Continuing from the last presentation on the role of “helpers” on the emotional plane, we discussed the concept of repercussion. If ectoplasm drawn from the body of a medium is damaged, it can cause the medium’s physical body to bear the scars. Repercussion is a complex subject that still needs to be fully understood. To understand the concept comprehensively, one must understand the laws of sympathetic vibration on multiple planes.
There is no doubt of the astonishing power of will over matter on all planes so that if only the power were strong enough, practically any result might be produced by its direct action without any knowledge or even thought on the part of the person exercising their will to fathom how to do the work. There is no limit to the degree to which it may be developed. It must, however, be remembered that the exercise of will has both positive and negative outcomes. Be careful what you wish for.
This power to affect matter through one’s will holds good in the case of materialisation, although ordinarily, it is an art that must be learnt just like any other. An average person on the emotional plane would only be able to materialise themselves if they had previously learnt how to do it. By analogy, an average person on this plane could only play the violin if they had previous lessons. However, there are exceptional cases where intense sympathy and firm deliberation enable a person to effect a temporary materialisation even though they do not consciously know how to do it.
It is worth noting that these rare cases of physical intervention by a helper from the emotional plane are often made possible by a karmic tie between the helper and the one to be helped. In this way, old services are acknowledged, and the kindness rendered in one life is repaid in a future one, even through unusual methods such as those just described.
In great catastrophes, where many people are killed, it is sometimes permitted for one or two people to be “miraculously” saved because it so happens that it is not their “karma” to die just then; i.e., they owe no debt that can be paid in that particular fashion of the enacting Divine law. Very occasionally, physical assistance is given to human beings, even by a Master.
Charles Leadbeater describes a case that happened to him. Walking along a road, he suddenly heard in his ear the voice of his Indian teacher, who was physically 7,000 miles away at the time, cry, “Spring back!” He started violently back just as a heavy metal chimney pot crashed upon the pavement less than a yard in front of his face.
Another remarkable case is recorded where a lady, who found herself in serious physical peril in the middle of a dangerous street fracas, was suddenly whirled out of the crowd and placed relatively uninjured in an adjoining and empty by-street. Her body must have been lifted right over the intervening houses and set down in the next street, a veil, probably of etheric matter, being thrown around her whilst in transit so that she should not be visible as she passed through the air. Now, that is what I call “help”.
Casting your mind back to the presentations on After-Death Life, it will be evident that there is ample scope for the work of invisible helpers among people who have died. Most of these beings are in a condition of complete ignorance regarding life after death. So many, in Western countries at least, are terrified at the prospect of “hell” and “eternal damnation” that there is much work to be done in enlightening people as to their actual state and the nature of the Emotional World in which they find themselves.
The main work done by the invisible helper is that of soothing and comforting the newly dead, of delivering them, where possible, from the terrible, though unnecessary fear, which too often seizes them and not only causes them much suffering but retards their progress to higher planes. With this help, they are able to comprehend the future that lies before them.
It is stated that this work was, in earlier periods, attended to exclusively by a high class of non-human entities. Today, those human beings who can absorb such information and have the capacity to function consciously on the emotional plane can help newly departed souls in this labour of love.
In cases where the desire-elemental of the emotional body has rearranged, the emotional matter of a newly deceased person, a helper from the emotional plane, may break up that arrangement and restore the emotional body to its previous condition, where matter is randomly distributed throughout the envelope. This allows the dead person to perceive the whole emotional plane instead of only one sub-plane. This goes back to the concept of a random distribution of emotional matter. Once stratified, emotional matter has to be shed in order of density, the heaviest going first. This means you only perceive matter from that plane. This is restricting and frightening if you are in the lowest subplanes.
Others who have been on the emotional plane longer may receive guidance, explanations and advice on navigating their passage through the Emotional World on their journey to their next destination, the Mental World. Thus, they may be warned of the danger and delay caused by attempting to communicate with the living through a medium, and sometimes, though rarely, an entity already drawn into a spiritualistic circle may be guided into a higher and healthier life. Unfortunately, the memory of such teachings cannot be directly carried over to the next incarnation. Still, fundamental inner knowledge always remains, and there is a strong predisposition to accept it immediately when heard again in the new life. Laurency calls this memory remembering anew.
Some of the newly dead see themselves on the emotional plane as they really are and are, therefore, filled with remorse. Here, the helper can explain that the past is past, that the only repentance worthwhile is the resolve to do better in the future, and that each person must take themselves as they are and steadily work to improve themselves and lead a more authentic life in the future. My mother recounted to me that she spoke to her grandmother through a medium, and the message from her to her granddaughter was, “My garden is full of weeds”. You reap what you sow.
Other departed souls are troubled by their desire to make reparation for some injury they did whilst on earth, to ease their conscience by disclosing a discreditable secret they have jealously guarded, to reveal the hiding place of important papers or money, and so forth. Sometimes, the helper can intervene on the physical plane and satisfy the dead person. Still, in most cases, the best the helper can do is to explain that it is now too late to make reparation and, therefore, useless to grieve over the trouble and to persuade the person to abandon their thoughts of Earth, which hold them down in close touch with earth-life, and to make the best of their new life.
An immense amount of work is also done for the living by putting good thoughts into the minds of those ready to receive them. Someone could say, why not allow these invisible helpers to dominate the minds of average people and make them think just as the helper wanted them to, without arousing any suspicion of outside influence in the subject’s mind? Alas, this is not possible. Remember the Law of Freedom and the Law of Self Development. However, it is possible for a “helper” to seed thoughts among the thousands of thoughts that flood a person’s brain and hope they will take it up and act on it. A vast range of assistance can be given in this manner. Consolation is often given to those in sorrow or sickness; reconciliations are attempted between those who have been separated by the conflict of opinions or interests; earnest truth seekers are guided towards the truth; it is often possible to put the solution of some spiritual or metaphysical problem into the mind of one who is spending anxious thought upon it. Lecturers may be helped by suggestions or illustrations that either materialise in subtler matter before the speaker or are impressed upon the brain through inspiration. I can attest to this fact.
An invisible helper who engages in such practices regularly soon acquires several “patients” that they visit every night, just as a doctor upon earth makes a regular round among their patients. Each worker thus usually becomes the centre of a small group, the leader of a band of helpers. Work can be found in the Emotional World for any number of workers, and everyone who wishes — man, woman or child — may be one of them. Sign up today; registration is free.
A pupil of a master may often be employed as an agent in what practically amounts to answering prayers. Although it is true that any earnest spiritual desire, such as expressed in worship, is a force which automatically brings about specific results, it is also a fact that such a spiritual effort offers an opportunity to influence the Powers of Good. A willing helper may thus be made the channel through which energy is poured forth. This is true of meditation to an even greater extent. In some cases, such a helper is taken to be the saint to whom the petitioner prayed, and there are many stories to illustrate this. Pupils fitted for the work are also employed to suggest true and beautiful thoughts to authors, poets, artists and musicians.
Sometimes, though more rarely, it is possible to warn people of the danger to their moral development caused by their course of action. This may be done by clearing away evil influence from the person or place or by counteracting the machinations of black magicians.
On that more optimistic note, let us wait until the next presentation to complete our examination of the role of invisible and sometimes visible helpers.