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CHAPTER XIII
Orthodoxy
THE science of religion should teach an intelligent
realization of the
nature of God and the life hereafter, but humanity
is still kept in
subjection by fear, superstition, dogmas and creeds,
and has not yet
attained liberation through a full understanding of
what becomes of the dead.
Passing through the change called death,
a great majority remain in entire
ignorance of their condition, and are
bound for a time to the earth plane by
their false doctrines. These
cling to their orthodox ideas, often influencing
those still in the
body, and the mental derangements which frequently follow
in 'the train
of revivals are examples of these obsessions, as are the
phenomena
known as "The Gift of Tongues," and "Seizure by The
Power," which
accompany many revivals.
Religious exhortations
readily lead to mental aberrations since invisible
religious fanatics
are always present who are unconscious of their transition
and, having
found no higher life,retain their mortal bigotry, and by their
presence
add to the insane fervor.
These spirits often make themselves
audible to excited sensitives, for at
such gatherings many are
encouraged to listen to "the still, small voice,"
supposedly of God.
During religious excitement the psychic faculty is highly
sensitized,
giving mischievous spirits, as well as fanatical spirits, the
proper
opportunity to impress credulous persons with their
whisperings.
Such entities, for their own deceptive purposes, may
pretend to be
angels, the "Holy Ghost," or "The Spirit of God," and the
thoughtless
victims, elated and unwilling to listen to reason, heed
these whisperings,
which so frequently lead to obsession and
possession, resulting
in madness, insanity and other
psychoses.
The most difficult to enlighten of the earthbound
spirits are
the religious fanatics. Dominated in earth life by one
narrow, fixed idea,
opposed to logical analysis and independent
thinking, they are found, after
passing out of the physical, in a state
of self-hypnosis, ceaselessly repeating
their empty "religious"
jargon.
Nothing exists for them but their dogmatic creed; they are
adamantly set
in their self-assurance and it is often many years before
they can be brought
to a semblance of sanity.
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EXPERIENCE, MARCH 28,
1923
Spirit: SARAH McDONALD. Psychic: MRS. WicKLAND
The spirit
who assumed control of the psychic tonight was
vigorously singing a
religious hymn.
Doctor Have you been here before?
Spirit
Let's sing some more.
Dr. We are going to talk now.
Sp. I
think we'd better sing another song.
Dr. If we did, you might
become too enthusiastic.
Sp. We are in church, and you know you
have to sing. Sing!
Hallelujah! Tell the story!
Dr. We are going
to be sensible.
Sp. You have to sing. You have to do that. That
belongs to
church. Let us pray, in Jesus' name, for
evermore!
Dr. That would be very tiresome.
Sp. Let us sing
and pray to the Lord. Hallelujah! Jesus Christ!
Dr. Now stop; that
is enough. What is your name?
Sp. Let's sing and pray!
Dr.
You must be sensible or leave. Tell us who you are and where
you came
from.
Sp. What church is this anyhow, where you talk in this
way?
Dr. Be sensible, otherwise you will have to go. How long have
you been
dead? You know something happened to you. You have
been
hovering around the earth, probably for years, and have never
gotten
anywhere. Be sensible.
Sp. I am sensible; I'm not
crazy.
Dr. You are religiously insane.
Sp. We all pray to
God and the Holy Ghost. (Loudly.) Hallelujah!
Dr. We do not need
that shouting.
Sp. I am doing work in the name of Jesus
Christ.
Dr. We have heard such talk before.
Sp. Not from me,
you haven't. I am working for the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Dr. This is
not the place for such talk as that.
Sp. Are you a
sinner?
Dr. Listen to me. Whoever you are, you have lost your
body.
Sp. What church is this?
Dr. It is no
church.
Sp. I am glad of that, because I thought the church must
surely
have changed. Let me talk, in Jesus' name!
322
Dr. You have been brought here by
kind spirits so that you can
understand your condition. You are a
spirit and probably have been
for a long time. You will not listen to
any one who tries to enlighten you.
Sp. Go ahead then, and say what
you have to say. Then I can talk, too.
Dr. Understand your
condition. You are temporarily controlling
this body. Some friend
brought you here for help. Do you realize that
something happened to
you?
Sp. No.
Dr. You would if you were honest. You know that
you are in a
strange condition. You are not honest enough to pay any
attention to
it. Do you know that you are in Los Angeles,
California?
Sp. How did I get there? I suppose I sang and prayed as
a
missionary. A missionary must have taken me away.
Dr. You were
brought here because you are an ignorant spirit.
What did your mother
call you?
Sp. I don't know just now; I can't think.
Dr. You
have lost your physical body. Ignorant spirits often lose
the memory of
their earth lives. You do not even remember your name.
Sp. My name
is Sarah, in Jesus' name!
Dr. Sarah what?
Sp. McDonald, in
Jesus' name!
Dr. You know that all that shouting is useless. Do you
not realize
that you have been "dead" for some time?
Sp.
Hallelujah!
Dr. You do not even know that you are dead. You are
only using
this body for a short time. Do you hear me? Do you know what
year it is?
Sp. In Jesus' name, I do not care.
Dr. Religious
fanatics never care.
Sp. I am a Christian woman, in Jesus' name.
Glory to God! Hallelujah!
Dr. Do you know what Jesus
said?
Sp. Yes; He said: "God forgive them, they do not know
any
better." I will pray for you.
Dr. We do not need your
prayers.
Sp. Glory to God!
Dr. Do you know that you are
dead?
Sp. That doesn't interest me.
Dr. You are controlling
the body of a mortal sensitive.
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Sp. Jesus is my friend!
Glory!
Dr. We carry on experimental work to learn what becomes of
the
dead. We always find that the most ignorant, stubborn spirits are
the
religious fanatics, shouting and singing all the time. Jesus
said:
"Know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
Sp.
God forgive them, they don't know better! I will pray for you
all.
Dr. You need not trouble yourself. You do not understand
your
condition at all. What you say is nothing but foolish talk. In
your
heart you know you are a pretender.
Sp. God forgive! Let us
pray!
Dr. We do not need your hypocritical prayers.
Sp. I
never was in such a place before. I never saw anything like
this.
(Crying.) I do not know what will become of me!
Dr. Try to
understand what I am saying to you. Stop your foolish
religious talk.
You say "Jesus" and "Lord," and you have no
understanding of true
religion.
Sp. God help me! God help me! God forgive!
Dr. He
does not need to. Listen to what I say.
Sp. (Drawling.) What more
do you want?
Dr. Why speak with such affectation? Do you know that
you are
controlling a body that does not belong to you? Aren't you
ashamed
of yourself? You know that you are not sincere. Tell us how
long you
have been dead. You must realize that something has happened
to you.
Intelligent spirits have brought you here and allowed you
to
control my wife's body, and we are trying to help you
understand
your condition, but that does not seem to interest
you.
Sp. I don't care! (Trying to bite.)
The spirit would
not listen to any line of reasoning and was
forced to leave. She was
immediately followed by a little child, who
came in crying
dismally.
EXPERIENCE, MARCH 28, 1923
Spirit: MARY ANN McDONALD.
PSYCHIC MRS. WICKLAND.
Doctor What is your trouble? Don't cry. We
are going to help you.
Spirit Where is Mamma?
324
Dr. Have you lost your mother? We
can help you find her. Tell us
who you are. What is your
name?
Sp. Mary Ann McDonald. (Coughing, choking and
crying.)
Dr. You must not do that. Why do you cry?
Sp.
What's the matter with my Mamma?
Dr. Have you lost her?
Sp.
She's gone. I don't know where she is now.
Dr. We can help you.
What was your mother's name?
Sp. Sarah McDonald. Will you bring
Mamma to me?
Dr. We are going to help you. Where was your
home?
Sp. I don't know. I can't remember. All my Mamma does is to
pray
and sing, and she says if I do not do the same, I will go straight
to the devil.
Dr. You will not go to the devil.
Sp. I cannot
pray and sing in my heart like they do.
Dr. You do not have to pray
and sing. There is no religion in that.
We can help you; our work is
the helping of unfortunate spirits.
Sp. I don't know what to
do!
Dr. You have lost your body, just as your mother has lost
hers.
We could not see your mother and we cannot see you. You are
using
the body of another for a time. Your mother was here and
controlled
this body before you came.
Sp. Have I lost
her?
Dr. She is being taken care of. She has been taken to a
spirit
hospital. She is insane on religion and would not listen to what
I said.
Sp. She says if she does not pray and sing all the time God
will
not forgive her.
Dr. There is no religion in that, only
insanity. That is not what
Jesus taught.
Sp. Do you see that big
fire?
Dr. No, we cannot see it. Where is it?
Sp. The whole
house burned all up. My mother was praying and
singing. I didn't know
what was the matter. I was sleeping and did not
know anything about the
house burning up.
Dr. Don't worry about that
Sp. When I woke
up I was all choked. I couldn't breathe.
Dr. That is all past now.
What town did you live in?
Sp. I don't know. Just wait a minute
while I try to think. I was so
scared that my mind can't remember. We
prayed and sang all the time,
and I am so sick and tired of it that I
don't know what to do.
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We did not get anywhere. We just
prayed the same thing
over and over again. I do not know what will
become of me,
because I cannot feel like my mother does at
all.
Dr. Our work is to help spirits who are in trouble, and
you
will find happiness when you leave here.
Sp. I will tell
you. The minister at the church we go to, he
says: "If you do not do so
and so, and pray every night, and
sacrifice everything, you will go to
hell." He says we must not
eat, but must lay on the floor and torture
our bodies for Christ's sake.
Dr. That minister is
insane.
Sp. He said we must not eat anything except dry bread
with
water. He said I had been a sinner, and I must give all
the
money I make to the Lord, and I must be His slave.
I asked
him if the Lord was so poor that He needed all my
money, and he said
that question was from the devil.
I worked very hard and Mamma took
all my money away from
me for the church. I went out sewing in a shop,
but my Mamma
took me to church every night. All I got was a hard crust
of
bread and some water in Jesus' name.
Dr. How old are
you?
Sp. About sixteen or seventeen.
Dr. What kind of a shop
did you work in?
Sp. I sewed overalls.
Dr. In
Chicago?
Sp. No, but we were in a big town. I can't remember.
That.
minister preached and preached.
Dr. That is all over
now.
Sp. Sometimes I asked Mamma why we had to sing and
pray all
the time. It came to my heart that God is Love, and
we are His
children, so why does He let us work so hard and
sacrifice our bodies
so that we hardly have any strength, then
give all our money to Him. Is
He so poor?
Dr. The Lord has nothing to do with any of that.
Only
ignorant, insane persons say such things.
Sp. He is a
minister.
Dr. What church did you belong to?
Sp. The
minister said if we did not do as he told us to, we
would go to hell.
He talks and talks, and we have to listen to him.
I don't know why,
but I haven't sewed since I was in that
fire. It seems like a fire and
an earthquake. I felt so bad because
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I choked and coughed. My Mamma and
I have not had
any house to sleep in.
The minister told us we
could sleep most anywhere, but if
we worked and gave all our money to
the Lord we would be all right.
Sometimes I wanted a new dress
awful bad. I didn't earn so
very much money, but if I could have kept
it I could have got a
new dress sometime. Mamma took it all.
She
said: "Mary Ann, you must sacrifice for the Lord."
Sometimes I said: "I may go to hell
for it, but I think it would
be better to go to hell than to hear about
the Lord all the time."
I don't know if it would be better, but I
thought it would be.
Dr. All that fanaticism is wrong,
every bit of it. God is
Spirit, and God is Love. God has nothing to do
with such fanatical
talk. He does not need any one's money.
Sp. Then why do they give it to
Him?
Dr. God doesn't get it-the
ministers do. God doesn't need it.
Sp. Doesn't God need our money?
Dr. No. God is Spirit. Spirit is
invisible. I am talking
to you and you are talking to me, but you are
invisible to us.
We cannot see you. Mind is invisible. You see my body,
but
not my mind. God is invisible and He is not in a certain
place
as we are. He is the Soul of all things.
Sp. But the minister says He sits
on a throne with Jesus
on His right hand. Why did he tell us that if it
is not true?
Dr. Because "the truth is not in him." He is not
honest.
Sp. But Jesus died for our sins.
Dr. No, he did not.
Sp. He
said: "Take up my cross and follow me, and go to
church every
day."
Dr. Jesus never mentioned going to church. His
teachings
were about the higher life.
Sp. Heaven?
Dr. Not
as you understand it. Heaven is a happy mental
condition. If you could
have had a new dress, as you wished,
you would have been happy,
wouldn't you?
Sp. Yes, I should like to have a new dress. I don't
care so
very much for fancy things. Once in a while I wanted a
nice
new dress, and not what the minister told us we should
have.
But we had to give our money to the Lord.
Dr. No, you
didn't. You gave it to the minister.
Sp. He gave us some old
dresses that had been given to the
327
church, and my Mamma said we must
sacrifice. When I kicked,
Mamma said: "You will go to hell if you don't
do what the Lord says
you should do."
Dr. There is no such place
as "hell."
Sp. No hell?
Dr. Of course not.
Sp. Isn't
hell a burning fire? I have seen it burning, and I see it yet.
Dr.
Possibly your mother, in her religious insanity, set fire to the
house.
Sp. No, I don't think so. It seems like there was an
earthquake, and
then after that there was the fire.
Dr. Who is
President?
Sp. I don't know. I'll tell you, I didn't have so very
much school. I
went to work when I was nine years old.
Dr. Did
you have a father?
Sp. I did not know my father.
Dr. Your
schooling does not make any difference. You have lost
your physical
body and are now a spirit.
Sp. I lost my physical body? But I have
a body.
Dr. This is not your body; it belongs to my
wife.
Sp. Where did I get these clothes from?
Dr. They
belong to my wife.
Sp. But I should like to have my own
clothes.
Dr. You will have your own soon.
Sp. I do not like
to take them from your wife. I am sorry, but I must
not wear
them.
Dr. Look at your shoes.
Sp. I must be in
Heaven!
Dr. You feel better, do you not, than when you were praying
all
the time?
Sp. I feel strong. Did I get something to eat,
because I feel so
strong ?
Dr. You are controlling a healthy
body. This is my wife's body.
Sp. I don't like to have your wife's
body.
Dr. You will only stay here for a short time.
Sp. Then
where will I go? I won't have to go back to that minister,
and hear all
those crazy people sing all the time, will I? When the
minister talked
about hell and damnation, I saw a big fire, and I saw
the devil with
his pitchfork, and he pushed people in.
Dr. When that minister was
preaching, he was thinking of
328
hell fire, and made a picture which
the rest of you saw, and it
appeared like a reality. But it was only a
phantasm which he created.
Sp. He scared us with it.
Dr. As
he talked it would appear to you as a reality.
Sp. But it looked
like real. I suppose they have those things in
hell, but I want to go
to Heaven.
Dr. Your mother and the minister are spirits, but
ignorant of the fact.
Sp. Do you mean all those people are spirits?
There must
be a thousand all singing and praying, all the time.
Sometimes we got
just bread and water, and we lay down on boards. We
must be there
all the time, otherwise the minister is not pleased with
us, and he says
if we do not get down on our knees, we go into the
fire.
Dr. That is. all nonsense. All those people have lost their
physical
bodies, and are in the outer darkness that the Bible speaks
about.
They are in blind, religious ignorance.
They will remain
in that condition for a very long time if they do
not change their way
of thinking. They are filled with religious
fanaticism.
Your
mother was brought here for understanding and controlled
this same
body.
Sp. Someone pushed her in, and then I could not talk to her
any
more. The whole crowd down there will not listen to any
body;
they just sing and pray.,
Dr. They can stay there for years and
years, and their
"Lord" will not care anything about them.
Sp.
There, that hell is not there any more!
Dr. The minister thinks of
hell and devils, and creates phantasms,
which seem real to ignorant
spirits.
Sp. Will you help my mother?
Dr. Intelligent
spirits will take care of her. It was they
who "pushed" her in here, to
bring her to an understanding. The
difference between you and your
mother is that you will listen and
she would not.
Sp. Then you
do not think God would be angry with me I
Dr. Of course
not.
Sp. Sure?
Dr. God knows everything. He is All in All.
He is the Creator and
Creation both.
Sp. Don't we fall in
sin?
Dr. No, never. If you say we fall in sin, you say God
made
329
a mistake when He created us. He is
All-Wise, All-Powerful and
everywhere present. When such a God as that
created the world and
mankind, He did not make a mistake, allowing man
to "fall in sin."
Otherwise He would not be All-Wise.
Sp. Why do
they say that then?
Dr. People worship creed. The truth is given
allegorically in the Bible.
Sp. Didn't Jesus die for our
sins?
Dr. Of course he did not.
Sp. The minister said there
is power in the blood.
Dr. No, there is not. Some of those people
you speak of have
probably been dead a long time, We cannot see
them.
Sp. Can't you see all those people over there?
(Pointing.)
Dr. No; they are spirits and have lost their bodies
long ago. They
are blind to the higher life. You are not satisfied to
be with them and
you ask questions, therefore we can help you to an
understanding.
We must add understanding to our faith. You lost your
own body,
perhaps many years ago.
Sp. Everything was all mixed
up. I got hurt in the head.
Dr. Don't you remember any of the
streets in your city?
SP. No, I can't remember. It seems like I was
in San Francisco.
Ques. (By a former resident of San Francisco.)
Did you go across
the Bay to Oakland?
Sp. Yes, and we went to
Oakland to the prayer meeting,
Ques. Did you work at Strauss
Brothers Overall Factory? Was it
on Mission Street?
Sp. Mission
Street! I remember now. We lived on Mission Street.
Ques. Near
Daly, toward Golden Gate Park?
Sp. No, it was near the
depot.
Ques. Toward the Ferry?
Sp. Near the Southern Pacific
Station. They had a Mission House
on Mission Street.
Ques. Was
that toward the Bay?
Sp. I don't know. We lived in a little house
we rented. My mother
went to the factory too, but she got sick because
she sang and
prayed all the time. I had to do her work too.
We
did not get much, just kept enough so we could live, The
minister said
it was a sin to eat meat, or milk, or butter, or eggs. He
said they
cost too much and that we must sacrifice our bodies.
Dr. Was your
father dead?
330
Sp. I think he died when I was a
little girl; I don't really know.
Dr. Look around and see whether
there is anyone here whom you
know. Other spirits are here who will
help you and take you to the
spirit world. That is the invisible world
around the physical world.
Sp. I see such a pretty garden. Look -at
those beautiful flowers-
just look at them! I never saw anything so
beautiful! There's trees and
flowers. Hear the pretty birds, how they
sing! Look at that beautiful
lake, and all the children swinging on the
shore!
Dr. That is the spirit world.
Sp. It is so much
better than over there, where they sing and pray.
Sometimes I was so
hungry that nothing satisfied me. Isn't this
different from those crazy
singing people? Can't you see them all?
Couldn't you help them to see
this beautiful place?
Dr. Your mother was here, controlling this
body, but we could do
nothing with her.
Sp. Oh, look at that
nice little house over there! It has two rooms
and a beautiful garden
full of flowers.
Dr. Do you see any one around there?
Sp.
Somebody says my grandmother lives there, and it's
going to be my home,
too. They say she is waiting for me.
I only know grandmother a
little. She visited us once but she
could not stay, because Mamma was
carrying on so and grandmother
didn't believe in it. So she went far
away, I think East somewhere, and
after that she died.
Mamma got
some money from grandma-I don't know just how
much, but I think she
said a little more than a thousand dollars. I
thought then I should get
a new dress, but the Lord got it all.
The minister said the next
Sunday that she would go up into the
Seventh Heaven, because she gave
the Lord all that money. She
would not eat one thing all that
day.
I thought sure I would get a new dress, but I didn't. Can you
hear
that beautiful music? Listen!
Dr. We cannot hear
it.
Sp. I never heard anything so fine. All the flowers bow to
the
music, and when they hear it they look happy. The music seems
like
colors, and it seems to go with the flowers. When the music
changes
the flowers have a different color.
Dr. You will find
many beautiful things when you leave here.
331
Sp. There is a gentleman standing
there, and he looks at me and says:
"Come, little child."
We are
many, because each mother had her children that she took to
church with
her. One time--I'll tell you. There was I, and Bertha, and Clara
and
Joe--Joe's a boy--we all went into a corner and we just sat there and
talked.
The minister saw us, and you don't know how mad he was! He
said he
would have to punish us all, and he did. He said: "The Lord
will punish you
all," but the minister did it--and his hand was awful
hard.
My grandmother is here, and she says: "Mary Ann, you can come
with
me and we will try all we can to help your mother."
This
gentleman who stands there says he is my father. Grandma was
my
father's mother. Grandma says he died East.
Mother joined the
Salvation Army, but the Mission Friends got hold of
her. We came from
Kansas when I was a little girl. The money my grandma
sent was to be
given to me, but my mother said we would put it in the
Lord's
keeping.
So the Lord kept it-and I didn't get any new
dress.
Dr. The Lord did not get that money either.
Sp.
Whether he got it or not makes no difference now; I will get my
new
dress. I have one, but that is not mine, because you say this is
not my body.
I will have a new dress, but I don't want sackcloth. I
must not say that, it
isn't nice.
Dr. Now you are going to serve
others, and be where there are trees and
flowers and beautiful
music.
Sp. This gentleman comes; he says he is my father, but I
don't remember
him. He says he will help me. You know my father died-or
passed out.
Sometimes people say that.
Dr. "Passed out" is
right. There is no actual death; nobody ever "dies."
Your father only
lost his body.
Sp. Isn't that dead?
Dr. His mind, or spirit,
being invisible while in the body, is still invisible
to mortals when
he steps out of his body. His body is only the house where
his spirit
lives, and when the spirit leaves the body, the body is placed in
the
grave. But the spirit is not dead.
Sp. Sometimes I prayed
for my father, because mother said he went to
hell. Father says there
is no such place. He looks awful nice, and he's all
dressed up. I wish
my mother would understand.
Dr. Don't worry about your mother.
After spirits like she control this
body, they are placed in a spirit
hospital.
332
Sp. Can you talk to the Lord too? I
wish you would talk to Him, because
He takes too much money from the
poor.
Dr. The Lord does not do that, it is the minister.
SP.
Why, here comes a little Indian girl. (Spirit.)
Dr. Isn't she nice?
She will show you beautiful things.
Sp. Can I go with her? What is
her name?
Dr. Silver Star.
Sp. Is that her name? Will you
play with me, little girl, and can I play
with you? She says, yes, and
that she will takeme to her home and
show me pretty
things.
Won't I be happy! I will have a new dress, not this
sackcloth-but
probably the Lord would not like that.
Dr. Forget
all about that. Go with the intelligent spirits and they will
help you
and teach you.
Sp. Silver Star says I should come with her, and she
will take me to my
grandmother, and my father and my brother.
(Surprised.) Oh, my brother ! I
forgot all about Lawrence. He was so
little when he died.
Dr. How old was he ?
Sp. I don't know.
He was only a little baby. I don't know much because I
couldn't go to
school when I wanted to. I had to work for the Lord.
Dr. After you
leave here you will learn many things.
Sp. But my mother said the
Lord did not want us to learn, because we
must sacrifice everything. If
you read and write you get away from the Lord.
Dr. Just remember I
said that was all wrong teaching.
Sp. I will find it out, and I
will find out if the Lord gets all
the money. If that minister took all
that money, I will tell him he is not nice.
Dr. You will find that
belief about the Lord is not true.
Sp. And I thought it was gospel
truth. They would not let me go
to school. I saw lots of children learn
but I could not. They said I
would not go to Heaven if I learned. I
cried when I could
not have a new dress, and the minister told me I
would go to hell.
Dr. Now you will learn the truth. You have been
dead probably many
years. Have you seen "Heaven"? Why are you not
there?
Sp. That's true.
Dr. The Bible mentions the "outer
darkness"; you were in darkness, but
it was all of your own
making.
Sp. How can they sing and pray all the time when they
are
333
dead? These people have churches.
Once in a while they go to other
churches (on earth) when God wants
them in some other church.
Sometimes, before the minister (mortal)
knows it, the people in the
church do something like that (swaying
motion of the body) and
every one gets up and jumps and sings. (The
mortals having opened
themselves, through wild emotionalism, to spirit
obsession.) Their
minister says that is the influence of the Holy
Ghost. Some of our
crowd get into that other crowd and make them all
jump.
Dr. Spirits such as you speak of often go to churches on
the
physical side and unbalance the people, making them
demented.
Then the people say they are controlled by the "Holy
Ghost."
Sp. Silver Star says she will take me along, and that I
will have a
new dress. Maybe it is not right, but it feels good to know
I will have one.
Silver Star says that I must thank all of you for
being patient with
me. Some day I will come and tell you how I like
things, and then
probably I can remember more. If you do not come
there, then I will
come to see you.
Mary Ann McDonald is my
name. I will see you some time. I feel
like saying "God bless you," but
I suppose I shouldn't.
Dr. That is all right. Now go with Silver
Star.
Sp. All right.
Goodbye.
---------------------
That conscientious church attendance,
faithful meeting of
obligations and upright living do not in themselves
insure spiritual
enlightenment hereafter has often been
evidenced.
EXPERIENCE, JULY 19, 1922
Spirit: HENRY WILKINS.
Psychic: MRS. WICKLAND
The controlling intelligence was apparently
crippled, with body
bent over knees.
Doctor Can't you straighten
yourself ? Wake up.
Spirit I'm not sleeping.
Dr. Why are you
bent over?
Sp. My back is broken.
Dr. You are mistaken; it
is not broken.
Sp. Oh, yes, it is.
Dr. It may have been
broken but it is not now.
Sp. I tell you I cannot straighten up; my
back is broken.
Dr. We can change that condition.
334
Sp. Many times they told me that,
but they never could.
Dr. But we are going to do it for you this
time.
Sp. I will give you ten dollars if you can straighten me
out.
Dr. Where is the money?
Sp. When I can stand up I will
give it to you. If you can cure me it
is worth all of ten
dollars.
Dr. Just think, "I can walk," and you will be able to
walk.
Sp. You will have to show me.
Dr. Move your legs and
you can walk.
Sp. I did that many times, but it never
helped.
Dr. Nevertheless you can be cured.
Sp. But I have no
money. I haven't had money for some time.
Every time I see money I grab
it, but it gets away just like it had life.
Dr. I will explain. Do
you know that you are a spirit? Do you
know you are "dead"--yes, dead
to the world?
Sp. Then I don't know it, and I haven't been in
Heaven. I was a
good Methodist. I went to church every Sunday and also
to Sunday
School. I prayed and prayed that I might get well. I was a
shoemaker.
Dr. Where did you live?
Sp. Down in
Texas.
Dr. What is your name?
Sp. My name is Henry
Wilkins.
Dr. How old are you?
Sp. I am an old man in the
sixties. One time I was driving
a horse and he ran away. I fell off the
wagon and broke my back.
I used to be a farmer, After that I could
do no farming.
At that time I was in the thirties. After I was hurt all
I could
do was some cobbling. I earned my living but it was surely
hard
sometimes.
Dr. Have you any idea what year it
is?
Sp. I can't remember.
Dr. Who was President?
Sp.
Let me think a little--I ought to know that. I think, if
I remember
right, it was Cleveland.
Dr. What was the cause of your
death?
Sp. I did not die. I did some work but I never got
any
money for it, because as soon as I was going to take the
money,
somebody else grabbed it. I heard many times that my
shop
belonged to somebody else. I have been working there a
long
335
time, but the young fellow there he
always takes the money all the
time and I never get
anything.
Dr. Did you start the shop?
Sp. Yes, many years
ago. Some young fellow came to my shop
and helped with the work, but I
had to show him how to do it, and I
had to teach him how to do lots of
things. He got all the money--I
never got a smell of it.
. Dr.
The fact is, my friend, you have passed out, and are so-called
dead.
Sp. I have done nothing for some time except help that
young
fellow get rich.
Dr. Now listen to me. You lost your
physical body probably while
you had that shop, and now the shop
belongs to somebody else. The
young man did not know you were there,
but you may have
impressed him how to do things. He did not know you
were there.
Sp. He did not know, because I did the work. I sat
there working,
and once in a while he would sit right on me. I could
not chase him out.
Dr. Do you know what year it is?
Sp. It
is 1892.
Dr. That was, thirty years ago. Do you know where you are?
You
are in Los Angeles, California.
Sp. California
!
Dr.
Look at these clothes you are wearing.
Sp. Who put these clothes on
me? I don't want to be dressed in a
woman's clothes!
Dr. Let me
explain.
Sp. Bring my pants, please!
Dr. Look at these
hands.
Sp. They do not belong to me. I have a ring on, but I never
owned
a ring.
Dr. Suppose you sat here mending shoes. Do you
know what
people would say? They would say: "Why is Mrs. Wickland
sitting
there, mending shoes?" Mrs. Wickland is my wife, and you are
using
her body.
Sp. I am no woman, I am a man. I was engaged to
be married, but
when I had my accident and became a cripple, the girl
said she did not
want to marry a cripple, so she married some one else.
I told her I
could earn just as much money by mending shoes as I did
when a
farmer, but she said she would not marry a cripple. I loved her
just the
same, and I love her still.
Dr. What was her
name?
336
Sp. Mary Hopkins. She said she was
ashamed of me. I could not
help my accident. I felt that if she loved
me she would have thought
more of me because I needed her more. Of
course I did not look so
nice. I could not dance and do the things she
wanted to do.
One day she said to me: "I am ashamed to go out with
you all
crippled up." I felt so bad because I did not think she could
be so
cruel. I suffered terribly. It was not enough that I had a
crippled body,
but my heart was broken as well. From that time I said:
"Women are
all devils." I had no use for them; I hated them.
Dr.
There are many good women.
Sp. Sometimes I felt there is no God,
because He would not have
let me suffer such mental and physical pain.
I tried my very best to be patient.
Dr. You will have your reward
for it now.
Sp. I gave money to the church. They said I must give
money
because God needed it. Sometimes they made me give so much that
I
hadn't enough left for bread and butter. They said if I didn't,
I
wouldn't go to Heaven.
Dr. There is no such "Heaven" as the
preachers teach.
Sp. Then why should they preach that
way?
Dr. For a living. Do you realize that the teachings of Jesus
were
wonderful? "God is Spirit," Jesus said, and we should
worship
Him "in Spirit and in truth."
The orthodox Christians
think Heaven is a place up in the sky.
"Heaven" is a mental condition,
not a visible place.
The fact is, we are spiritual beings,
invisible while occupying the
mortal body. When we step out of the
mortal body we are
still spiritual beings, and if we are free-minded
those gone before will
meet us and will show us the way to the spirit
world.
God is not a visible spirit, but God is Spirit, God is
Love.
You say you loved a girl. Did you ever see love?
Sp.
No, but I have felt it.
Dr. "He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in
God." We are talking to
you, but we do not see you. I do not see you-I
see only the face of
my wife.
Sp. I don't see why you keep
calling me your wife. You say we
never die, yet you tell me I am dead,
and I still have my crippled body.
Dr. If you had had understanding
you would not have been
crippled all these years since your
"death."
Sp. Could I have been well all these years?
337
Dr. Yes, if you had been taught the
truth. Jesus said: "The people
honoreth me with their lips, but their
heart is far from me."
Sp. People believe that Jesus died for our
sins, and that if we are good
we will go to Heaven when we die. I am
not there.
Dr. You will never go to any orthodox "Heaven." And if
there were such
a place, you would be lonesome after you arrived
there.
Heaven is a mental condition attained through understanding.
Think of
the wonders of Nature and God's revelations. Do you like
music?
Sp. I used to. I used to sing in the choir. My girl sang
too. We were so
happy. I always felt when we were singing there was
such beautiful
harmony, but then the minister got up in church and
condemned everybody
that did not give enough money to the
church.
He said we would go straight to hell. I could never see the
justice of that,
that when a man does the best he knows how and lives a
clean life, that he
should go to hell if he does not give enough money
to the church.
Dr. Do you know who was the founder of the Methodist
Church? John
Wesley. He understood the real life on the other side and
lectured on spirits
and spirit communion. He knew the truth-he did not
just believe-and he
wrote of it, but his people do not follow the
teachings of the founder of their
own church.
Christians do not
understand the teachings of Jesus. They do not want to
understand,
because that causes them to think. It is easier to merely
believe.
Spiritual things must be spiritually discerned.
Sp.
When I was in my shop, once in a while I saw my father and mother,
but
they are dead and I knew I could not be with them.
Dr. Why
not?
Sp. Because I was in life, cobbling in my shop. Mother said to
me:
"Come along with me!" I could not go because I had my crippled
body, and I
had to earn my living.
When I did not work I did not
get anything to eat, and I was awfully
hungry. Once in a while I got a
smell from the restaurant, but that was all,
unless I
worked.
Dr. You were a spirit so could not eat. Your parents came
to you because
they are spirits. All these years you stayed
338
around your shop, because that was
your greatest interest. You did not
know the higher laws of
life.
Sp. I was taught that if I did not go to church I would go to
hell and burn
for ever and ever.
Dr. There is no such thing as
burning for ever.
Sp. Thank God for that!
Dr. Look around;
perhaps you will see somebody you know.
Sp. I am sick and tired of
mending shoes.
Dr. After you leave here you will not have to mend
any more shoes.
Sp. I would like to play and sing. I love music. I
was getting along very
nicely with my singing lessons until I got
crippled.
Dr. Perhaps Mary is here now.
Sp. Mary? She gave
me up and married, but she was not happy. She
married a drunkard. She
suffered. (Seeing a spirit.) Oh, there is my mother!
She was good to
me.
Dr. Does she speak to you?
Sp. She says: "My son, you
need not be crippled any longer."
Why, I have a new body,
Mother-but, oh, Mother, (crying).
I am a woman now! Such a foolish
thing-to be dressed up like a woman!
Dr. You are only talking
through my wife's body.
Sp. Can I talk through another person's
body'?
Dr. Yes. My wife is a psychic instrument through whom
spirits can talk.
She is entirely unconscious while you are speaking
through her.
It is strange, but true. Did you ever ask yourself what
life really is?
Sp. No, I had no time. I had to use my mind to make
shoes.
Dr. That is no excuse at all.
Sp. My mother says
--.
At this point the spirit was removed and his mother assumed
control.
2nd Spirit: Henry, life is real. There are no mysterious
things as we were
taught. I believed in the same church as
you.
You know father never cared for church, and do you know,he
progressed
more rapidly than I in the spirit world. My belief and dogma
held me back.
You remember father studied, and we called him crazy,
because once in a
while he went to Spiritualist meetings, but he was
right. You know he had
that book "Heaven and Hell," by
339
Swedenborg, and we used to look at
each other and think he was going
out of his mind.
We went to
church and he did not, yet he was the one to open my eyes
to see better
things when I reached the spirit side of life. If he had not
opened my
eyes I would still be bound in my former belief, and that means I
would
be in the earth sphere.
I was always afraid if he died he would go
to hell, and I was in misery.
You remember father died before I. He
came to me after I passed out but I
thought it was imagination. He
tried very hard to get me to understand.
I want to tell you that
creeds and dogmas of the church cause many
earthbound spirits. These
spirits do harm to mortals.
Henry, the Bible says: "Where your
treasure is, there will your heart be
also." Your treasure was your
workshop. You have been in your shop
helping that young fellow, unknown
to yourself. We could not get you.
First you were crippled, and we
could not get you to realize that your
spiritual body was not crippled,
but your mind was so set on your crippled
body that you could think of
nothing else. We have been with you for some
time, trying to get you to
come with us, but we could not.
One day we were passing by this
place and we heard singing, so we came
into the meeting. We saw that
spirits were made to understand when nobody
could reach them otherwise,
so I said: "Let us bring Henry here." That was a
long time ago. We had
to wait our turn before we could bring you here.
Now, Henry, open
your spirit eyes and see that your spirit body is fresh
and new. Don't
think of your old crippled body, because then you will be
crippled.
Think of your young spirit body and you will be young. You will
be
happy.
You were a good man. You had your sorrows but you tried to
do the best
you could, It was only ignorance, false doctrine and belief
that held you back.
Henry, we have a beautiful home in the spirit
world, and I will take you
there, where you will have to learn many
things.
The first thing is to throw away all selfishness,
ignorance, self-pity and
jealousy. Come with me with an open heart.
Open your heart to God in a
spiritual way, and you will find the
Kingdom of Heaven within you.
You have much to learn. When you are
happy you will find that
happiness and love are Heaven. Selfishness and
ignorance are hell; darkness is
hell. People make hell for themselves
and others.
340
Let us do all we can to help others
and forget self. If you think only of
self, when you pass to the spirit
side of life you will find yourself shut up in
a room, alone, and all
you will see will be your ignorance and selfishness.
You will be
kept in this condition until you cry out: "God help me to
forget my
selfishness."
Let us do the work that is always waiting for us to
do. We
must say: "Get thee behind me, Satan." "Satan," or the
"devil,"
as he is often called, is not a man. "Satan" is only
selfishness,
ignorance and bigotry-these are the devil. I was a good
woman
but I had to suffer, because I lived only for self. I worshipped
my
church. My husband was taken away from me. I worshipped
my
family more than I did God. I loved my church and when I
passed
away I clung to it.
I had a daughter, and I got into her
magnetic aura and clung to her, and
she was sent to the asylum. I could
not get away from her. She died; then she
was free and so was
I.
Then father came and told me what I had done by my selfish
thoughts.
Then I had to serve. All my work was with little children-not
my own
children, for they were taken away from me. They told me I would
have
to develop as much love for other children as I had for my
own, and when
I reached that point I was very happy.
Now I have
children, not my own, but any child is mine, because one
child is as
much God's child as another and we should love them all. We
should care
for one as well as the other.
I have, my reward now. Every one
loves me and I love them, and my
home always has a new child in it. I
take a new child, one who has not
known love. I tell him of the life
beyond. I want him to have an understanding
of God.
Love should
govern all, not one child, but all. The great Universal Love--
that is
all, everything. One child should be loved just as much as
another.
Therefore, be very careful in concentrating your love on
one child or just
your own family. Do not put your mind on one child,
because when you
pass out you will be in hell. You will stay around and
disturb that child, and
sometimes, as in my case, the child goes
insane.
My poor girl was called insane because I was with her and
could not get away.
I was crying all the time because I wanted only my
child. I did not realize I was
controlling her. I could not see
her.
341
They told her she was not married
and that she had no child. I was the
one who was crying for my child,
my daughter. Because she asked for her
child, when she had none, they
said she was crazy and sent her to the asylum.
So you see, friends,
how necessary it is that we should all learn to know
these things
before we pass to the spirit side of life. Let us be wise and learn
all
we can while here. The more we learn here about the other side of life,
the
better and happier we shall be.
The spirit body is only a
counterpart of the physical body. As we
progress in mind we
grow.
If we intended going abroad we would do all we could to find
out about
the places we were going to visit and what hotels to stop at.
How much more
important it is that we should find out all we can about
the next world. You
will all be there some day.
Find out all you
can, then when you are ready to go you will just say
goodbye and wake
up in the spirit world. You only say goodbye to the
physical body and
find yourself in your spiritual body. If you have lived
only for self,
as I did, you will stay right where you have been, just where
you left
off, as I did, and suffer.
This is a lesson and you can profit by
my experience.
Do not love and worship your own children more than
others; that is
selfish love. Many children have no mother, Why not try
to help them?
Divide your love with some child who has no
mother.
I have over one hundred to care for now. I have tried to
bring them up
and give them a mother's love. They never knew the
comfort of a home.
I have worked and worked for Henry because I
loved him, but I could not
reach him. My husband was not held down as I
was, so he has progressed
much higher than I. Some day I shall probably
reach where he is. He studied
deeply, while all I had was
belief.
Friends, take advantage of what I suffered and learn from
it. I thank you
for allowing me to bring my son here. I also have my
daughter with me. I
have found the light and am now doing missionary
work among the little children.
Remember, do not be selfish enough
to worship your own children, but
have a mother's love for all
children, and above all things, worship God first.
342
Mrs. A.,* a patient from Chicago,
was unusually sensitive to psychic
influences, and her mother, Mrs.
H.W., had for some time noticed in her
daughter's actions a similarity
to the mannerisms of a minister, former pastor
of a church which she
had attended, who had been killed by a train a number
of years
before.
Mrs. H.W. had spoken to Mr. A., her daughter's husband, of
this
similarity, and both were in the psychic circle when the patient,
also
present, was concentrated for.
EXPERIENCE, NOVEMBER 18,
1919
Spirit: J. 0. NELSON. Patient: MRS. A
Psychic: MRS.
WICKLAND
The controlling spirit was dazed and seemed to be
suffering from severe
chest pains.
Doctor Think strength and you
will be able to talk. Who are you?
Spirit I don't know.
Dr.
Where did you come from?
Sp. I don't know that either.
Mr.
A. Can't you tell us where you came from?
Sp. I don't know, but if
I should say anything, I would say that I came
from hell.
Mr. A.
What kind of hell?
Sp. Real hell. I was burning up.
Mr. A.
What caused that?
Sp. I don't know what it was but it came like
fire. (Static treatment given
patient, which is felt much more keenly
by the obsessing spirit than the patient.)
Dr. It woke you up all
right. Where did you come from?
Sp. I don't know what I have been
doing for a long time. I think I must
have slept and then I woke up in
hell. I saw all kinds of sparks. I guess I did
not pray
enough.
Mr. A. What were you doing when you were living?
Sp.
I don't know. I don't know what I did. If I could only know what is
the
matter with me.
Mr. A. What were you doing, the last you
recall?
Sp. I have such a pain here. (Rubbing the chest.) I feel as
if I had been
sick. I can't remember yet what I have been
doing.
Dr. Your memory will soon return.
*See Chap 3, Page 24, Paragraph
3.
343
Sp. You know when a man walks and
walks, and does not know
where he is going or what he is doing, it's
bad.
Dr. Were you on a journey?
Sp. I don't recall things
yet. I think I have been in a coma state for
a long time. When I was
walking everything was so dark. I couldn't
see anything. I have such
pain here. (Placing hand on chest.)
Now I remember something-I got
into a crowd, and they pushed
me and pushed me. (Earth sphere condition
after death.) Then I saw
just a little star of light. (Magnetic aura of
psychic sensitive, the
patient he had been obsessing.)
They
seemed to be crowding me in and in until at last I got to hell.
The
crowd was pushing me forward, and I did not know where I was
going;
then I got these sparks.
I always thought I had been chosen to save
others, and here I
was in hell myself. The fire was awful. I had it for
a while, then I
seemed to get lost again. I don't know what is to
become of me.
Dr. What is your name?
Sp. I do not know yet,
I am so dazed. I can't recall anything. I seem
to be getting somewhere.
I must have gone through a very severe
sickness. People crowded me and
they came after me, and I felt I had
not done right. I was always
sincere.
Mr. A. Did you believe in hell?
Sp. Yes, I
did.
Mr. A. Did you believe in Jesus?
Sp. Yes. I was one
chosen to save others, but yet I went to hell--and
I was to save
others!
Dr. Now we will try to help you out of it.
Sp. There
are so many people around here. They seem to want so
much of
me.
Dr. They must be the people you tried to save but did
not.
Sp. They all ask me to save them now, but I cannot save
myself.
Mr. A. Did something happen to you?
Sp. I think so.
My head hurts me so much and I have pains here.
(Chest.) I don't know
where I am. I wish you could take away this dark
gloom. At times I have
felt that I did not know anything.
Mr. A. Who are you? Are you a
man or a woman?
Sp. I am a man, and I do not know anything except
that the crowd
pushed me and I got to hell.
344
Mr. A. Did anything happen to
you?
Sp. I don't know.
Mr. A. Where did you live?
Sp.
In Chicago, I think. I seem to be blind and I feel so strange.
Mr.
A. Were you going to any particular place while you were
walking?
Sp. I don't know, but I see a train coming so fast, and
then I
remember getting into a crowd. Say-do you think my name is
Nelson?
Sometimes that seems to be my name and sometimes it
doesn't.
Mr. A. Were you Pastor Nelson? Were you a
minister?
Sp. It seems I was at times. That's my name! My name is
Nelson.
Mrs. H. W. Do you know me?
Sp. I recall the
voice.
Mr. A. Where did you know her?
Sp. In Chicago. I can
see a train coming so fast, and then
everything got dark, but I
remember something hit me in the chest.
Didn't I have a
wife?
Mr. A. Yes, and several children.
Mrs. H. W. Don't you
know me?
Sp. Yes, you used to come to my church. You were a good
church
member, but you got away.
Dr. Do you know that lady? (The
patient, Mrs. A.)
Sp. No.
Dr. Did you know L. W.? (The
patient's maiden name.)
Sp. Yes.
Dr. That is she.
Sp.
She was much younger.
Mr. A. Do you remember coming from Western
Springs?
Sp. Yes, I had been preaching.
Mr. A. You were hit
by a train and killed.
Sp. I cannot recall that I am dead, but I
know I have been mixed
up. I am in such a crowd. What is the matter
with my head ?
Mr. A. Do you know a Mrs. Nelson who used to live on
Foster Avenue ?
Sp. Yes, that's my wife. There was somebody else
along with me
when I came to the trains and they pushed me ahead of the
train. The
train was coming this way, and I was going over there.
Somebody got
hold of me and then there was such a big crowd. I remember
the big
crowd after I was hit by the
345
train. That big crowd has been
after me all the time. (Spirits.)
Dr. That is because you did not
teach them correctly.
Sp. Somebody says: "These are your followers
that you have
misled in the wrong path."
Dr. Why did you mislead
them?
Sp. I taught them God's truth.
Dr. Possibly, as far as
you knew.
Sp. I tried to save humanity from hell.
Dr. And
then you went there yourself.
Sp. I was only in it for a little
while, but it was terrible. I did not
imagine it that way. I thought
hell would be different than pouring
down fire-fire and brimstone-and
it smarted like everything. I cannot
see why I should have been in
hell.
Dr. It must be because your teachings were wrong. All
these
people accuse you of having misled them.
Sp. I gave myself
up to God.
Dr. Did God ask you to do that? Or did you do it for a
living ?
Sp. I tried to save people from sin. I suppose I did save
some.
Dr. You did not save yourself.
Sp. That lady over
there (pointing to Mrs. H.W.) should go to hell.
She did not stick to
the church as she should.
Dr. You stuck to the church, and yet you
say you have been in hell.
Sp. Yes, that's so.
Dr. Then how
do you know your church and your teaching were
right? You were a
"Servant of God," yet you went to hell. You were
supposed to be better
than the congregation.
Sp. (Pointing.) Is that Mrs. W.?
Dr.
Yes.
Sp. (To Mrs. H. W.) Why don't you go to church?
Mrs. H.
W. I do, sometimes.
Dr. She doesn't want to go to hell, where you
say you have been.
You went to church and yet you went to hell. You
taught the wrong
thing. You do not want her to follow in your
footsteps, do you ?
Sp. I don't want her to go to hell where I have
been.
Dr. Then the church must be wrong.
Mr. A. Was your
name Nelson-J. 0. Nelson? Your wife is living in
the same house on
Foster Avenue.
Sp. Yes, that's my name. Now I remember.
Mr.
A. You were killed eight years ago.
346
SP. I have not seen my wife and
children for a long time.
Dr. You did not preach the truth when you
were trying to save souls,
and you did not save your own. For years you
have been in the purgatory
of ignorance.
Sp. How is my wife? She
loved me.
Mr. A. She is well.
Sp. How could my wife leave me
as she did?
Mr. A. She did not leave you; she buried your body in
Graceland.
Do you know Graceland Cemetery?
Sp. Yes.
Dr.
Do you believe in spirits?
Sp. What do you mean?
Dr. Ghosts
?
Sp. No.
Dr. Doesn't the Bible speak of them?
Sp.
Not particularly.
Dr. Yes' it does. Jesus used to cast out unclean
spirits, and the
apostles did also. Have you met Jesus?
Sp. No.
I have not met any one. I have been in the crowd, and
they have been
pushing me all the time.
Dr. Those were people whom you had taught
falsely before they died.
Sp. One day I saw a little
light.
Dr. You got into the aura of this lady, Mrs. A.
Mr.
A. She is my wife. Why are you bothering her? Why don't
you go to the
Heaven you taught? Why do you stay around the earth?
Sp. Are you in
hell too?
Mr. A. No, we are on earth. Your "hell" was static
electricity that
we gave you.
Dr. That was the only way we could
drive you away from this lady.
Mr. A. Why didn't you go the way you
taught?
Sp. I do not know.
Mr. A. Why didn't you teach the
truth when you lived on earth ?
Sp. I taught the way I learned, and
the Bishop told me what to do.
I taught the religion taught on
earth.
Dr. That is a misconception. You yourself have proven that
it is a
fallacy. You have been dead eight years and yet you are
an
earthbound spirit.
Sp. I certainly expected to be in
Heaven.
347
Dr. You did not teach the truth.
That lady (Mrs. H. W.) will reach
"Heaven" quicker than you
will.
Sp. She will! How do you know that?
Dr. She has
learned the real truth, the truth of the spirit world and
spirit
existence. Paul taught about spirits. Jesus cast out unclean
spirits.
Sp. We cannot compare ourselves with Jesus. Jesus was the
son of God.
Dr. The Bible says, "Ye are all the children of God"
and Jesus
said, "I and my Father are one.
Sp. He was God's
Beloved Son. God sent Him to save us from sin.
Dr. I will tell you
who said that. In the year 325 A. D., at the
Council of Nice, Italy.
Constantine declared Jesus to be "The Son of
God, and very God," and
his declaration was officially accepted by
the Christian
Church.
Sp. Christ was God's Beloved Son, and if we believe in Him,
we
shall inherit salvation.
Dr. Why didn't you do it?
Sp.
Jesus is God's Son, and if you believe in Him, you will be
saved.
Dr. Then where are you now?
Sp. I don't quite
understand it yet.
Dr. But you said you had been in hell. Does your
conscience not
tell you you were wrong? I think it does.
Sp. It
accuses me.
Dr. If you will listen carefully you will realize that
you were wrong.
You never felt quite satisfied with the story of God's
creation of the
world, did you?
Sp. We should not argue about
God. God is perfect, and we are
His children and if we believe in Him
we shall inherit salvation.
Dr. You say God is perfect. You say God
created everything and
that He knows everything, therefore, He must
have known
beforehand that His creation would be imperfect, and that
man would
"fall in sin." Would you create a world and then destroy
it?
Sp. People fall in sin and God's Son came to save
us.
Dr. Did God know that the world would fall in sin? Did
He
know it, and yet create it? Does that sound reasonable?
Did He know
that "fallen angels" would obsess people? Was He All-
Wise? The
preachers are at fault in their teachings.
348
Sp. We were taught that. When we
are teachers of the Gospel we
must live up to it, and we must believe
it.
Dr. You did not use your reason or you would not have
believed
what you were taught. The people who are crowding you now
are
evidently the very ones you tried to save, and they too, are
in
darkness. They did not find Heaven.
What does the Bible say?
"Ye are the temple of God and the Spirit
of God dwelleth in you." "God
is Love, and he that dwelleth in Love
dwelleth in
God."
According to your teachings you should have. found God
before
this. But you have not. The teachings of Jesus contain
wonderful
truths, but they are not understood. It is easier to teach
that Jesus
died for our sins and that we will be saved and everything
will be all
right.
Now you will have to obtain
understanding.
Sp. If I am dead, then I should see God.
Dr.
You will never "see" God. God is not a person on a throne'
God is
Spirit and God is Intelligence. Have you ever seen music?
Sp. I
have heard it.
Dr. Did you love your wife and family?
Sp.
Yes, I did.
Dr. Have you ever seen. that love? If you understand
the Love
Principle in the higher sense you will understand that God is
Love.
That was Jesus' own teaching.
Sp. We have to teach as I
did. Don't you think, Mrs. W., that I did
all right?
Dr. She
left your church.
Sp. She went astray.
Dr. You say you are a
man, and yet here you are, controlling my
wife's body. Did you ever
believe in mediumship?
Sp. That is all humbug.
Dr. There
must be some truth in it. You are proving it yourself.
Sp. I didn't
feel that anybody should give up church for that humbug.
Dr. You
yourself are proving that it is not a humbug, for you are
talking
through a medium now. Look at these hands and see if they
belong to
you. Did you have a wedding ring?
Sp. That's a woman's
ring.
Dr. You are using my wife's body.
Sp. How did I get
into it?
Dr. You are an invisible spirit. We do not see you.
You
349
are talking through my wife's
physical organs. Now you see how little you
really know of the laws of
Life, and Love and the Hereafter.
Sp. Things seem so strange. There
was a time-I recall now-I am getting
some of my memory back. I recall I
got hurt.
Dr. When the train struck you, you were driven from your
body.
Sp. I remember going home, and I stayed at home, but my wife
didn't
seem to notice me.
Dr. Your wife did not know you were
there. You were invisible to her.
Sp. I tried to talk to her and
the children, but they took n
notice of me, so I thought, what's the
use? I prayed and prayed.
I went away from my wife and I could not get
back. I was
parted from her and everything was so strange.
Then
I got into this crowd, and they followed me, and again I tried to
go
home, and after I got there I talked to, my wife and children, but
it seemed as
if no one cared for me, because they would not talk to me
and took no notice
of me.
I put my hand on my wife and it seemed
as if my hand went right
through her. I talked to my wife again, but no
response, so I went out again,
and got into that crowd, and I was with
them until I got into hell.
There were so many in the crowd that we
were like sardines. One came
after another, and then I was pushed
ahead. (Controlled the sensitive.) I saw
a little light and after that
there was fire and brimstone.
Dr. You were in the magnetic aura of
that lady (Mrs. A.) and obsessed
her, and finally controlled her
body.
Sp. How could I do that?
Dr. I am going to answer your
question in true Yankee style by asking
another-How could you control
this body? You see how little you know
about the mysteries of God. You
preached only a doctrine but did not
understand the truth.
Sp.
When you go to a Seminary and learn what they teach you, you
have to
preach it whether you like it or not..
Dr. You "sinned against the
Holy Ghost" because your better judgment
told you it was not right.
Jesus did not teach what you taught.
Sp. I was not very successful
in my ministry, (this statement was
afterward confirmed) as many others
are not, because
350
it seemed as if the audience, my
followers, did not stand by me, and then I
was discouraged and felt
what was the use.
No one seemed to care for my preaching. I was
very discouraged. I felt
sometimes as if I should give up the whole
thing.
Dr. Why didn't you?
Sp. If I should tell you the
truth and tell you why I didn't, I should say
it was because I had a
wife and family to support. But I was not successful
as a
minister.
I wish I had never studied for the ministry, but had been
more of a
mechanic; I would have had a happier life. (It was later
learned that during
his earth life the spirit had made this same remark
to a fellow minister.)
I could not provide for my wife as I wanted
to, and she is a good
woman. My salary was small, and when you have a
family to support, and
have to get your salary "by your mouth," it is
hard when you don't get any
encouragement from your
followers.
Some found fault with me. I would go into the pulpit and
my heart
would not be in my work because I knew they did not like me. I
was not
happy. I wished that I had not studied in my younger days but
had earned
an honest living.
I see things now that I did not see
before. I was blind, and I see now that
I was greatly at fault. I
should not have followed in the path I did.
They found fault with
me here and there, and the Bishop sent a poor
fellow from one place to
another, and sometimes it meant a whole month's
salary. Sometimes I had
to borrow money so that I could move.
At last I got tired of being
moved around. I would get a few friends in
one place, then we would
have to move, and I got discouraged.
Finally I got a house and I
said I was going to stay there, and told them if
they did not want me,
or they could not find anything for me to do, I would
go to
work.
I never could get enough together to properly support my
family,
because they changed me so often. The Bishop would move me from
one
place to another.
That is not the right life to live. I
would not wish my worst enemy to be
a minister. It's pretty hard on a
fellow.
Now I am in a worse condition that I was, because I'm
blind.
Dr. Before you leave here we will open your eyes and send
you on your
way rejoising. First tell me if there is any cure for my
blindness.
351
Dr. We will open your eyes. The
Bible says: "Eyes have they, but
they see not; they have ears, but they
hear not." Yours is only
spiritual blindness.
Sp. I wish I could
open those spiritual eyes.
Dr. It is not the fault of Jesus'
teachings that you are spiritually
blind. It was wrong to teach as you
taught. That is the cause of your
present condition.
If you say
that God sent Jesus as a special Savior, you infer that
God made a
mistake when He created man, and He did not.
Sp. Jesus was God's
Beloved Son.
Dr. That conception is wrong. Jesus said: "I and my
Father are
one," and we are told in the Bible "Ye are all the children
of God.` Are
we not strangers to ourselves?
Sp. We fall in sin.
Do you believe in the Devil?
Dr. In the first place God is not a
person. He is Spirit, All-Wise,
All-Powerful, everywhere present. We
accept that as the first
principle in the Universe. God is All in
All.
If God is All in All, as the Bible says, would He make the
big
mistake which Christianity implies he made when it asserts that
God's
creation was so imperfectly planned that man was doomed to fall
in
sin, and that the sending of a Savior was the only means of
rectifying
this mistake?
The church teaches that some of the
angels fell. That means they
became something inferior. How could that
be if they were created
out of God's own substance?
That
Something Supreme created the world and placed us here-
had He not
forethought and foresight enough to see what would
happen?
Sp.
We were born into this world and fell in sin.
Dr. Didn't God know
what would happen?
Sp. I suppose so.
Dr. I am showing you
that the orthodox teaching is wrong. Much
of the Bible is simply a
collection of allegories. Jesus always spoke
in
parables.
Spiritual things must be "spiritually discerned."
When Jesus
wished to teach the people that they should love their
fellow man as
themselves, what did He say?
He told them the
story of The Good Samaritan--the story of a
certain man who went from
Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among
thieves who beat him and left him
half dead.
A certain priest came that way, and when he saw him he
passed
by on the other side. Then a Levite came and he passed by on
the
other side. But a certain Samaritan came, and when
352
he saw him he had compassion on him
and bound up his wounds
and brought him to an inn and cared for him.
And when he left the
inn he paid the host to take care of the
man.
Then Jesus asked the lawyer which one represented his
fellow
man, and the lawyer answered, "He that showed mercy."
Sp.
But that is history.
Dr. No; that is allegory.
Sp. How do
you know?
Dr. The very Bible tells us so. Jesus told that story
simply as a
parable-to show what? The principle. Your doctrine blinded
you.
Sp. Then don't you believe that really happened?
Dr.
No. Jesus spoke in parables.
Sp. I was not taught that way. When I
was not taught that way
how could I know more than I did? Ministers
teach as I did all the
time. The way you say it is all new to
me.
Dr. That is the true teaching of Jesus.
Sp. Don't you
believe he died for our sins?
Dr. No, I do not. Did Jesus die to
please God?
Sp. No, he died to save us from sin.
Dr. Do you
mean to say that God created a special son for people
to kill so they
could be saved?
Sp. We must not talk against God.
Dr. I am
talking against erroneous teachings.
Sp. Do you believe in such
things, Mrs. W.?
Mrs. H. W. I do now.
Dr. Jesus said:
"Except ye become as little children ye shall not
enter into the
kingdom of heaven." What do children do? They ask
questions. They want
to know. Did you seek to understand? No. You
only tried to teach the
doctrine of belief. Did you ever understand flowers?
Sp. They
belong to Nature. We must not worship Nature.
Dr. God made Nature.
We must not worship Nature, we must worship God.
But God is in Nature,
He speaks to us through Nature. The corrected
translations of the Bible
tell us that Jesus said "God is Spirit." He did
not say, "God is a
Spirit," but "God is Spirit, and they that worship
Him must worship Him
in Spirit and in truth."
Sp. I never heard things explained like
that before.
Dr. We want to open your spiritual eyes so that you
can see.
"God is Love; and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God."
Where
are you going to find God outside of yourself? What is love?
What
does love look like?
353
Sp. I cannot describe how it looks.
You feel it.
Dr. "Love is the fulfillment of the law." "Thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself."
Sp. Are you a minister?
Dr.
Not as you understand the term. I honor God, but not dogma. I
realize
that the Universe did not make itself. God is Spirit, Power, the
Soul
of the Universe. He is a Practical Something in which the heavenly
bodies all move.
If we want to understand God we must understand
ourselves. We must
try to understand why we are living beings. What is
the size and breadth of
mind? How large or small is mind?
Sp.
You say that I am a spirit, and that I am talking through this
lady's
body. How is that possible? You also say that I bothered that
other lady.
(Mrs. A.)
Dr. There is a psychic law whereby spirits
can control mortals. When
correctly followed we have spirit
communication of the highest order.
Perversion of this law results in
obsession.
Mrs. A. is a natural psychic, and you and other spirits
came into her
magnetic aura and interfered with her life. She came to
California to be
helped. She is in California now, and so are
you.
Sp. California! How did I get here?
Dr. By another
wonderful law. You followed her. The obsession of
mortals by spirits is
a fact that has been known in all ages.
Sp. You do not mean that I
have been bothering that lady?
Dr. Yes, and would have helped to
ruin her life.
Sp. How did I get to her?
Dr. How did you
come here? How are you controlling the body of
Mrs.
Wickland?
Sp. I don't realize that I have ever done any
wrong.
Dr. We had to give the lady the electrical treatment we did
in order to
expel you from her aura. You are not the only one that has
been removed.
When many minds try to function through one body, it
creates a
disturbance.
Others would say that my wife is insane
just now because she is a
woman and yet you, speaking through her, say
you are a man and a minister.
Another mystery is that Mrs. Wickland is
entirely unconscious at this time.
Sp. How did I come to this
body?
354
Dr. Spirit helpers brought you here
and allowed you to control my wife,
because she is a psychic
sensitive.
Sp. I did not mean to do anybody harm. I just followed
the crowd and
they pushed me in. I did not know any one in particular
in the crowd. I was
blind and could not see, so I just kept with
them.
Dr. Do you know why you were blind? You had lost your
physical eyes
but were not aware of the fact. You were in the spirit
world but you knew
nothing of the spiritual laws. You were in what the
Bible calls "outer darkness."
Sp. Does outer darkness mean when you
don't understand?
Dr. Yes. When you lost your physical body you
lost your physical eyes,
but you did not know it, and since you did not
understand the higher life
your spiritual vision was not
open.
Sp. I have had a body and I have had eyes.
Dr. You
have a spiritual body, but you were mentally blind. Do you
remember
that Paul spoke of a natural body and a spiritual body? "First
that
which is natural and afterward that which is
spiritual."
Sp. Do you mean to say that I was spiritually blind
when I was a
spiritual adviser?
Dr. Yes. When you have your
spiritual eyes open you will realize what
Jesus meant when He said: "I
and my Father are one." Jesus said: "Be ye
therefore perfect even as
your Father which is in Heaven is perfect." The
Bible says. "Add to
your faith . . . knowledge," and Jesus said: "Know the
truth and the
truth shall make you free."
The Bible states: "Blessed . . . is he
that hath part in the first
resurrection"-that is, obtains
understanding while in the body-"on such the
second death hath no
power," meaning that when ignorance is replaced by
understanding
spiritual light is obtained.
Sp. Do you mean to say that I had no
real comprehension of the truth?
Dr. You had faith, but you did
not have knowledge; you only had orthodoxy.
Sp. Then you mean that
all my followers and the church people who
came to hear me will all be
spiritually blind?
Dr. Many of them may be if they follow
your teachings. If you look
you will probably see others
here.
SP. There is a big audience here and they are all listening.
(During a
psychic circle of this nature, many earthbound spirits are
brought
355
to profit by the experience of the
spirit who is controlling the psychic.)
Dr. It is our own stupidity
that keeps us back. We should use the
wonderful mind that God gave us.
We have the marvelous universe
to study and try to understand. Did you
ever stop to think how fruit
grows? You plant a seed in the ground, it
decomposes and out of it
grows a tree.
Sp. That belongs to
Nature.
Dr. Nature is the body of God. God is All in All. You
taught that
in church.
Sp. I have said that many times but I did
not see it as you do.
Dr. If God is All in All would not creation
itself be a part of God ?
Sp. I never thought of it in that light.
It seems strange that while I
gave truth to my people I should find
myself in this darkness. Say,
are you a minister?
Dr. No, I am
not, but I try to understand God's wonders and the
meaning of
existence.
Sp. You have studied the Bible pretty well. You seem to
know the
Bible much better than I did myself.
Dr. I regard its
teachings differently.
Sp. You seem to quote the Bible by heart. I
should like to have
you write down all you have told me. I should like
to have your
statements written down, and if I could give it to the
people as you
have given it to me, I should be very glad.
Dr.
Now your spiritual eyes will be opened and you will see
others who will
teach you the same things. Advanced spirits will
teach you how to
progress in a rational way in the spirit world, and
you will be taught
much more than I tell you. You will not be in the
dark any longer. If
you will look around you may see some one you
know, who has passed
on.
Sp. Should we call them back?
Dr. Call them back from
where?
Sp. From Heaven.
Dr. Jesus said: "The Kingdom of God
is within you," and in the
Bible you will find: "Ye are the temple of
God and the Spirit of God
dwelleth in you."
Sp. Don't you think
we should all go to Heaven?
Dr. "Heaven" is not a place.
Sp.
We must have some place to stay.
Dr. "Heaven" is a condition of
mind. When you are happy, is that
not Heaven? The more happiness you
create around
356
yourself, the more "Heaven" you
will have. Happiness is Heaven.
Sp. But we have to be in some
place.
Dr. You are in the spirit world; I have told you that. You
can only
attain "Heaven," or happiness, as you develop.
Sp.
Where is that place-the spirit world?
Dr. It surrounds the physical
world. You will be taught all that.
Jesus said: "Seek, and ye shall
find; knock, and it shall be opened
unto you."
Sp. There are
many people here. (Spirits.) Some are very happy
and contented, and
they seem to be asking me to come to the home.
of understanding, life,
happiness and the spirit world. What is the
spirit world?
Dr.
That is the world of the spirits who understand Nature's
higher
laws.
Sp. Before I go with them, I should so like to send a message
to
my wife. Will somebody take it to her?
Mrs. H. W. I will be
glad to.
Sp. Tell my wife I have found that life is more serious
than I
thought and we should try to understand more of God's wonders
and
not only believe.
(Spiritual vision opening, with a flood of
understanding, face
upturned and arms outstretched.)
I want to
tell my wife that I have learned more about the wonderful
world beyond
than I ever knew before. My spiritual eyes are open. I
wish so much
that she could accept the proof that has been revealed
to
me.
All this time, as you have told me, I have been dead. I have
been
in darkness but, as this gentleman tells me, it was a spiritual
darkness.
My eyes are open and I can now see.
A beautiful world
lies before me. I want my wife to understand
these things so that she
will not be in the dark as I have been. Tell her
not to have belief
alone. Investigate, and find out what the life beyond is.
I do wish
I could teach about the beautiful land beyond as I see it
before me.
There are wonderful landscapes and homes of all
descriptions. My eyes
are open and now I see. Here is one beautiful
home, and there
another.
A man stands here and he says to me that the homes in the
spirit
world are not bought with money, but are acquired by good acts
done
here on earth.
This man, this teacher, says: "Be unselfish,
and have love for
others, then you will have a beautiful home in the
spirit
357
world. If you live for yourself
alone you will have only a little shanty, for
you have done nothing to
help your fellow man. Give help to others and
serve the ones who need
help. These are also the teachings of Jesus."
I see beautiful homes
around, but where is mine? I have none. I have not
seen it
yet.
Dr. By helping and serving others you will soon have
one.
Sp. I want my wife to know that we should live so on earth
that when
we come to the beautiful world beyond we shall have a home.
We must do as
our better nature tells us to do.
Dr. Now you are
preaching an excellent sermon.
Sp. I am not preaching it. This man
(spirit) tells me that. He stands right
here by me. He says: "The Bible
states, 'It is easier for a camel to go through
the eye of a needle
than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God'."
He says: "I
will illustrate to you what a home would be if a man sells his
soul for
money and does not help others."
There is the home of a millionaire
who has taken money from the poor
people and grasped all he could. In
the spirit world his house will be a mere
hovel in the ground, for he
could not enter one of those beautiful homes.
Those homes were built by
good deeds done for others and not for self. He
will have to work,
through service, to an understanding of a higher condition.
There
are homes of all descriptions, and castles, too. This teacher says
that
many times there are in these beautiful castles poor old widows and
men
who were outcasts, but who lived for others and not for
self.
Their acts were acts of kindness, not selfishness. They made
many
sacrifices. There are many homes, from castles down and down,
until they
are made of dirt, many surrounded by snakes a miserable
condition through
which the selfish must pass.
Now he points to
a house and says: "This is yours-this little, tiny house.
You were
honest in what you taught, so you have a house, even though
small. Some
have none. You did not seek for the truth; you accepted things
as they
were presented to you.
"Now you will have to work for others, and
make a home for your wife
and children. You must work now and try to
help them realize the beauties
of the life beyond.
"Is it not
more beautiful to see the spirit world in the true sense of life
than
to preach the gospel of condemnation? Why should we not open
our
spiritual eyes and understand God as He is, instead of picturing
Him as a
monster of cruelty?"
358
He says: "Christians murder their
fellow men. The war has grown out of
selfishness. The churches will
soon fall, and there will be a new religion that
will bring true
understanding, and all people on earth will open their eyes and
see the
real truth of God's wonderful manifestations."
Isn't it wonderful?
How I wish I could come back and tell people the
truth as I see it now.
I would tell my people that I had not taught properly
and so had not
helped them. Now I could give them the truth and help them.
I would
not need to tell them that if they did not live the right kind of
life
they would go to hell. "Hell" is only ignorance and
selfishness.
If only I could give this truth to my followers! How I
wish I could go
back and preach what I know now.
I would work to
help them to a spiritual understanding and I would not
teach
condemnation, as I sometimes did. I would try to help them open
their
eyes and understand what life really is. I wish that they could
see the
beautiful land and homes that I have seen.
I will work,
and work hard, to make a home for my wife and children.
The home I want
is not mine yet, but I have a small beginning. I will work to
give my
wife and children the home I have always wanted them to have.
What
is this? (With great excitement.) This man says this is the
lower
sphere I see, where ignorant spirits travel in
darkness.
Here is another scene which is the result of my work. How
sick these
spirits are, and how crippled! They are blind and
grasping.
Dr. They are showing you the lower earth
sphere.
Sp. This man says they are showing me the result of
orthodox teaching.
Look at those drunkards and murderers!
Dr.
They are now showing you these scenes so when you leave this
body and
begin to progress you can better help others.
Sp. He says this is a
condition which false teachings and human
selfishness have
created.
These spirits look like snakes. Look at the nails on their
hands! This is
terrible! Some are on their knees, crawling, and some
are on all fours.
That-and that-and that-is my work! Oh, God! This
is the result of wrong
teaching. It is terrible!
Now this man
shows me an asylum of crazy people, and there
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are crazy spirits around them all.
Oh, that is hell-hell! They shout and howl!
What a sight, what a
horrible sight
They are showing me the real things. Here is a human
being with three or
four spirits crawling on him!
Now he shows
me another place-it is this place, here. (Institute Hall.)
There is a
Spirit Home built within this room an Inner Hall. There are
many
spirits here.
He says: "We take them from obsessed mortals
and bring them into this
Hall and keep them there until we can convert
them. Often we must have
them control this psychic to bring them to an
understanding.
"By bringing one to an understanding, the door is
opened for many
others. One or two are allowed to control and the
others see how they are
enlightened, and then they learn that they also
must go with friendly spirits
to the world beyond.
"Let us
preach the gospel of truth so there will not be this earthbound
spirit
condition, caused by ignorance and selfishness."
If only I could
return to help preach this great truth that I have found!
Dr. Now
you have been shown the way and you must go with these
advanced spirits
who will help you.
Sp. Will I go with that man?
Dr. Yes. He
will teach you many great truths.
Sp. He says that it is false
teaching of ministers which brings people to
this hell. He says I must
go, but before I go I want to thank you all for
helping me to a home in
the spirit world.
(To Mr. A.) He also wants me to ask you to please
forgive me. I meant
no wrong to your wife; it was only ignorance on my
part.
(To Mrs. A.) I want to ask you to forgive me. I will help you
all I can,
but not before I know how. I will do all within my power to
help you
become free from the condition you are in. Now I see those
around you.
Fight, and we will help you win.
I also want to
thank you, Mrs. W., for helping me, because this man
says you helped me
to an understanding.
God bless you and my dear wife. Please bring
this message to her.
Three years after the above experience, when
Mrs. H. W. was again
present in our circle, the spirit of Pastor Nelson
returned and spoke through
the psychic.
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EXPERIENCE, MARCH 14, 1923
Spirit: J. 0. NELSON. PSYCHIC: MRS. WICKLAND
I have come here
tonight to thank you all for the help I received in this
little circle.
You gave me the truth, and I also learned that I had
unconsciously been
obsessing some one.
I wish all could understand and know the laws
that govern the spirit
conditions on this earth life. I was not a bad
spirit, but I was ignorant of the
laws.
I should have been much
more enlightened, because I used to preach to
people and try to help
them understand the real life, but how few ministers
who stand in the
pulpit today give out the truth? They all know there is a
life after
this, but they cling to the old orthodox belief. Some are ready
to
grasp the truth and some are not.
I thank you for helping me.
I felt like saying I was in hell because of
those electric sparks, for
I thought the devil himself was after me, but I was
brought to a
realization of what I should have done when in life, and that I
should
not obsess any one.
(To Mrs. H. W.) I also want to thank you, Mrs.
W., for helping me, and
to ask your forgiveness for having obsessed
your daughter. But I assure you
I did it unconsciously. I did not
realize the laws that govern.
I was not taught myself. I thought I
was teaching my people about the
real life, but I was not. I preached
about Christ dying for our sins, that you
must believe, and faith will
make you free.
That is not so. To faith, we must add knowledge, and
that will make us
free, so the Good Book says. I did not preach that. I
taught, to faith add
belief and you will be saved.
How very
little ministers do to help uplift people or to give them a
right
understanding of God. We always tell them to believe, believe. We
do not
want people to have knowledge, because then they begin to ask
questions
that we cannot answer, so we tell them to believe and have
patience, and
they will be saved.
Why should we not teach them
the real truth and have them understand
God and life in the true sense?
The time is coming when the ministers cannot preach the old dogmas
to
the people. They will have to change if they want the people to fill
their
churches.
I know I was not a good minister-I mean I was
not popular.
361
I could never hold my people
because I did not have my whole heart and soul
in the work.
I
felt that we should believe, but at times a strong power came to me
and
I felt that I should have more real knowledge of the life
hereafter, but I shut
the door to it. Now I am sorry that I did not try
to investigate more.
When I went out of my body I went so quickly
that I did not realize the
change. You know, Mrs. W., there was quite a
company of us and we were
all rushing to get home. I stepped over to
the other track and another train,
which I did not see coming, killed
me.
I did not even realize that I was hurt. When the rest of them
went home, I
went with them. I went to my home but I did not realize
that anything
unusual had taken place. I could not understand things. I
went first to one,
then another, but nobody seemed to notice me. It was
very queer.
I did not know what to do. Where should I go, where
could I go? I went
to my church and stayed there, still I did not
realize that I had passed out.
One day, Mrs. W., you came to
church. In your thoughts of me I saw a
light, because I was in
darkness. I did not feel sick, but I did not feel quite
myself, so I
followed you to see if I could get an explanation.
When you reached
home, suddenly I seemed to be closed up in a room,
and I was in very
close quarters. (Obsessing Mrs. W.'s daughter, Mrs. A.)
After a
while I went to sleep. I slept in a way, and still I felt weak and
had
such a strange sensation. There were several others with me, but I
cannot
describe the condition except to say that we seemed to be in a
room too small
for us. We were all packed in like sardines. I could
hardly get my breath.
Then I fell asleep and I slept for a long
time. I did not realize anything
after that until I got fire all over
my body. (Static electricity given patient.)
There seemed to be fire
all over me and I could not realize what it was. All I
could see was
this fire-and how it thundered!
At first I thought I was really
dead and in hell, because I could not
imagine anything else. I thought:
"I, a minister, trying to save people from
hell, and here I am, right
in it myself!"
Then I woke up and there was more fire, but before I
knew it, I was alive
again and I could talk, which I could not do
before. (Having been transferred
to Mrs. Wickland.)
While I did
not know I was dead, yet I felt I had to come to
362
life again. I found I had been
brought to this little circle for help, and I want to
thank you all for
waking me up. I have no grudge against you for having given
me that
"hell fire." It helped me from "hell" to "Heaven," or as we like to
call
it, the spirit world.
I found the hereafter very different
from anything I ever dreamed of.
What do we think, we
ministers?
I want to say that we do not think at all. We preach,
but we do not
practice. We do not realize what we are doing when we try
to "save" people-
save them from what?
Since I left you and you
gave me the true understanding of life as it is, I
have seen much. I
have learned much.
In the three years since I woke up-I do not say
three years since I passed
out, because the rest of the time I was in a
dream state-but in the three years
since I have had an understanding of
life, everything has been so beautiful,
and I have been very happy and
busy. I have my hands full with my work.
My mission is to go to the
religious fanatics in the spirit world and
preach to them the truth.
They are in darkness. They pray and sing and they
think that Christ
died for their sins. All they do is to pray and sing, and they
do not
get anywhere.
There are many people on the earth plane who go
insane, but they are
only controlled by crazy spirits who are religious
fanatics, and all they do is
sing and pray. They are wild. Some I
cannot reach; some I can turn to an
understanding of the higher
life.
I hope the time will come when the ministers who preach the
gospel will
preach a true interpretation of the Bible, not the one
Orthodoxy teaches.
Mrs. W., I want you to tell the Pastor of your
church that I said he must
not hide his light under a bushel, but must
teach the truth. He must study and
learn the true lesson of life. He
must give out the truth to his people.
Tell him I said he can give
it out, little by little, and before he knows it he
will have given
them the whole truth, and he will have many more people
attending his
church than he has now. People do not believe now in the old
dogmas,
but they want something-the truth.
Tell him that I wanted you to
say this to him.
I have found my home in the spirit world and am
happy, but I have a
great deal to do. I have to undo the wrong teaching
I gave to the people when
I was on earth. I taught dogma and now I have
to give them the truth.
363
Mrs. W., please forgive me for
having obsessed your daughter. I had
no intention of doing what I did,
for I did it unconsciously.
Before I go I want to ask a favor of
you, Mrs. W., and that is, tell Rev.
W. to study and look into the
truth before he comes to the spirit world, so
he will not be in
darkness as I was. Tell him he can give the truth to his
people because
the majority are ready for it. It is very monotonous to sit and
listen
to the old time dogmas over and over again.
Tell him I said if he
does not do this, people will leave his church. He is a
good speaker
and a good man, and if he teaches the real truth, as he will find
it if
he studies, he will have many followers, but if he keeps on with the
old
doctrine he will not have many attending his church.
If he
interests his congregation and has a revival meeting to tell them
he
has found the real truth, he will see things will soon be different.
Nearly
every one in his church has been to some Spiritualist meeting.
They want the
truth, so tell him to give it to them.
Tell him
the old people in the Home should be rightly taught, because
they will
soon come to the spirit side of life, and it is better that they
should
know about the land they are going 'to.
The young men of
the present day do not want to be orthodox ministers.
They want other
doctrines. They know the old dogma is not the real truth,
and they do
not want to preach contrary to their knowledge. There are not
many
applications for the ministry now.
Tell Rev. W if he will preach
the truth he will have many young people
in his church. Tell him to
present the ideas of the founder of his church. John
Wesley, the
founder of the Methodist Church, lectured on spirit phenomena.
All he
has to do is to present Wesley's doctrine.
Now I must go. Good
Night!
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