View Related
The World Beyond (15) Reaching for the Stars. Final communications from Frances Banks
FRANCES - The psychic and the spiritual are both steps on the Jacob’s ladder of progression. The earth-experience is possibly one of the lower steps of ascendancy. Most incarnate beings are on that level, and thus their minds become overwhelmed by the difficulty in realizing what is true and what is inexplicable to them at their level of understanding.
My first important point is that they are both a continuation of the progressive nature of man. Humanity, which is at different stages of evolution in its journey towards the stars, [figuratively speaking, not space exploration] that is to say, into a higher level of attainment, consists of entities which are triple natured. For instance, mankind is animal, human and spiritual.
In successive waves of progress, it is shown that the great souls, the masters, the saints, and great interpreters of the spirit have evolved from the animal instincts to the human level at its highest, whilst truly the masses remain totally unaware of much beyond higher animal intelligence, the animal nature and the total acceptance of the creature life. Yet it must be accepted that even among such groups there are individuals who have a sensitivity within them that is aware of beings [spirits], and Higher Beings beyond the limited understanding of the masses. Amongst these are the psychics, the natural healers, as well as those who study the writing of the sensitives [and mysitics] (such as saint Teresa of Avila) throughout the ages. The person with psychic awareness, often called a medium, is frequently uneducated, poor and retiring [examples are Andrew Jackson Davis, at the start of his career, and Eusapia Palladino, though this is by no means always the case. Mediums come from all walks of life, with various levels of education and intellectual ability].
These people can and do contact the newly dead, and sometimes the spirits of family connections who have for years (in our sense of time) inhabited the next world of consciousness. Yet often they seem to have advanced little themselves, and their messages seem to be paltry and trivial. But should we condemn them, or take superior amusement from their words? I do not think so. I have witnessed the slow growth made by many souls. It is not for anyone to be superior about these spirits who long to get a chance to contact loved ones still on earth. Neither have we the right or the wish to forbid such moments of correspondence. However, when money comes into the practice of this communication, we see the danger. But who can judge the comfort and help that can be given to a sorrowing soul on the earth plane. I recall my own joy, when my dead mother first communicated with me. There is no condemnation of the help given, as long as the recipient does not allow this form of converse to become a drug on his own way of life, or to approach the psychic world in a spirit of fortune telling.
Since my own arrival into this consciousness, I have become aware of the pitfalls of this haphazard employment of spirit communication. In the opinion of many here, the dangers could be much remedied by the Christian Churches [as they already are in some other religions]. We feel that there should be a place for sensitives who are Christian (such as the Catholics Lorna Byrne, George Anderson or John Edward) to work within. [However, Christian Churches, except those Christian alliances within the Spiritualist movement, are not at all hospitable towards mediumship and communication with the next world].
How often has a clergyman, completely unaware of or opposed to the psychic gift, been quite unable to help and give true comfort after the death of a relative? I myself [when an Anglican nun] had to weigh my words, until I discovered the possibilities of communication. Such mediums working within the Church [as does the medium Hiroshi Motoyama, a Shinto priest as well as a psychic researcher] respected and protected by the Church would, I am certain, do great service in bringing this controversial subject into the open. Surely, the Bible speaks openly of gifts of the spirit, their use and their safeguards?
But communication and assurance by converse with spirits has little to do with the worship of, and obedience to the spirit of all life, the Father who indeed is the Creator of us all. Surely our Jacob’s ladder is the approach, step by step, to the realisation of our one-ness [or unity] with the reality of God’s creative spirit? ….poets speak of ‘Trailing clouds of glory do we come, From Heaven that is our home’, and have likened the spirit to the ‘Hound of Heaven’ (Francis Thompson) watching over us, caring for us and waiting for the soul within us to acknowledge Him.
Here in this world we are spirit in Spirit, yet not at the Heart of Spirit. Our consciousness still needs to undo many mistakes already made and to advance onwards towards the Centre.
Those who are in spirit can and often do send messages of hope back to the world which they have left. But that is not the same as one-ness with the Spirit of God the Eternal. Even here we all go on ascending that Jacob’s Ladder. Even here there are passports to the Higher levels – but each of us has to earn them in order to – as the world would describe it – ‘join the Immortals’.
For Immortals there are and always will be. And if it has needed millions of years of trial and error, of action and non-action, of self or others, of God or Mammon, does that not signify the slow progress, of animal through human to Spirit?
Time has no substance. Spiritual man will evolve as and when the Law of Progress is ready. There is a maxim which I still remember from my earth experience, and which I apply now to the Spiritual Law. Nothing can stop an idea when its time has come. In other words, when the next step is ready to be taken, nothing can stop it.
One realises and learns over here to apply the Law to every thought and action. By so doing, the spirit grows sufficiently to be ready for the next step.
We are not rushed into Paradise. It is there before us – whether immediate or protracted in our way ahead – and we pass onward into the ‘many mansions in my Father’s house’.
But the spirit levels us according to our words, and the Great Souls and Masters can descend to our level for communication and teaching.
On your earth plane the term spiritual has a different meaning. A spiritual person is often described as a man or woman identified with their religion, whereas in this consciousness, a spiritual person is one who has discovered and lives WITHIN the Spiritual part of themselves.
Religions on the earth plane, which often refuse to acknowledge each other, have all evolved from the need for the growing human to KNOW, and work with the Spirit of God within them. Let me quote from the great works of Robert Browning, who KNEW:”
There is an inmost centre in us all,
Where truth abides in fullness….
And to know rather consists of opening out a Way,
Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape…..
When, on the plane of earth, this Truth is known and followed, then will spiritual mankind evolve, and the psychic reach upwards to the spiritual, to the very core of life itself.
HELEN - So many people set their minds against the idea of rebirth on this planet.
FRANCES - There are other worlds, but as yet I know little of them, and I feel it is unnecessary at this stage to try to discover more. If and when I choose, or am advised to return for another term of material living, I think that I would want to come back to a world I had known. But that may not be possible, and I do not care to philosophise on a return yet. There is much I need to investigate and learn about; and I have certainly learned to curb my impatience for further knowledge until I can understand and accept it.
HELEN - Are you happy?
FRANCES - That is hardly a word that applies to our state of living. Happiness which appears to be so important to many unenlightened people has no real meaning with us. We are AT PEACE - {contented]
How many souls who think themselves happy have truly found peace, or would understand if you asked them whether they were at peace? Happiness is transitory. Soul peace, which the surviving entity slowly acquires, is of such value and permanence that it takes prominence over all else. To us, peace is happiness, although I doubt whether many here would think that way. Peace in all things, all ways, all minds, all future hopes is an attribute that has to be earned. The earning and receiving of it is life itself to us. For it is won, not by sacrifice, except of our passions and our angers, but by one-ness with the spirit of peace.
From the observation made by the inhabitants of your world who arrive here, there are few souls who have been able to face the change with equanimity, and certainly not with peace. There is no doubt that, because death is wrongly associated with fear and even terror, the passing of the soul from one consciousness to another is fraught with unnecessary anxiety. That is why our new arrivals, after being greeted and welcomed by those they have loved, find relief by resting their troubled minds.
Later, by communicating with other souls they realise that they have suffered unnecessary traumas. Often souls only remember the suffering before they passed from one world to another, but in the sweet peace of their rest in the Spirit, the memory gradually fades. Peace has to be learned and practised. It is a mind and soul activity. So when the body is severed, a great change naturally takes place. The Thought Mind commences to work, the body mind begins to fade into nothingness. It is up to the newly rested soul to discover whether he wishes to remain alone, or to rejoin his loved ones, or to find a teacher to instruct him about the progress he can now make, or even whether there is a place where he can serve others.
But all the while he will be absorbing peace, learning to control his reactions or resentments to his separation from material life, or calm his regrets at failures he now perceives. There is no compulsion. He is a free spirit. His thinking is now void of terror and worry; gradually he absorbs the peace which the other souls have absorbed.
Being at peace becomes a normality. The joy of freedom from any restrictions, the glorious music of the spheres, the beauty of natural growth are all his. All these are beyond the normal idea of happiness. The soul itself is learning to respond to peace and the peace within.
HELEN - What about groups of souls where you are and in the higher spirit worlds?
FRANCES - As above, so below. It is the law of nature, and nature is but a part of the working out of the spirit. Animals and birds gather into groups and flights; fish into shoals, bees into swarms, so is it not natural that humans gather into families, partners, races and nations? Like attracts like.
Here in the next world, should it be regarded as strange that the same partnerships, for learning and service, are a feature of the soul’s experience? Indeed, it is as natural as in the world of matter, except that on this plane these Groups have a deeper purpose. For now the soul is discovering its true identity, working its way upwards through the Halls of Learning, the Schools of Philosophy, the great Centres of music, art, literature and to the understanding of cosmic consciousness known to the Masters.
We were created in God’s image; we have come out from the great Centre of Light, the Creative Spirit, to gain strength by experience, before we return to that Point of Light to become One with it again; a Pilgrim’s Progress of infinite Life, yet not a lonely pathway of single struggling souls but a growth of grouped spirits, linking their way to eventual Eternity.
HELEN - Have you found the Spirit in your new awakening after you left the earth plane?
FRANCES - I believe that I am more aware of what the Spirit does, but I am still almost unable to decide what It is.
HELEN - But you live in the Spirit.
FRANCES - True, I have no solid earthly body and I live in the mind, which gradually develops into the eternal Mind. …there are many mansions, but to discover the entrances and even to be allowed to enter becomes a matter of the Mind within you taking ascendancy over the mind with which you came into this life after the body’s death.
HELEN - Did you regret leaving the convent, your spiritual community, after twenty-five years?
FRANCES - I will never regret my decision to work in the world [as a prison educator and psychic researcher]. Nor did I ever renounce either my vows that I had learned in the Order. But now, in trying to describe my own arrival and experiences, I know that the religious life was a wonderful school for understanding the life of the Thought World.
We do not immediately become angels or even heavenly Beings of Light, which was a popular belief for many centuries, even among the Churches. Much preparation is essential for the souls of the newly arrived. Adjustments must be made and understood.
To some it comes as a great relief and marvelous release of the Spirit. To others who have existed almost entirely on a material and sensual level, many adjustments are involved before they can, so to speak, move on.
I did so myself, although perhaps not so slowly, since my life had been spent in obeying the Convent rules of meditation and prayer.
Helen Greaves summed up her own life’s work by saying that ‘God’s Law, which we can term the Challenging Light, is perfect; we are always in the right place at the right time in order to experience that which we have built into our lives – even though it might be death.
Wars and hate result from the fact that we are all at different stages of growth. It is a Tower of Babel, where we all speak different Soul languages. The world is composed of young souls eager for adventure, developing souls, mature souls, advanced souls, wise OLD souls, at times even an Illumined soul will visit the earth plane for special work.
Among those we must place Jesus, Muhammad, the Buddha and other Eastern Masters as well as many of our western saints, who came to earth with a message for their Age.
Let us therefore listen to, and hear, their message, in order that our own spiritual advancement can be hastened.’
And now a final reassuring word from Frances Banks about the death, which each one of us will one day face.
FRANCES - Since I have not mentioned the effect of sudden death either from heart failure or as a result of an accident, I should like to include the reassuring experiences of those who have suffered such unexpected deaths. After discussing this with them over here, I have found my thoughts returning to my own experience.
The casting off of the transitory body was nothing compared to the searing pain [of cancer] which it had endured for those long pre-death weeks. For me, they were harder to wipe from my consciousness than the total abandonment of the body itself.
Those here whose last moments of conscious earth life were threatened by some approaching inevitable holocaust [such as an accident or sudden heart attack,] assure me that they have no memory of either leaving the body or of what took place immediately afterwards. Their memories seemed to be shrouded in the blessed state of unconsciousness.
Sudden death is not prolonged in anguish as humans believe. Without realising it the soul has been prepared, and all is known. As we were instructed, not a sparrow falls to the ground without the Spirit knowing of it. As happened in my own case, the human mind of the victim seems to become anaesthetised. The Spirit takes charge. When the soul awakens into this consciousness it is at peace, even though at first it probably will not realise that it has left its human home.
Here I feel that questions are arising as to where is heaven, and where have our dear ones gone?
The answer is that heaven is everywhere. There is no departure as such. Our departed friends are still around those they loved on earth. They have not gone away. For death is not a departure. It is merely a CHANGE OF CONSCIOUSNESS. Our consciousness in this further experience is quite different from human consciousness. We have knowledge of a wider living, an introduction to greater understanding, and between the spiritual and the material life, a great gulf is fixed.
Yet, we are around you, conscious of our friends, aware of the state of the world, and longing to help and comfort you and to bring to earth the Challenge of the Light.
[The are many more discussions on the spiritual life, here and hereafter, between Frances and Helen in “The Challenging Light” [by Helen Greaves, Neville Spearman, 1984] and I would recommend the book to all searchers, spiritual workers, healers and those involved in spirit rescue or release in some way, whether in individual counselling and therapy, or group and home circle work. Also by Helen Greaves is the well known "Testimony of Light" and other books by her and other authentic mediums contain a wealth of information, and an optimistic philosophy of life which encourages us in our work and along our own journey through life. Richard R.]
Post Article:
Submit Your Own Article