PROBLEMS OF COMMUNICATION

   Experienced Spiritualists, who know something of the problems of communication, are often amazed that the spirit world ever succeeds in breaking down all the barriers and transmitting its message. So successfully has Silver Birch evolved his system of control that he claims to transmit through his medium the totality of his thought, though be admits that the subconscious mind of the instrument some-times interferes with the actual words used.

　This chapter will give some idea of the work necessary on the Other Side before a medium and the guide are suitably trained.

　I AM limited, not only by my medium's vocabulary, but by the state of his soul evolution, because that limits the amount of myself that I can express. As his soul evolves, so I will be able to allow that part of me which is not expressed to express itself.

　I can always get through, not the words, but the totality of my thought, because I have learned now where to find the words in his brain. I can get through all the ideas that I have before I come here.

　When I began to speak through him, in the early days of his mediumship, the trouble was this, that when I sought to find one word in his brain, that immediately released another word that was linked with it. I had to learn how to control all the

nerve centres and, in particular, those of his brain, so that only the right word was used. I do not say that I can eliminate the whole of the medium, because his words can sometimes tinge, in a little way, my ideas. But they cannot rob the idea of what it is I try to express.

　your Western minds are so different from ours. It takes us Indian spirits years to learn to manifest through them properly. We are trained with Westerners, and then, when we have learned sufficient, we experiment with the spirit bodies of mediumistic people while they are asleep. At last we are able to 'entrance mediums and speak through them. but it is only after very long training.

　You do not realize how complicated your bodies are, until you try to use somebody else's. You have to make the heart beat, the blood flow and the lungs contract and expand. You have to keep all the nerve centres fed with the right impulses. You must cut off the stream from the medium's own sub-conscious mind, and feed your own ideas all the time. It is not very easy.

　You have to do all that consciously, every time you speak, at first. That is what development means. In the same way, when you were a baby, you had to learn to put one foot before the other in order to walk. Now, you do not have to think about it. When I first learned to control a medium, I had to do it step by step. Now I do it automatically.

　When a medium is controlled by a spirit who has recently passed on, the spirit does not have to do all that before he can speak. All he has to do is to impress his thoughts on the medium's subconscious mind. But even that takes a lot of practice, and we practise on people in our own world. It is not an easy thing. It is much easier to talk through a trumpet, once all the power is properly moulded, than to talk properly

through a medium and to get your own thoughts through.

　When you get hold of the subconscious, it is already trained through many years to think in certain directions, to express itself in certain ways, to use certain ideas. We strive to bring our own thoughts and ideas and words, so as to make new tracks in the subconscious mind to get our own message through.

　If we use ideas that are similar to those that are already there, they get diverted to the well-worn tracks in the subconscious. It is like a gramophone record. If you put the needle on the track, it follows that track round and round. If you want to get your own message through, you must make a new track.

　When I come to this room, I come right through the wall, because it is not physical to my vibration. When I am in the medium's aura, it becomes a solid wall to me, because then I register on his vibrations. The medium's aura is my prison now and I am limited by his physical senses.

　I have to slacken my vibrations. He has to quicken his. It took me fifteen years to learn.

　I cannot see in the dark when I am in the medium's aura. I am limited by his body. I had to learn how to use all the things the medium had to learn when he was a child. It is not worth learning how to use his legs, though, because I never use them. I only want to know how to use his brain and his hands.

　When I am in control and repeat a message from another spirit, I am not using the medium's ears then, but my own. It is all a question of his aura and mine. I have an aura that is not so dense as the medium's, and into my aura other spirits. can sometimes impinge their thoughts, even when I am in the medium's aura. You can talk to someone on the telephone and also talk to someone in the same room. It is two different vibrations.   You cannot do both things together, but they break into each other.

　Althougt Silver Birch can get through his medium the totality of his thought, he is still unable to express the fullness of the inspiration that is given to him:

　YOUR world of matter is so slow and thick. It is so pon-derous and heavy that the inspiration is lost in trans-mission, in the endeavour to slow down the higher and more subtle vibrations of spirit. Yours is a dark, clammy world compared with the world of light where I live.

　You have not seen the sun in the full radiance of its dazzling splendour. You have seen but the pale imitation. Just as the moon reflects the shadow of the sun, so the sun that you behold is but a pale reflection of our sun.

　When I come to your world I am like a bird that is im-prisoned within a cage, and when I leave it I am like a bird joyfully released to wing its way through boundless space. What you call death is the opening of the cage and the release of the bird from its prison.

　When you ask me to give you a message, I put myself in touch with the vibrations which supply me with the messages for youーI am only a mouthpieceーand it is transmitted to me. When conditions are perfect, I catch all that is shown easily. If there is any difficulty, sometimes caused by dis-turbances near the séance room, then confusion is created. Suddenly there is a snap of the lines and quickly the message has to be transferred to another message, and that means starting on a new line of vibration.

　Sometimes, when I transmit personal messages, I hear what is said and repeat it syllable by syllable, because it is on the same vibration as I am when I speak through the medium. But when I become the instrument for teaching, that is not the same vibration for there is another aspect of consciousness to be used. I have to be impressed with symbols, visions,

pictures, intuitions, very similarly to the way in which mediums in your world are impressed by us. I have to ex-press a higher consciousness than that you know as Silver Birch.

　When an artist is inspired, he then responds to a vibration which is not the one to which he responds normally. In that state, he is the recipient of a power which enables him to translate visions on to the canvas, but when the inspiration departs he cannot do that. When I strive to give you some of the truths of the laws of the spirit, then I have to express myself in that part of my consciousness which can be touched by the higher powers, so that they can fill me and use me as

their instrument.

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  Questions and Answers:

　DOES a guide enter the body of a medium in order to speak? No, not always. In most cases he works through the aura of the medium.

　Does the guide utilize the vocal organs of the medium?

　Sometimes. I am using this medium's vocal organs now. If I desired, I could build my own, but that is waste of power. I take control of the subconscious part of the medium, which gives me control over all his bodily organs. I displace his willーwhich he has agreed I should doーand, for the time being, I am in charge of his body. When I have done my work I retire from his aura and his consciousness returns to pick up the threads once again.

　Do you have to displace the medium's spirit body?

　Sometimes I do, but it is always connected with his earthly body.

   Do precautions have to be taken before a séance is held, to exclude entities who operate forces that would defeat the work?

　Yes. The great precaution is to have love in your hearts and in your souls. Then only those who are filled with love can come near you.

　Are any preparations made on the Other Side before a séance takes place?

　Yes, always we have to make the way clear. We have to harmonize our circles with yours. We have to prepare the way. We have to mix all the elements to get the best results. We work in highly-organized bands for that purpose.

　Is it beneficial for a medium to read and study and gain more knowledge from books, or is it better to sit for mediumship relying on his own endeavours and confidence?

　It depends on the psychic faculty which is to be developed. I do not agree with those who say that mediums should remain in ignorance of the knowledge that others have gained. I believe always that knowledge is to be preferred to ignorance and I would say—though, of course, I speak only for myself—that it is better for you, as a rule, to have know-ledge by study, which only means the experiences of others who have trod your path before, than to work in ignor-ance.

　Is it necessary to live a spiritual life in order to become a good psychic?

　The better the life you live, the greater the instrument you become for the Great Spirit, for the higher your life, the more the Great Spirit that is within you is expressing itself. Your soul, as it unfolds through the expression of the life which you live, makes you a greater instrument always.

　Would it be correct to say that, however good a medium may be, he would be better still if he were more advanced spiritually?

    Always. The higher the life, the greater the mediumship. There is nothing worth while to be achieved unless you are prepared to sacrifice. Isn't that the lesson that all of us who return to your world have had to learn?

　How do we become receptive to the influence of those who have passed on?

　Those you love and who love you are never lost to you. They do not wander outside the radius of their love, for where their love is there they are. They do not leave you. Sometimes they are closer than at others. Sometimes they can impinge their influence on you. Sometimes you are more receptive. Sometimes you allow yourselves to be mentally enveloped with thoughts of fear, worry and anxiety, and you create a wall which makes it harder for them to get near you. Sometimes you are sad and shed tears, and wash your loved ones away. If you would be calm and peaceful, full of bright-ness, hope, trust, faith and confidence, you would always feel their presence.

　We strive to get as close as we can, but our proximity is dependent upon your atmosphere, your growth, your evolution. We cannot reach those whose souls are so dead to the things of the spirit that we have no point of contact. Where there is an awareness, an understanding, a quickening of the soul, there we can make contact and forge a link and make a bond of unity. It does not always mean that the people we are able to contact are Spiritualists. That does not matter, so long as they have knowledge and understanding of spiritual things. Try to make yourselves more receptive, to be calm, and we will draw close. Do not have fear, worry or distress, for those things create a fog which it is hard for us to penetrate.

　When we send our thoughts to our loved ones who have passed on, do they always receive them?

　It is not possible to give a straightforward "Yes" or "No." because it depends upon the evolution of the soul. If the one who has passed into my world is on the same mental and spiritual plane as the one in your world, then he will receive the thoughts, but if the two are so far removed from one another that they are on different planes, then the one who has passed on will not receive the thoughts.

　If we think too much of those who have passed on, does it hinder them in their progress?

　You, who live in the world of matter, have no power to prevent the progress of us who live in the world of spirit.

Our progress depends entirely upon our actions, not upon yours.

　How can a person become a medium and a clairvoyant?

　Every child of matter that seeks to serve the Great Spirit is a medium for the Great Spirit. Am I to say how he can evolve his soul? Has it not been told you so many times? Tell him to love his neighbour as himself. Tell him to serve, tell him to seek to uplift, tell him to do everything which will express the Great Spirit within him. That is the highest phase of medium-ship. I cannot tell him how to become clairvoyant, but I can tell him how to open the eyes of his soul so that the light of the Great Spirit can reach him. That is by the same method.

　Do you believe good is achieved by mystics who cut themselves off from the world and meditate in solitude?

　That all depends on what is meant by "good.” It may be that by withdrawing from the world of matter it can help to unfold the powers of the spirit. To that extent it is good. But to me it is greater to be in the world yet not of the world, serving the world by the powers that the Great Spirit has given you, after you have unfolded them yourselves through striving, through effort, through development.

　Is it true then that by solitude good can only be done to one-self?

　The greatest good is when you forget yourself in the service of others. It is not wrong to develop your powers. It is better to develop them so that when they are developed they can be used in the service of the children of the Great Spirit.

　What advice can you give to one who wishes to start a home circle?

　You must tell him to have plenty of patience, to be pre-pared for constant sittings before the power of the spirit can express itself. He should choose a group who blend in har-mony, where there is no mental friction, where all can unite with a common interest.

　They should meet once a week at the same time, for an hour or perhaps just a little longer, begin with prayer and then be passive. But each, beforehand, should search his own heart and ask the motive, the desire, what it is he hopes to achieve.

　If the motive be for service, then let them continue. If it be the desire to play with toys, that is not enough. But if they wish to come together in one place, all of one accord, to enable the power of the spirit to reveal itself, then those who are psychically in tune will be touched by that power and gradually it will reveal itself.

　Our aim is not to please the sensation-seeker who desires some new thrill for his jaded being, but to uplift mankind and make it find once again those inherent powers almost lost through lack of usage.