualism usually provided and naturally turned to Theosophy. Both movements thus catered for the liberal and open-minded but for entirely different types. Meanwhile, harmony and agreement between the two movements seemed desirable, given the great ends at stake.
To the credit of spiritualism, it must be said that it has achieved its purpose to the extent of converting vast numbers of people from a belief in nothing in particular to a firm faith in, at any rate, some future life. As we said in the last presentation, this is undoubtedly a magnificent result, though some think it has been attained at too great a cost.
Spiritualism undoubtedly poses dangers for emotional, nervous, and easily influenced people. It is advisable not to carry the investigations too far for reasons that must be apparent to the student. But there is no readier way of breaking down unbelief in anything outside the physical plane than trying a few experiments, and it is worthwhile to run some risk to effect this. Such “proofs” should never be forced on others.
Leadbeater fearlessly asserts that, despite the fraud and deception that had undoubtedly occurred in some instances, there were great truths behind spiritualism that could be discovered by anyone willing to devote the necessary time and patience to their investigation. Of course, there is a vast and growing literature on the subject.
Furthermore, good work, similar to that done by Invisible Helpers, has sometimes been done through the agency of a medium or of someone present at a séance. Thus, though spiritualism has too often detained souls who, but for it would have attained speedy liberation, it has also furnished the means of escape to others and thus opened up the path of advancement for them. There have been instances in which the deceased person has been able to appear, without the assistance of a medium, to his relatives and friends and explain his wishes to them. However, such cases are rare, and in most cases, earthbound souls can relieve themselves of their anxieties only through the services of a medium or a conscious “Invisible Helper”.
It is thus an error to look only at the dark side of spiritualism: it must not be forgotten that it has done an enormous amount of good in this kind of work by allowing the dead to arrange their affairs after a sudden and unexpected departure. However, fretting about your stamp collection when you have passed over the threshold seems futile in the grander scheme of things.
It should be no surprise that amongst spiritualists, there have been some who were bigoted and narrow, who knew nothing, for example, of reincarnation: it is probable, in fact, that the majority of English and American spiritualists did not know of that fact, though there were schools of spiritualism which did teach it. We have already seen that when a person dies, they usually resort to the company of those they have known on Earth: they move among the same kind of people as during physical life. Hence, such a person is little more likely to know or recognise the fact of reincarnation after death than before it. Most people are shut in from all new ideas by a host of prejudices: they carry those prejudices into the Emotional World with them and are no more amenable to reason and common sense than in the Physical World.
Of course, a really open-minded person can learn a great deal on the emotional plane: they may speedily acquaint themself with esoteric teaching, and some dead people do this. Hence, portions of that teaching are often found in spirit communication.
It must also be borne in mind that there is a higher spiritualism in which the public knows nothing and never publishes any account of its results. The best circles are strictly private and restricted to several sitters. My mother was a member of such a circle and it laid the foundation of all my esoteric knowledge. In such circles, the same people meet repeatedly, and no outsider has ever admitted to changing the magnetism. The conditions set up are thus singularly perfect, and the results obtained are often of the most surprising character. Often, the so-called dead are just as much part of the daily life of the family as the living. The hidden side of such séances is magnificent: the thought forms surrounding them are good and calculated to raise the mental and spiritual level of the surrounding environment. At public séances, an altogether lower class of dead people appear because of what Arthur Powell called “the promiscuous jumble of magnetism”.
One of the most serious objections to the general practice of spiritualism was that in the ordinary person, after death, the consciousness was steadily rising from the lower part of nature towards the higher: the monad is steadily withdrawing itself away from the lower worlds: obviously, therefore, it cannot be helpful to its evolution that the lower part should be reawakened from the natural and desirable unconsciousness into which it is passing, and be dragged back into touch with Earth to communicate through a medium.
It is thus a cruel kindness to draw back to the Earth-sphere one whose lower manas or mind still yearns after karmic gratifications because it delays its forward evolution and interrupts what should be an orderly progression. The period in kamaloka is thus lengthened, the emotional body is fed, and its hold on the monad, expressed through the persona, is maintained; therefore, the freedom of the monad is deferred, “the immortal Swallow being still held by the birdlime of earth”.
Especially in cases of suicide or sudden death, it is undesirable to reawaken Trishna or the desire for sentient existence. The peculiar danger of this will appear when it is recollected that since the monad is withdrawing into itself, it becomes less and less able to influence or guide the lower portion of its consciousness, which, nevertheless, until the separation is complete, has the power to generate karma, and under the circumstances is far more likely to add evil than good to its record.
Furthermore, people who have led an evil life filled with yearnings for the earth life they have left and for the animal delights they can no longer directly taste tend to gather around mediums or sensitives, endeavouring to utilise them for their own gratification. These are among the more dangerous forces so rashly confronted in their ignorance by the thoughtless and the curious.
A desperate emotional entity may seize upon a sensitive sitter and obsess them, or it may even follow them home and seize upon family members. Many such cases have been recorded, and it is usually almost impossible to get rid of such an obsessing entity.
We have already seen that passionate sorrow and desires of friends on Earth also tend to draw departed entities down to the Earth-sphere again, thus often causing acute suffering to the deceased as well as interfering with the ordinary course of evolution. Some cultures have a prescribed mourning period, then they get on with life. This has to be commended rather than living the rest of one’s life encased in a shroud of grief. Queen Victoria would be an excellent example of that. Wherever she went, she took a bust of her beloved Albert.
On that sentimental note, let’s leave it for today and finish off next time by looking at how the different entities described in previous presentations interact with mediums wishing to contact them.