MARY PICKFORD AT A SEANCE
CHAPTER V
MARY PICKFORD AT A SEANCE
Having recorded a few of the messages given by Silver Birch to various kinds of people, I think I must include Hannen Swaffer's story of the sitting given by the guide to Mary Pickford, the film star who became known as “the world's sweetheart."
The journalist wrote:
THE Silver Birch sitting provided fresh confirmation of what is often stressed when actors and actresses, artists or composers sit—the great importance, from the point of view of the spirit world, of any film, play, composition or work of art that spreads knowledge or inspires large numbers of people.
Here, copied from a record of the sitting, are extracts that will be of general interest.
Silver Birch: “Now, to the little lady who comes from across the water. You know you are much beloved by many who are here today and that for many years in your life you have been conscious of the love that streams towards you from those who have passed through the change which people call death. That is so, is it not?"
Mary: "Yes.”
Silver Birch: “And this love and this guidance have been realities in your own life, time and time and time again, for whenever difficulties have raised their heads and you have not known where to turn, the guidance of the spirit has shown itself with indisputable clarity and you have gone forward without hesitation to perform the task in front of you. Do I speak clearly?"
Mary: “Yes."
Silver Birch: “However, you could become more conscious of the love of the many people who are bound to you by ties of affection. Did you but realise it, the whole pattern of your life is one of great guidance. You have been led step by step all the way. When, if you had known at first what was in front of you, it all would have seemed impossible of attain-ment, as you have put one foot forward, so the way has been cleared to enable you to put the other foot forward; and so progress has been consistent and has been maintained.
"You have been of tremendous service because you have striven to radiate that love which has been given to you.
"You may not know all this, though some of it is clear to you. But in our world, a world inhabited by all the souls who are translated here from your plane of activity, we soon learn that the only real religion is service. Service is the coin of the spirit.
"He or she who strives to serve to the utmost is in turn served by other beings who return, inspired by the attracting force. And, as you have sought through your life to bring happiness and understanding and knowledge into the lives of others, so you have attracted to yourself not only your own loved ones, but radiant beings who left the earth many long years ago, and who pour out their accumulated wisdom through your instrumentality. Do you understand all I am saying to you?”
Mary: "Yes, I think I do."
Silver Birch: "You are regarded here as an ambassador, one who sees in herself an instrument, a means of reaching large numbers of people, and you have striven to preach this simple gospel of the reality of the invisible, where all strength and power and majesty and might reside. And so it has been throughout the whole of your life that material obstacles have been removed again and again and you have been able to go forward.
"Now I want to say to you that soon you are to set the seal on your labours; the crown will be placed upon them and you will reach the pinnacle of attainment. All that your heart desires will find fruition in the days that lie before you."
Northcliffe, who invariably discloses his presence at any sitting at which I am present, then gave Mary his greetings. I did not know, but when she and Fairbanks first came to London and they were mobbed everywhere by vast crowds, Northcliffe placed his Surrey home at their disposal as a retreat.
Then Fairbanks spoke of his regrets for what had happened at the end of his and Mary's marriage. I refrain from doing more than mention the fact briefly.
"I hold no bitterness against any human being, on earth or off the earth,” said Mary, "only against my own wrong-doing.”
"Do not magnify that,” replied Silver Birch. “If the ledger of your life were to be drawn up now, the so-called wrong-doings would be very few compared with all the unselfishness and the service you have rendered. You will never know until you come here how much good you have done for so many people.
"You have brought joy to millions of people. You have enabled them to forget for a while the little sorrows, their cares and aches, their troubles and stresses, and the storms that mean so much to them. In your own way, through your own desire, you have given service, and service is all that matters.
"When everything else is forgotten and stripped away, when wealth has faded and power has dissolved, when rank and birth are forgotten, when creed lies in the dust, the character you have earned by your life of service will endure for all time. And it is that character shining through your body that I see, and I rejoice in meeting a soul who has done some good. That is what I think about your wrong-doings.
"There is nothing for you to fear. You can go straight ahead. You wish me to speak frankly?"
Mary: "Yes."
Silver Birch: “You do not want to make lots of money. What you want to do is to do the greatest for good that you can. Isn't that so?”
Mary: "Yes.”
Silver Birch: "That motive brings its own reward, and the other is automatic. It is given to you for the single purpose of giving you confidence and there is nothing to fear. Have no fear in your heart. Fear disturbs vibrations. You know about vibrations?"
Mary: "Yes, I know something about them.”
Silver Birch: "Fear disturbs the atmosphere. If your heart is full of unbounded, unremitting confidence, if your soul is full of indomitable resolution because your mind has know-ledge of spiritual verities, that cannot fail in a world where all values are changing.
"Nothing in the world of matter can touch you, the real you, the indestructible, infinite, eternal you. You can go forward with the full knowledge that the power which is behind you, guiding you, upholding you and sustaining you, is the mightiest power in the universe, the power of love that seeks to use you as a greater instrument of service for the Great Spirit of all life, to make known His love and His wisdom, His truth and His knowledge, to those who still know nothing about these things.
"Sometimes in the silence of your chamber you have shed tears because you think, or you have thought, you have failed. You have not. The road lies straight in front of you and the glorious promise of fulfilment will be attained. I hope I have helped you."
Mary: "Thank you very much."
Silver Birch: "No. I never accept thanks. Thanks should be rendered to the Great Spirit, whose servants we all are. I strive to perform this task and I do it with willingness and cheerfulness, and if anything I have said has been of help, then it is because I am going about my Father's business. Perhaps some time we will meet again and I can be of further service to you.
"Till then, look up, not down. Remember that light and love stream in abundance from the infinite source, which possesses an infinite storehouse. Fill yourself from that rich, vast treasury. It is yours for the asking. And go on writing.”
To the circle, the guide said:
"May the power of the spirit remain with you as an in-spiring force and may you become increasingly conscious of the gifts with which you have been endowed and developing them, render service to those less fortunate than yourselves, so that your lives are truly worth while the living.”
Then, just before he gave up control of the medium, the guide gave Mary a final message. "Your mother says I mustn't go away until she reassures you that her love is undying,” he said, "that she never forgets that which you have done for her and that she is repaying what she considers to be that debt. She would not let me go."
Mary: “But I owe her so much. Not in ten lives could I repay it."
Silver Birch: "Well, you may have more than ten lives."
Mary: "More than a cat? I shall have eighteen lives! I shall come again one day to England to live."
Silver Birch: “Oh, it's not the first time you have come here in life. But that's another story."
Mary: "Just one little thing .. would you tell me one little thing about meーmy English self ?"
Silver Birch: "It goes back more than two centuries. We shall have to meet again. I am going now. I cannot hold the medium any more."
Mary, it seems, had long believed herself to be the reincar-nation of a girl who lived in England over two centuries ago. I forget now her reason for accepting this as being true.
Anyway, having been born as Gladys Smith, in Toronto, she is proud of her British origin.