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T.K. Weatherhead
The Teachings of our Spirit Guides Part 1
A review of “The Eternal Resurrection” by Agresara.
All of my articles are based on my own experiences supplemented by a review of books and reports selected from the vast Spiritualist literature available from authors who were and are either mediums, psychical researchers or enlightened enquirers from many professions and walks of life. They are intended to stimulate an interest towards further reading and study. Interesting though an interview or presentation on YouTube or in a documentary film may be, or even a Blog, Tweet or Facebook commentary, the media can only skim the surface of a subject or event. So, for an in-depth understanding of the life of our soul and spirit, we need time for study, reflection and meditation. Hopefully these articles, reviews and other valuable information on TheSpiritGuides.co.uk site can offer the reader doorways to a more complete understanding of the material and spiritual worlds all of us live in. These two worlds may seems miles, or aeons apart, but in fact they are inter-twined and forever influencing each other.
The portrait beside this article is of my great-grandfather Trenham King Weatherhead, one of several ancestors who represented the Church Missionary Society in India and Africa in the 1850s and 60s. This was the same time that the Modern Spiritualist movement came into being, and one of his cousins, David Weatherhead, was championing its cause with publication of his Yorkshire Spiritualist Telegraph, where he introduced England to such mediums as Mrs W. R. Hayden and Daniel Dunglas Home. My purpose in juxtaposing these two forebears, T.K. and David Weatherhead is to contrast the two sides to religion, the pomp and ceremony of the Church of England, and even more so, that of the Roman Catholic Church, as opposed to the simplicity and directness of Spiritualism and the work of our mediums. The service held in St. Paul’s Cathedral this Tuesday celebrating Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee shows what high spiritual energy can be created in an inspiring and colourful Cathedral Ceremony, with beautiful music, a stimulating sermon and meticulously rehearsed processions. This is the worldly side of religion, leading to a lifelong impression and memory for those who took part, or who merely viewed the event on television. But all that cannot compare with a direct experience of contact with the World of Spirit. What formal, orthodox religion provides is a sense of security and elevation of the spirit and emotions from a shared religious event. Spiritualism goes a step further by reaching into the Spirit World, and bringing back assurance, rather than faith, that our loved ones who are now beyond the veil are still very much alive, and their knowledge and higher teachings can provide the further direction and education which the prophets of our orthodox world religions originally hinted at many millennia ago..
Rather than break with tradition and orthodox religion, as some Spiritualists have done, or as Mao Tse Tung tried to do in China, with devastating effect, with his Cultural Revolution, banishing the four “Olds,” I will try here to combine and reconcile the efforts of my two apparently incompatible Weatherhead forebears, and show how religion and mediumship support each other, being inter-dependent, rather than co-dependent. One grew out of the other, and vice-versa. Another Weatherhead who took a midway position between the Church of England and Spiritualism was the Methodist minister, Leslie Weatherhead. A number of his books discuss life after death, and how spirit influences our lives.
The meeting point is in the field of Spirit Guides, which is precisely what this website devotes itself to. Our Spirit Guides originally provided us with our Bibles, Sutras, Ancient Wisdom, and many other Scriptures. The word of God or a prophet divinely inspired became the shared belief, the faith of a tribe or nation. Now, in our Global society, we are coming to see that the human race shares one Divinity, whatever different names our separate faiths and nations may call Him or It. All the Spirit Teachings we have received from our different guides over the past 160 years are in agreement over this.
So now we can start to review these teachings from our Spirit Guides. The spirit teachings from guides and entities discuss the Two Worlds of mind and matter, or spirit and physical experience, the latter derived from and originating in the latter. These teachings may be given in public, dictated to a medium in a trance, as in the case of Ivy Northage, David Jevons, Estelle Roberts, Jane Roberts, Jach Pursel, Maurice Barbanell, Stainton Moses and many other mediums and channels over the years, or they may be presented more privately in the form of automatic or inspirational writing. The authenticity of the teaching can be assessed by the quality of the material, its evidential nature, its relevance to our own lives and current events, and its compatibility with other spirit teachings.
I am starting this series by looking at teachings received from the spirit guides of H.S.W. a medium or sensitive, who presented them in three volumes between 1959 and 1970, voumes 1 and 2 published by Sidgwick and Jackson Limited, London and volume 3 by the Regency Press, . The title is “The Eternal Resurrection,” by Agresara (the collective name for H.S.W.’s several guides). Agresara has the meaning of “pioneer.”
In the first volume released in 1959, the publisher announced that the teachings range over a wide field, from the origin and nature of God, to life in Spirit, faith, prayer, Christianity, the after-life reincarnation, the power of thought, spiritual evolution and other related subjects presented to meet the needs of humanity in this critical age.
This work was a timely occasion, to offset the Church’s indifference to Spiritualism. Two Archbishops had quashed the findings of their Committee’s own report on Spiritualism, but they had been leaked to the press, At the time of our present Queen's Coronation in 1952, some Anglican priests, a number of journalists and service personnel, a nun and a medium came together to found the Churches Fellowship for Psychical and Spiritual Studies, and it was officially inaugurated in 1953 and started publishing many books on Spiritualism, research and mediumship. Its good work continues to this day, and independent researchers such as Sir Alister Hardy and Frances Banks also published their own collections and reviews of religious experiences. The Church is still generally unaware of the valuable work of our mediums, in spite of this small organisation within its own borders, but hopefully the work being done here on TheSpiritGuides.co.uk website is beginning to break through the boundaries of this orthodox inertia.
I am unable to quote at length from the Agresara volumes, beyond including a short paragraph discussing the nature of Spirit, as an illustration of the style and quality of the writing.
"Certain mysterious happenings cannot so far be explained by scientific knowledge...... you can guess what this mysterious agent is that is operated by the Superlatively Supreme Intelligence. But when you are asked where Spirit is located, and how it is formed, it is difficult for any of you to answer those questions; unless by practice you have succeeded in actually identifying yourself with this Spirit, by having temporarily surrendered that human conception of being an independent entity, so as to become part of that far Superior One, which actually comprises every human quality, and likewise, every other quality in animal, bird, fish, and everything that grows. So let us ponder on what this means. Then everyone and everything that lives and breathes contains this mysterious entity, and it continues to be present in all these things, as long as they evolve in accordance with the Laws of Cosmic Evolution. And should those laws be broken, that immediately sets up a barrier between this ever-present entity and whatever creature or creation has disobeyed those laws, which were ordained for no other purpose than the gradual development (which must be voluntarily accepted), of everything in which it temporarily resides. And when these different objects are sufficiently evolved, to develop consciousness, naturally they fully understand their relationship and responsibilities towards this entity. And, what is more, there also develops a feeling, first of respect for this guiding principle, and later on, a genuine devotion to what they have come to recognize as their actual Creator - the Superlatively Supreme Intelligence."
Agresara then goes on to discuss how this Spirit which exists in every living thing came into existence, and what it is made of? It is certainly very real, and present in all our lives. A clairvoyant can see it, when a person is about to die. The ernergy of the Spirit leaves the dying body, and more often than not, turns into an orb of light before gradually fading and vanishing, often accompanied by other kindred spirits, taking the person "home."
The 36 short chapters of Volume One provide excellent starting points for group discussion, or personal meditation, so I would encourage interested readers to obtain copies of these volumes. The next article will review Volumes 2 and 3, but to conclude this review, I will summarise the topics presented in Volume One, from the page of Contents, as follows:-
The Nature and Origin of God; the Absolute; Conditions of Mind throughout Evolution; Progressive Evolution of the Divine Ordinances; the Maximum of Development; Spiritual Values as compared with Earthly ones; Forces controlling the Human Mind; Spirit in Creative Thinking; the Potentialities of Thought; Telepathy and Thought Transmission; Life in Spirit; Entry of Spirit; Spirit: its Nature and Operation; Spirit in Action; Introduction to Spiritual Studies; a Flashing Revelation of Spirit; Christianity; Religious Intolerance and Errors; Christianity and the Chief World Religions; The Birth of a Religion; the Power of Faith; Death and Rebirth; Paradise, Purgatory and Forgetfulness; Heaven; Future Soul Experiences; the Astral Plane; Reincarnation; Karma - Cause and Effect; Soul Emancipation; an Explanation of Prayer; Prayer and Meditation; Ghosts and Possession; Spirit Guides and Angels: Spirit Entities; Development of Moral Character; Free Will and Self-Determination; Aspects of Prayer.
[further review of the subsequent volumes by “Agresara” to tollow]
R.T.C. Rowley
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