TEACHINGS OF SILVER BIRCH

　　　   HANNEN SWAFFER

"This book goes out into the world of matter with the blessing of the world of spirit. I pray that each whom it reaches may have his eyes opened and his soul touched, for until the soul is quickened and is aware of the higher, deeper, nobler and greater things of life, the individual is living in a mist."

　　　　　　　　　　　　　- SILVER BIRCH

( First published in 1938

Tenth impression printed 2002 )

                  Introduction

   There are a number of possible reasons why you are reading this book. The first and most likely is that you are already a "follow- er" of Silver Birch and have found his great wisdom and spiritual insights of benefit in your life. In this case you will welcome this reprint of one of the classic books of his teachings. Maybe you have been given this book by a friend who believes its message of love, in this world and the next, will inspire or comfort you. If so, you will not be dissappointed.

   Perhaps you chanced upon it on a bookshelf or saw it adver- tised, then curiosity got the better of you. Well, after reading its pages you may also decide that "chance" played no part in the decision and that some form of spiritual guidance has brought you and this book together. 

　Whatever the reason, the chances are that Silver Birchs's wis- dom will remain with you forever. Long after you have forgotten his precise words, his guidance will still be a very real influence whenever you need it. And if you need to jog your memory - just reach for this book and read it again. Silver Birch's words are so accessible and meaningful that you will never tire of reading them. But who is Siver Birch, the spirit guide whose words are faithfully recorded here? And who was Maurice Barbanell, the London medium who channelled that wisdom? Without an answer to these qestions, many new readers - however impressed with these teachings - will be puzzled about their

source. 

   Barbanell was the founder and editor of a weekly Spiritualist newspaper, Psychic News, and for half a century devoted his life to spreading spiritual knowledge through its columns and those of other publications with which he was associated. In his own obituary, which he wrote before his passing at the age of 79 on July 17th 1981, he revealed that he was told by Estelle Roberts' Red Cloud - a spirit guide for whom he had the greatest admira- tion - that in a previous incarnation he had made a promise to reincarnate and devote his life to spreading Spiritualism. Though he had no knowledge of that life or promise, events cer- tainly conspired to make it possible.

   He was born to Jewish parents in a poor area of London's East End. His mother was devoutly religious but his father, a barber, was an atheist so Barbanell heard many arguments about reli- gion during his early years. His father always won, and his son adopted the same outlook but later changed to agnosticism. Yet after hearing about Spiritualism from a speaker at a social and literary club of which he was secretary, Barbanell refused to start the debate by putting an opposing view - one of his duties - because he explained, he had made no personal investigation and therefore his opinions were valueless. This imapressed the speaker who invited Barbanell to attend a sceance in which a medium. Mrs Blaustein, was entranced by various spirits of dif- ferent nationalities. He was not impressed, and on a second visit fell asleep. Barbanell apologised, believing that either boredom or tiredness had been responsible, but the other circle members informed him that he had not been asleep but had been in trance and a Red Indian had spoken through him.

   With the enccouragement of famous Fleet Street journalist Hannen Swaffer, Barbanell founded Psychic News partly as a vehicle for the guide's teachings. But, because he knew he would be criticised for publishing his own mediumship in his own news- paper. Barbanell did not reveal to his readers for many yearswho was channelling the wisdom, by which time the guide had a huge following on his own merits.

   Silver Birch spoke regularly at Barbanell's home circle and the proceedings were always recorded in shorthand. There were a number of diffferences in style and procedure between Barbanell's own journalistic efforts and the way in which Silver Birch communicated, as Barbanell himself observed:

   "In my working life I use words every day. I have never yet written or dictated an article with which I was satisfied when I read it. Inevitably I find, when looking at the typed material, that I can improve it by altering words, phrases and sentences. No such problem arises with the guide's teachings. These flow perfectly, requiring usually only punctuation. Another interest-ing aspect is the occasional use of words that I regard as archa- ic and do not form part of my normal vocabulary." 

   But who was Silver Birch? A psychic artist depicts him as a serious-looking native American Indian with a single feather and compassionate eyes. There is evidence to suggest that this was simply a convenient persona behind which a far more spiri- tually-evolved soul hid in order that those who read his words would judge them not by the name attached to them but by the wisdom that pervades every sentence.

   Those of us who knew them both were well aware of the dif- ferences in the way they spoke and the words they used. They both had spiritual missions and they fulfilled them admirably, particularly when working together in their unique two-world partnership. This, as you are about to discover, has provided us with simplke, uplifting, comforting and inspirational answers to the questions we all ask, from time to time, about life and its purpose. They are needed now more than ever before as we pre- pare for the challenges that will confront us in the 21at cenuury.

　　　　　　　　　　　　 Roy   Stemman

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Chairman

                  Spiritual Truth Foundation

                       FOREWORD

             BY  HANNEN SWAFFER

   SILVER BIRCH, as we call him, is not a Red Indian. who he is, we do not know. We assume that he uses the name of the spirit through whose astral body he expresses himself, it being impossible for the high vibration of the spiritual realm to which he belongs to manifest except through some other instrument.

　He is the spirit guide of what is known as “HANNEN SWAFFER's HOME CIRCLE."

   "One day I will tell you who I am," he told us recently. “I had to come in the form of a humble Indian to win your love and devotion, not by the use of any high-sounding name, and to prove myself by the truth of what I taught. That is the Law."

   Once, he nearly gave himself away, for, in describing his mission, in the words used in his own story, printed on Page 17, he began: "They said to me. ... I nearly used my real name then."

   Now Silver Birch came into my life soon after I became a Spiritualist in 1924. Ever since then, I have listened, for an hour and more at a time, to his teaching, his guidance and his counsel, and learned to love and respect him more than I love and respect any earthly being.

   He first functioned in an extraordinary way. A young man of eighteen, an Atheist who was making a study of Spiritual- ism, went mockingly to a circle in one of the poorest of London's suburbs. He laughed outright when, to use his own words, "old women became Chinamen and all sorts of things," only to be reproved by a medium who, in trance, said: “You will be doing this before long."

   Although he went away incredulous and sceptical, he returned the next week to the circle and then, half-way through, apologized for having fallen asleep.

   “You have been in trance,” said someone sitting next to him. “Your guide gave his name and said that he has been training you for this for years and that, before long, you will be speaking on Spiritualist platforms."

　Again, the young man laughed. ...

   In those days, Silver Birch spoke very few words of English, and those with a very crude accent. As the years passed, for he began to control his new-found medium often, his knowledge of our language so improved that his simple eloquence now often transcends that of any speaker to whom I have ever listened.

    'How do you know that the medium was in trance?" I have been asked.

    On more than one occasion Silver Birch, speaking through his medium, has told us to stick a pin in the medium's hand, and then to stick it in deeper. When coming out of trance, the medium has not remembered feeling anything. Nor has any mark been visible.

   "How do you know it does not come from the medium's subconscious mind?" is another question. Well, in some ways, the two contradict each other. Silver Birch teaches Rein- carnation. The medium himself turns down this theory and yet, in trance, confounds himself.

   Then another curious little thing is the fact that until, so that the guide's words could be printed in Psychic News, a reporter started to take them down, the medium always remembered, just as he was going to sleep that night, what had been said while he was in trance. This was because, when consenting to be a medium, he had extracted from Silver Birch a promise that he would know what had been said. Directly we started to record it, all this stopped.

　Now, the medium reads, next morning, the report of the sitting and is amazed at the beauty of the language that is uttered through his lips.

   Silver Birch is a teacher. He does not heal. He seldom gives evidential messages. Now and then, he apologizes for that, saying that he often regrets that he confined his mastery of the medium to teaching. Although he regards this teaching as all-important, he recognizes that the world needs evidence of Survival.

　During recent years, I have taken all sorts of people to hear Silver Birch talk-ininisters of religion, journalists, people from all parts of the world. I have never heard from any one of them a word of criticism of anything he said.

    One parson who took to him his theological difficulties found himself reduced to silence when, in simple words, Silver Birch explained what he calls “the Law".

    "Write down the most difficult questions you can think of,” I had said to the minister, beforehand. He went along, eager to challenge one of those spirit guides he had heard so often condemned by men of his cloth. He came away confounded. Silver Birch had made difficult theology too simple for a theologian.

   Now my home circle, of whom Silver Birch is the guide, sits every Friday night. Regularly every week, Psychic News prints a verbatim record of what he says. It is given to our home circle not for our private use, but so that it can be broadcast right across the world.

   As a consequence, Silver Birch has more followers than any carthly preacher. They belong to every clime and to almost every race, and are people of all shades of colour.

　Yet, put down in cold print, Silver Birch's words canne do more than convey a little of the nobility of his character. the warmth of his friendship and the natural dignity of his utterance. Sometimes, they compel tears. We know that we are in the presence, however humbly he may speak, of a high, exalted spirit. He never reproves. He never finds fault.

   The Churches talk of Jesus of Nazareth, of whom they know little, and of whose existence they have no proof. Silver Birch talks of “The Nazarene", as he calls him, as the highest of all the spiritual beings with whom he has contact, and, as Silver Birch has proved to us, after years of close association, that he could not lie, we know, if only because he says so, that the Jesus of the New Testament is still function- ing, still engaged on that divine mission which once brought him to this earth. So, to us, the words, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world,” have a meaning which the Churches cannot explain.

   When, in the pages which follow, you read Silver Birch's teaching, you must understand that it is all written down in the dark by a reporter who uses Braille notepaper, and who, expert stenographer though he is, is often tested severely to keep pace with the rapidity of Silver Birch's speech. On no occasion has a single word to be altered. Silver Birch's words flow in perfect English. Only the punctuation marks have to be put in, and even for these there is always a natural place which could not be mistaken.

   Silver Birch's philosophy, as you will easily understand, is that of a Pantheist, a man who realizes that God is found in Nature itself, that there is an unalterable Law which governs everything, and that God is the Law.

   “You are within the Great Spirit,” says Silver Birch, “and the Great Spirit is within you.” So we learn we are all potential gods, part of the great crcative principle which is Everything.

   Yet Silver Birch does not stop at unapplied philosophy. He forces home, always, the lesson that we are here to do a job. He sums up religion in the one word "Service," and strives to teach us, clumsy instruments though we may be, that we are in this world so that we may make an end of war, abolish poverty and hasten the time when God's bounty will be spread in all its lavishness among all the peoples of the world.

   "Our allegiance," says Silver Birch, "is not to a Creed, not to a Book, not to a Church, but to the Great Spirit of Life and to His eternal natural laws." So it is that the members of his circle, six in number, include three Jews and three Gentiles, who find in Spiritualism no racial or crecdal difference. Three were Agnostics and a fourth was a Wesleyan minister who, just before he joined our circle, had left Methodism because no longer could he accept its teachings.

   Sometimes, to vary the sittings, Silver Birch allows some other spirit to control his medium. So we have been visited by Northcliffe, Galsworthy, Hall Caine, Gilbert Parker, Horace Greeley, Dick Sheppard, Abraham Lincoln and personal friends of the sitters. Still, all that is for another

book. ... 

   During my years of sitting with Silver Birch, I have never known him to forget anything, although we may do so.

     And never, by any syllable, does he depart from his self- chosen mission to instruct the children of men in a simpler and more beneficent way of life.

                EDITOR'S NOTE

THESE teachings from Silver Birch-he insists that he is not the author, but the messenger through whom they are relayed from higher sources--are not put forward as the infallible utterances of a being possessed of all wisdom. It is not the object of spirit intercourse that we should denude ourselves of the critical faculty and accept blindly the words of another, whether in this world or the next. Nor is it the desire to create a new Orthodoxy, for revelation is pro- gressive and is dependent on our capacity to receive it.

   The appeal of Silver Birch is to Reason, and if anything he says is not acceptable to the reader's reason then it should be rejected or at least left as an open question pending further evidence.

   To make the book more useful for reference, I have selected from the reports of hundreds of sittings the teachings of the guide on each specific subject. It should not be assumed that each chapter is a report of one long, connected speech. It may be composed of extracts from Silver Birch's remarks spread over thirty or forty séances.

    It has been my task to group these extracts in such a way as to preserve continuity of thought throughout the treatment of each subject. For the further convenience of the reader, except in the last two chapters, I have used black type for all editorial references and italic type for all questions sub- mitted to the guide. The remarks of Silver Birch, and his replies to questions, are printed throughout in the more common type known as Roman.