SPIRIT HEALING: BEHIND THE SCENES

　　　CHAPTER TWO

 SPIRIT HEALING: BEHIND THE SCENES

　"GREAT as is the work that has been achieved, the crown is still to be attained."

　These words were addressed by Silver Birch to Harry Edwards when-the famous healer, accompanied by his helpers, Olive and George Burton, were present at a sitting.

　"You are coming into the fullness of your labours," added the guide. "All that has gone before is the preparation. Just as John the Baptist paved the way for the coming of the Nazarene, so the past years have paved the way for the coming events, for greater power to descend and work with you.

　"The willingness, the sacrifice, the trust which has attained almost to perfection, these bring their own reward. Coalescence of the power of the spirit and the earthly forces becomes closer and closer, with the result that very often you have what seems the impossible taking place. I would like you to observe the great speed in which this can be attained when the conditions are right."

　"We have seen that," said Edwards.

　"So rejoice that great progress is being made," Silver Birch continued, "that souls are being touched and the incentive is being provided to others to strive to attain this measure of suc-cess. Keep your eyes on the one purpose, and that is to awaken souls to the reality of life. That is the reason, the main reason, for all spirit activity. Nothing else matters. The healing, the comfort that is attained through mediumship, the varying kinds of phenomena, all these draw attention to the message, that all who live are part of the Great Spirit, spiritual beings, and they must realise that so that they shall claim their heritage and fulfl their destiny.

　"I know it is not easy always to do this work, but sometimes the greater the task the greater the difficulties that stand in the way. Spiritual attainment is not easy. It is a lonely path, it must be so. If all the great heights to which humanity can ascend were easy of attainment, they would not be worth while. The soul finds itself, not through ease, not through leisure, not through idleness, but through toil and striving and difficulty. It was never intended to be easy.

　"Those who see you perform your acts of healing, and think how easy this all is, are only looking at the surface. They forget that behind it all there are the years of struggle before the present pinnacle has been reached. While they may be satisfied, you must not be. You must realise that every peak when it is reached reveals another peak that has to be scaled as well. I hope that helps you. I expect you know all this already."

　"Yes, but it is good to know it again," said Edwards.

　"The great value of our meeting like this is that we, who are not in your world, can remind you of the eternal principles, the unfailing spiritual truths, the foundation upon which we all rest. You who are encased in matter and have to face the daily prob-lems and obstacles of your material bodies sometimes become so engrossed with these purely material things that you lose sight of the great spiritual realities behind them.

　"How easy it is to think of the body as the individual, and this world in which you live as the reality, and not to realise the truth, which is that your world is the shadow and that your body is but the instrument of a much larger self. If only every hour of the day each one of you had the true perspective and could view every problem that arose in the light of spiritual knowledge, how much easier it would be; but, alas, it is not so.

　"Even those who are engaged in the great task of co-operating with the power of the spirit forget, again and again, their primary obligations and are unable to measure up to the standard that their knowledge requires of them. Knowledge is a great teacher, a great helper, but it is always a great responsibility as to what you will do with the knowledge that you have attained.

　"I know that in the course of your labours you will meet with many problems, some that will seem almost impossible to ex-plain, some that will puzzle you, but this must be so. We are confronted again and again, with the human element in your world and in ours. The law is perfect, but it has to work through imperfect beings, and it is impossible to predict with mathe-

matical certainty what will happen with the law when it has to operate through human beings.

　"Circumstances arise that thwart even the best laid plans. Sometimes I have seen it happen after many long years of pre-paration that the one who is chosen for the task decides according to his free will not to go ahead and all that is wasted. But we can rejoice at the measure of spirit power that is at work and we can rejoice that it is increasing in intensity. The fact that you can relieve and cure, the fact that you can help the suffering, the fact that this work grows and does not lessen, the fact that many come to you seeking, even though they may do so as their very last resort, all these are indications that the power of the spirit is spreading.

　"I am one of those who contends that, once an individual has been touched by the power of the spirit, he can never be the same again. It brings to bear an influence that cannot be described, or even forgotten."

　"On that last point it seems to me we want to have healing and preaching combined," the healer commented. "There seems to be no spiritual upliftment as far as the person is concerned."

　"Not visibly," was the reply, "but there is an unseen influence at work all the time. The power of the spirit is magnetic and you cannot break that magnetic link once it has been made. The mere fact that an individual has been through your handsーI use the word 'hands' in the symbolic sense because they need not actually be personally treatedーmeans that he has made his own link, that the spirit magnet has joined the metal and it will never be separated.

　"To those who can see with the eyes of the spirit, with clair-voyance, the dark patch shows a little light. It is the first glimmer of understanding. It is as if the seed has pushed its head above the ground. It has emerged out of the darkness for the first time.

　"That is what you achieve. It is very good to have the body put right, no one will dispute that, but it is much more important that the soul shall come into its own, and by bringing it in touch with itself, to use the words of the Bible, finding itself. You have placed it for the first time on the road that leads to under-standing."

　Here a member of the circle commented, "Very often some people think that a process of magic has been achieved. They think of the healer as a magician not an instrument of the Great Spirit."

　"I do not counsel it," replied the guide, "because if you try to combine the two it might be to the detriment of what is more important for them at that moment. If you lay stress on the fact that you are instruments of the power of the spirit, it may not sink in all at once, but you have started them thinking."

　"What we find supporting the evidence of the continuance of spirit power is that, at times, people who ask for help write a year later to say they have got better," Edwards told the guide.

　"That always must be," declared Silver Birch, "because what you cannot control is the measure of the spiritual unfoldment of the individual. I have touched on this before, but all is controlled by the evolution of the soul. That is the decisive factor. No soul can obtain for itself that to which it is not entitled. The body is but the servant of the spirit; it is not the master."

　Here the healer asked. “Do you mean that an unevolved soul cannot be helped by spirit healing?"

　"Yes, that is precisely what I mean," said Silver Birch, "but 'unevolved' is a difficult word. You must appreciate that when I speak of the law I do not refer to one law. I refer to the law which comprises all the natural laws of the universe. These con-form to a perfect pattern. They are laws within laws all the time. The universe is boundless; no one can see its limit. The universe, like the Great Spirit, is infinite; the laws of the Great Spirit are in-finite too and progress is an infinite process.

　"Every person in the world of matter is a soul in a body. Now that soul is at a certain stage of evolution. You cannot dismiss the past life; it must come into the picture. The body is the expres-sion of the mind, which in its turn is the expression of the spirit. The body represents the stage that the spirit has attained. If that soul is not to be healed because the pain is an essential concomi-tant of the process of purification that the soul must pass through in order to be ready for its next stage, then the that flows through you cannot touch it, and there is no healer who can touch it.

　"Pain is part of nature's process; pain is part of the law; pain, sorrow, suffering, these are all part of the natural law. You are back to what I have always tried to tell you, that sunshine and shadow, peace and storm, light and darkness, love and hatred, all these are parts of the law; you cannot have one without the other."

　"Pain is the result of breaking the law," commented a member of the circle.

　"Do not use the words 'breaking the law'ーsay transgressing it," averred the guide. "But then you can only learn about the law through transgression sometimes. You are not perfect beings, you have the seed of perfection which is growing, but it can only grow through the variety of conditions that life imposes. If there were no pain, no storm, no difficulty, no suffering, no disease, the soul could not grow. 

　"The law cannot fail. If the law could fail then the Great Spirit would cease to be the Great Spirit and the universe would cease to have any harmony, rhythm or purpose. You must pin your whole faith on the exactness and perfection of the natural law, because there are stages where you cannot have knowledge and you must rely on faith. I never decry faith born of know-ledge. I decry blind faith which becomes mere credulity. But you cannot have all the knowledge and so you must perforce rely on some faith to help you. I do not want, as a result, that you should avoid compassion or mercy or tenderness and say, "This is the result of the law, I can do no more.' That would be wrong. You must strive to do your utmost, because in your striving you are fulfilling your own spiritual obligations."

　After answering some questions Silver Birch stated: "The soul makes its own path. In addition to that, the body of matter im-poses some restriction and limitation on the soul. The machine owes its existence to the spirit. There is a double influence at work the whole time, but overriding all is the influence of the soul. The soul is pre-eminent. This must be so because the soul is the Great Spirit within you and everything the Great Spirit possesses you possess in miniature."

　"It seems very fundamental," Edwards declared. "You said that upon the state of the evolution of the soul depends whether healing can take place. If that is so, then we should devote more time to the healing of the mind rather than physical healing."

　The guide asked, "Where do you think your healing power is exerted now if not on the spirit of those who come to you?"

　"Through healing, the spirit self is healed and from that the physical healing takes place," replied Edwards.

　"Yes, that is whbat I say," the guide pointed out.

　"Is it not necessary for us to influence the physical mind?" Edwards inquired.

　The guide answered: "The physical mind is but the servant of the spirit. If you get the spirit mind to work all the rest will follow, but if the spirit has not attained the stage of evolution where it can respond then you cannot make it work. The soul must advance still further. It will have to endure those processes which will shape it, and these are the painful ones. The soul cannot awaken in conditions of ease."

　A member of the circle asked, "Do you mean that if the soul has not reached the necessary stage of evolution, even the in-fluence of the healers from the spirit side cannot help?"

　"It is the same law which applies to you and to us," answered Silver Birch.

　"Isn't this what the Christian Scientists believe?" another per-son asked.

　"All truth is truth," the guide answered. "Labels do not mat-ter, it is the principle with which we are concerned. If the one who is called a Christian Scientist can get the power of the spirit to work and, as a result of the life-giving, dynamic, vital forces, make the body obey and the cure is achieved, it matters not whether you call it spirit healing or Christian Science, does it?"

　"I know that we play a part," said Edwards, "but it is very difficult for us to reach the soul of the patients."

　"You do play a part, a very important part. If you were not there it could not happen. You are the instruments; you are the mediums; you are the condensers; you are the means by which the power is transmitted."

　"Transmitted to what, the body or the soul?" asked the healer. 

　"I am not concerned with bodies," said the guide. "What makes an arm locked?"

　"The physical state of the arm," Edwards replied.

　"What has happened to that normal, healthy force which gives movement to the arm?"

　"It has gone: it has surrendered to the disease; it has created the ill-condition."

　"If that vitality could circulate, once again, what would happen?"

　"The arm would get better."

　"How do you get the life force to circulate through the arm?"

　"That is their problem, not mine."

　"You cannot do it by pushing the arm."

　"Not by force."

　"Not by force. But if the soul, which made the body in the first instance to be its instrument, can now pursue its old function and allow the force to function, where there is now a lock, health

will result."

　"That is what we see."

　Another visitor to the circle asked, "Is the function of the healer to give stimulus to the natural resources of the patient?"

　Silver Birch answered: "It is a little more than that, because the power of the spirit has to be stepped down owing to the fact that the patient is a spirit in a body in an earthly world, vibrating at a rate much lower than the power which has to reach him. The healers, who are the transformers, enable the power to be stepped down, and when the soul is ready healing is almost instantaneous; because of the degree of harmony between you and those that work with you the power can flow with lightning rapidity. If the soul of the patient cannot receive that force, there is nothing you can do. You cannot transfer the dynamic into the bent leg; it is only the soul of the patient that can do that."

　Still the comments came, one visitor declaring, "Some people who say they do not believe in God are healed."

　"Yes, because whether they believe in the Great Spirit or not, the law can operate," the guide said.

　"But you would not think their souls would be evolved enough."

　"You can have a great soul, who is an agnostic, and you can have a poor soul, who is religious. The greatness of the soul is not measured by belief, but by action, Listen, you can only help those who are ready to be helped. Rejoice at the fact that so many can be helped to find the light. It should be a measure of great satisfaction that through your instrumentality there are so many souls who are freed and who can rejoice because their feet have been placed on the pathways that lead to knowledge, to understanding and to abiding peace. That is the measure of the success. You will not be able to help them all; it is part of the law. I do not say that you should be satisfiedーjust as I say that the Great Spirit is in love and hatred, in sunshine and in storm. Success and failure again play their part, for if there were no failures there could be no successes."

　Next came these questions: "Why is it that some people who believe and have faith and knowledge do not respond as well as they ought to spiritual healing? Is it a question of their soul?"

　"Yes, it always comes back to the same thing. It is not a ques-tion of belief, faith, love. It is a question of the soul and what that soul is entitled to receive as a result of the stage it has reached in its evolution."

　"We can see physical laws, but we cannot see the change to spirit laws," said Edwards.

　"Even if you had many clairvoyants around you, they would not all see the same process at work. It is a most complex pro-cess. Do not think for a minute that it is simple. The whole of the interaction between matter and spirit is profound and com-plex. The body itself is a complicated piece of machinery and the spirit,too, is full of many facets. All of these are subject to laws that work within laws. Whilst harmony rules throughout, within the framework of all these laws there is plenty of inter-play and the one reacts upon the other."

　Olive Burton asked, "Did you say that the physical suffering of a person does not affect the spirit?"

　"No, I did not say that. Any suffering to the body affects the spirit and suffering to the spirit affects the body. You cannot divorce one from the other. You are one person. Your body is part of you because it is a means by which you express your-self. You are the spirit. What happens to your body affects the spirit."

　Next she asked, "If we make intercession for spirit help for people dying in agony, and the help cannot be given to keep them in this life, do you sometimes dissociate the spirit from the body to prevent any detrimental effect on the spirit?"

　"That depends on the individual. The soul will be released from the body when the natural law determines it, unless you jump ahead of the natural law and force a severance, as does happen many times."

　"We have had instances where we have thought that hap-pened."

　"Remember that in all such cases there is a law of balance at work; there is a shock to the spirit, though not a great onè."

　"Is it a shock caused by the early releasing?" 

　"That is so. In all things there are compensation and retri-bution. If the soul frees itself from the body before its proper time, it has an adjustment to make. It must depend on the in-dividual circumstance. Where you can help is that, if the soul has earned the right, you can ease the pain, the adjustment is made and it is cushioned off, as it were, until it finds its proper status."

　Edwards asked. "If there is a condition where the patient is in such a state that there is no hope, is it a good or bad thing to hasten the end?"  

　"I am one of those who always believe that the body should fall away when the spirit is ready to permit it."

　"You hasten the break if you hasten the end of the physical body," said the healer. "Is that a right thing to do if there is great pain and suffering and there is not much chance of living?"

　"I know the difficulty and I do not wish to appear to be stony-hearted in this matter. The law is quite clear and the body should fall away when the spirit is ready, just as the apple drops from the tree when it is ripe. If the apple drops before it is ripe it is not good for the apple. I am pointing out what should take place within the framework of natural law.

　"There is the circumstance where through drugs and poisons, the body becomes full of disease. The body was not intended to be riddled with disease; the laws have been transgressed, and so

we go from stage to stage. Doesn't this point out what the natural result should be, no interference by the individual, by the doctor, or by anybody? All must come within the framework of natural law.

　"It must produce an effect. As to whether it is good or bad these can be determined by the knowledge of spiritual realities. It is not what is good for the body but what is best for the spirit, for what is best for the spirit must be best for the body."

　On another occasion when Edwards and the Burtons were present the guide emphasised: "The true aim of the power of the spirit is to touch the souls of those who come within your ministry. Until the people of your world realise that they are souls and not physical bodies, they are going through life com-pletely indifferent to reality; they are living in the shadows and chasing illusions. It is only when they become aware of their real selves, their spiritual natures, that they come face to face with reality. To find yourself is the object of all earthly life, because once you find yourself you will then, if you are wise, proceed to develop that divinity which lies within you. It is mostly true that in your world people do not find themselves, and are unaware of their spiritual nature until some sorrow or tragedy touches them. It is only in the darkness of life that light is found.

　"You meet mostly those who are afflicted in body and mind and the healing should induce in them a realisation that they are spiritual beings, and if you can touch their spiritual natures, if you can kindle the divine spark, the flame will come in time and its illumination will brighten the whole of their lives. Now that is not always easy. You may succeed in putting right a limb that is misplaced, or clearing up a disorderly condition, but if in so doing the individual is aware that he is a spirit with a body, not a body with a spirit, then you are indeed performing the greatest service that is possible.

　"You must appreciate that we are more concerned with the spirit than with the body. If the spirit is right, then the body will be right, but if the spirit is not right, not in true alignment, then the body cannot possibly be right. I would like you to appreciate this because it is an aspect of your labours that you cannot measure. The gratitude and thankfulness of those who obtain a cure, or relief, or a betterment, is as naught compared with the soul being touched and the releasing of that tremendous dynamic that is within them.

　"It is not an easy task on which you are engaged; it demands great sacrifice and service. It is performed amidst difficulty and the pathway is not an easy one. But the path of the pioneer is never easy, neither is the road of those who give service one that is freed from obstacles. You must not expect that it should be so. Each obstacle and difficulty is a challenge to your own nature that you should rise triumphant above it and allow the pure gold of the spirit to be exhibited."

　Here Harry Edwards asked, "With the healing of the mind, or the healing of the soul, is that not done more from your

side than from ours?"

　"Yes, it must be so," the guide replied.

　"Is the part we play very little?"

　"It is little and large," answered Silver Birch. "It is all a ques-tion of attunement. If you realise what takes place, it is a ques-tion of stepping down or lowering the vibration, frequency or radiation of these healing forces which, as you know, are differing kinds of rays, to a potential that can be manifested in physical form. That is one way. The other method is by using rays which produce a direct effect either on the mind or the spirit, that is the consciousness of the sufferer, thus allowing the natural cura-tive power to get rid of any disharmony or disease. That does not sound very clear."

　"Yes it is clear, but its application is not so easily seen,' Edwards commented.

　"Let me put it another way," said the guide. "Nobody in your world knows what life is. It cannot be resolved into a physical, chemical or scientific explanation. Life eludes because life cannot be resolved into any material formula. Now we say that life is spirit and spirit is life. That power of the spirit which is released in your activity is life itselfーthe same power that enables individuals to have consciousness, to breathe, to move, to walk, to think, to reflect, the same power that enables the whole of the natural phenomena of life to perform and fulfil their functions, the same power that enables the tree to grow, the rose to bloom, the tide to ebb and flow. It is all part and parcel of the same power of the spirit.

  "What makes you live is the fact that you are a spirit. It is in essence that that power, in varying degrees, according to the development, the evolution of the patient, is released. Healing consists in applying this power to the soul of the patient where it is a disease that has its origin in the soul and not the body. As you know, there are two kinds of diseases, those that begin in the mind or the spirit, and those that are purely physical. The physical ones require the healer's touch, and those that owe their origin to mental or spiritual processes require the application of the power of the spirit.

　"There is a limitation imposed by a set of factors; your own evolution, the evolution of your two collaborators, and the evolution reached by the person who comes for healing. What I call the karmic law is also at work, a process of cause and effect all the time."

　There are many diseases of the mind or the soul, but they have different effects on the body," said the healer. "I assume, therefore, that there must be qualitative healing forces to deal with the individual healing condition."

　"Yes, that is perfectly true," said the guide. "Man is a triune being. Primarily, man is a spirit, that is the seed, the foundation of existence. Spirit is the first cause. This spirit is expressed through mind, which is the centre of consciousness, and mind regulates the body, which is the physical apparatus. Mind, spirit and body are interrelating factors that affect one another. Not only does mind affect the body, the body qualifies the mind; you cannot have one without the other."

　"That works both ways," said Edwards.

　"Yes," agreed Silver Birch, "the limitation of the mental and spiritual expression of the individual affect the body, and the body can be regulated to a height as yet unknown by the mind and the spirit. Study the fakirs who train themselves to have a complete mastery and discipline over their bodies. They can perform bodily feats that to the eyes of the Western world are impossible. That merely means that they have trained the mind to rule the body with a consciousness, a deliberate consciousness, that is not usually done."

　Edwards asked, "If you kindle that consciousness within the spirit, as we may do, is not the spirit a dominant factor in the individual and could it not be more easily done from your side than from ours?"

　Silver Birch answered: "In some cases Yes, but in the majority of cases No, because, like the many individuals who come to our world, although they are no longer on earth they are still nearer to earth than they are to spirit. Their evolution is so compara-tively low that they are unable to respond to spiritual stimuli. Where you have this condition in your world we cannot reach them. That is what your mediumship consists of; it is the nexus, the stepping down process. The attuned medium, the evolved medium, is able both to reach out to spirit and to respond to matter. 

　"That is why it is very important that the healer, or the medium of any kind who desires to achieve the greatest results, should also strive to develop his own spiritual nature. It must be so that the higher you reach spiritually, the greater is the good that you can do because your range is extended. It is part of the law. As a corollary, it must be emphasised, too, that this process of development is a lonely path in which, as the individual un-folds, he leaves familiar signposts behind. I think you appreciate that; you cannot have one without the other."

　Edwards intervened with: "You said of the healing rays, in one aspect of them, that they come and affect the physical body. Can you give me an indication where or how the change takes place between a spirit healing force and the physical change? There must at some time come, the linking-up, where the spirit can be converted into matter? Can you give me any indication where the link is."

　The guide answered: "It depends on the kind of healing that is to be performed. Some will find it hard to believe this, but in some cases the centres are the old ones laid down by the masters of wisdom. The 'third eye' and the solar plexus are used because these are centres where body, mind and spirit link up. As an alternative, the subconscious mind of the individual, where it is receptive, is acted upon in such a way so that it is stimulated into sending the necessary chemical reaction to the affected part in a manner that it would normally do if health were there and not disease."

　Edwards said: "It is clear, but I still cannot see where the 'no man's land' is. Can you give me an indication of a more tangible link between the physical condition and the spirit healing force? There must be somewhere, some manner, where they change."

　The guide replied: "That is rather difficult, my son, because it is not possible to explain it in a manner that I think I could make you understand it, but it is somewhat akin to what I think in your world is called a condenser, the function of a condenser being to regulate the transmission of one frequency into another. That is what mediumship is. In some cases, what you

call ecto-plasm is used, but not in the form in which it is used at a seance to reproduce a voice, or for materialisation, but in a more invisibleーー"

　"An in-between state?" suggested Edwards.

　The answer was, "Yes, where it is sufficiently plastic and malleable to spirit influence but yet sufficiently semi-physical to work in the material world. It is your power combined with it that acts as the condenser. Then this healing force actually flows into the individuals either through the pineal gland or the solar plexus. The vital force streams through their whole being and that is when they feel this warm electrical vibration.

　"What you have to appreciate is that there is no set method. It is all a question of experiment. Every time you have healing you attract more and more what you would call scientists from our world. They have noted the reactions; what rays have been used; they have measured them; and that is why you have found a quickening in the results. You have noticed, for example, that often there is a healing before the patient comes on to the plat-form, and that will continue. The greatest part of your work is done, not in public, but in the silence of your soul."

　Edwards said: "That does lead me to another question. There is an idea prevalentーyou have just spoken of the gathering of scientists on your side－that there is conflict between various healing guides should one of our patients receive absent healing from us and physical healing from another medium. It seems to me to be contrary to all spiritual law. What do you think?"

　The guide answered, "I say let the results determine it."

　"But that is not an argument that we can use." 

　"In some cases there is a conflict and in other cases there is no conflict. This cannot be laid down because there is a varied set of circumstances with every patient. You cannot look at an in-dividual and say if he comes to you you will heal him. It may be that the stage of evolution he has reached and you have reached will determine that you can succeed, and it may be that you can partially help and others, with another set of conditions, can go a stage further. The more one sees of the working of this simple but intricate process, the more one guards oneself against laying down arbitrary laws. The power of the spirit is infinite in its variety of manifestations. The wisest plan is not to assert what must and what must not be. There are certain essentials of motive and desire to serve, but after that who is to say what will succeed or what will not succeed?"

　Edwards said: "We are not concerned with the details, but with the general principle, whether there is co-operation of all the healing guides to help a patient if necessary."

　Silver Birch replied: "The hall-mark of an evolved soul is that he will not deny anybody. We will help wherever we can. This is the standard set in the highest realms. Never refuse, my son, never turn away a soul. You have produced mental and spiritual effects that are eternal in their nature. Do not attempt to judge. You cannot see with the eyes of the spirit, and you cannot realise the measure of the work that is done.

　"You help far more than you know. Be assured that the ser-vice that you render is one of the greatest services that can be performed in your world. Where it would seem that physical success has not crowned your efforts, do not despair; it is no reflection on you or who are associated with you. The natural law must always work. You know there are no miracles; all is regulated by infinite love and infinite wisdom.

　"I would say this to you and your collaborators. Try as much as you can to fix your gaze on the golden gleam of the spirit. Do not let earthly conditions disturb you. There are no difficul-ties that have crossed your path, or that will cross your path, which will be insuperable obstacles to the work to which you have set your hands, as long as the desire to serve is the para-mount consideration. All will be overcome and the path of service will broaden as long as you desire to follow it. Not only do relief and ease and freedom follow in your trail, but you leave behind an incentive for others to aspire to the height that you have attained and which should provide you with the incentive to climb even to greater heights. We have not yet reached the apex of spiritual attainment. We are still far, far away, because the power of the spirit is like the Great Spirit, infinite in all its possibilities."

　A member of the circle asked, "Is it a good thing for a person to go only to one healer?"

　Silver Birch said: "Generally, the question is very hard to answer, because one would have to see the spiritual condition of the person and the spiritual condition surrounding the healer. You must remember there is a great range. There are some who heal not with any power of the spirit at all. They heal by a trans-mission of their own abundant, vital energy. The world of spirit is not involved in any way. That is not a bad thing, it is merely one form of healing. It is impossible to lay down any law as to what an individual should do. What is not a good thing to do is for an individual to make the whole round of healers because he gives nobody a chance. We would try to co-operate from our world, but this is setting up a flurry, an emotional flurry, round that individual that makes it harder for the power of the spirit to work. As you well know, spirit power is trans-mitted best in an atmosphere of passive quiescence, where in quietness the soul is able to come into its own."

　Edwards said, "My question was that a person may be re-ceiving direct healing from one and absent healing from another healer."

　Silver Birch said: "But there is no conflict. You have proved that case. You have given healing to those who have had healing from others."

　Here, George Burton interposed: "I often think of the journey of one's prayers in the spirit world. There are so many different ways people can pray, especially for healing. I know there are some who think that by concentrating for a long time on a

person that much more help can be given. I would like to know how prayers reach the spirit world."

　Silver Birch responded: "The answer to the question depends on the prayer and the one who prays. You appreciate that all is regulated by law in the whole realm of the universe; there is no chance and no miracle. If the prayer is merely a request of a selfish nature, it is an indication of the state of evolution which the individual has reached, and it is obvious that the prayer can-not produce any real effect. If the prayer is one that is unselfish, and has as its primary motive the desire to serve, that is an indica-tion of the spiritual nature of the individual. By virtue of his evolution, he has already given wings to that prayer and it possesses a potency that is the direct result of his own spiritual attainment. Such a prayer automatically creates the conditions which will bring response. It is all controlled by the stage in evolution which the individual has reached."

　A member of the circle said, "In other words, our prayers are no better than we are ourselves."

　The guide declared, "That must be so."

　Edwards said, "The simple prayer from a simple soul is of more value than a pretentious prayer from an archbishop."

　Silver Birch answered: "It does not matter what the office is, it is the soul that is important; it is the soul that provides the in-dex. If the archbishop is a man of great spiritual attainment,

then the prayer will be a potent one, but if he is one who is over-loaded with theology, then the power of the spirit cannot penetrate. And the mass petitions of days of prayer, these are comparatively of no value either. The Great Spirit is not impressed with numbers, or with rank or title; it is the state of the soul that determines what happens.

　"True prayer is a spiritual exercise in which the soul strives to soar higher than it has reached before. A prayer that desires to uplift and to serve is the prayer that will produce results. All your problems are known to the Great Spirit, who by the very nature of being the Great Spirit is familiar with all that takes place in the universe. The Great Spirit is the intelligence behind the natural law. Thus you cannot cheat the law; you cannot

cheat the Great Spirit. You cannot even cheat yourself."

　Olive Burton said: "Reverting to healing, some people hold the view that it is essential for the patient to have faith to be helped, but many believe that faith does not enter into it. What do you say?"

　Silver Birch replied: "On the subject of healing, or in any exercise where the power of the spirit is involved, there are complex processes. It is not easy to answer a question with a simple Yes or No. There are cases where faith will help. Faith founded on knowledge will stimulate the spirit because it is a yearning of the spirit to find itself－not a blind faith, a credulous faith, not faith desiring miracles, but faith built on knowledge of natural spiritual laws. But even so where there is no faith, in-deed, where there is complete ignorance, healing can still be achieved if individuals have reached the stage in evolution which determines that help is forthcoming."

　Olive Burton asked, "We sometimes wonder why a person, who is obviously a sceptic, is helped and another, a good soul, does not get help."

　The guide answered: "The line is drawn by the soul. You must remember that your judgment is an outward one, not an inward one. You cannot see the soul, you are unable to deter-mine the measure of its accomplishment. It is the soul that regu-lates the result. I lived in your world of matter a long time ago, I have lived in the world of spirit for a long time and I have seen the operation of many natural laws. I marvel at their mathe-matical exactitude; they never fail in their operation. There is true justice for every soul, not necessarily in your world, but in ours. When the ledger is drawn up, perfect justice is revealed.

　"Do your task with willingness, with gladness, with service, and leave the result to the Great Spirit. You can do no more. It is not for you to determine who shall or who shall not be helped; you cannot do that, much as you would desire it. You cannot make the choice; you are instruments, as we are instruments of higher powers. Rest content that this superior wisdom and greater knowledge of the law will determine that each soul receives according to its need."

　The subject of healing was again discussed on another occa-sion when a visitor from Pakistan put this question to Silver Birch: "In view of the wonderful cures one so frequently hears about, why is it that some people with apparently small ailments seem to be incurable?"

　The guide answered: "There is nothing incurable, for every disease has a cure. The universe is simple but complex; there are depths of profundity, there are laws within laws. Knowledge leads to knowledge and knowledge leads to further knowledge. There is no finality to understanding. Wisdom is infinite. I say all this because you must try to realise that there is no easy an-swer to questions which touch upon the very nature of the soul, its constitution, its origin, its evolution and its destiny.

　"Again and again I hear people of your world say: 'Why is this one healed and another one not healed? Why is it that even when there is love and the desire to heal, the cure is not forth-coming, yet when there is no love and a comparative stranger presents himself the cure is effected? These matters are regulated by law; the law which determines all this is the law relating to the soul's state of evolution, and that is not only fixed by the epi-sodes of this life, but often they take cognisance of the events of former lives. You cannot judge the things of the spirit by measuring them with earthly standards. If you attempt to reduce the whole of life to a physical explanation you will fail, but alas, unfortunately, too often encased in matter yourself you cannot see with the eyes of the spirit and so there are apparent injustices and inequalities.

　"The Great Spirit is perfect justice, the Great Spirit is perfect wisdom because the Great Spirit is perfect law in operation. It is not possible for you to attain to the summits of all the know-ledge there is because your understanding is limited to finite measurements. Do not accept the idea that there are any incur-able cases; there are not. What is true sometimes is that the soul has not earned the right for that palliation, easement, relief or cure and that in effect what is happening is the law of Karma in operation. This is not said to encourage any ideas of fatalism, but to establish the principle that law is always in operation, even if you cannot see it."