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Concepts Involved in Spiritualism One of the reasons Spiritualism is so interesting to study is that it is concerned with so many aspects of our life. To add to this interest, Spiritualism approaches often familiar subjects, such as human behavior and creativity, from a very different perspective than that held in science. Scientists are obliged to base new research on existing theory and practice, thus forcing anything that falls outside of this norm into the category of "phenomenal," and thus often "ignored." In fact, mainstream science doe snot have the vocabulary necessary to address anything concerned with a greater reality. By acknowledging the existence of Infinite Intelligence, Natural Law and personal survival, Spiritualism can offer more complete explanations for the way things are around us.
Because of this different view, any explanation of the way Spiritualists approach the study of Phenomena should be preceded with an explanation of some of the fundamental assumptions held by Spiritualists. We invite you to take a few minutes to read the following explanations for these fundamental Spiritualist concepts. There is also a supporting web page explaining the terminology of Spiritualism in Phenomenal study.
Please note that these concepts have been described from a perspective designed to encourage scientific inquiry. As such, some terms normally used in Spiritualism may have been substituted with terms thought to be more consistent with those used in the academically community.
Please visit the NSAC website for more complete information about
the Religion of Spiritualism and the NSAC.
The Nine Principles of
Spiritualism
We
believe in Infinite Intelligence.
We
believe that the phenomena of Nature, both physical and spiritual,
are the expression of Infinite Intelligence.
We
affirm that a correct understanding of such expression and living in
accordance therewith, constitute true religion.
We
affirm that the existence and personal identity of the the
individual continue after the change called death.
We
affirm that communication with the so-called dead is a fact,
scientifically proven by the phenomena of Spiritualism.
We
believe that the highest morality is contained in the Golden Rule:
"Whatsoever ye would that others should do unto you, do ye also
unto them."
We
affirm the moral responsibility of individuals, and that we make our
own happiness or unhappiness as we obey or disobey Nature’s
physical and spiritual laws.
We
affirm that the doorway to reformation is never closed against any
soul here or hereafter.
We
affirm that the precepts of Prophecy and Healing are Divine
attributes proven through Mediumship.
About
Spiritualism Please follow
this
link to the NSAC web site for a description of Spiritualism. Concepts Following then, are explanations
of some of the concepts important to Spiritualism:
A
Prime Creator and the operation of Natural Law
In Spiritualism, the Prime Creator, First Cause, God, whatever
you think of when you think of the force that started reality in the first
place, is known as Infinite
Intelligence. Yes, it is correct to say that Infinite Intelligence
is God. Spiritualists do believe in God. But there are a few
important differences in the way Spiritualists understand God. Infinite
Intelligence is not a father figure that offers rewards and punishment to his
children.
Infinite Intelligence influences our world and our lives
through the Principles of Natural Law. Natural
Law, spiritual energy and purpose are thought to emanate from Infinite
Intelligence. The more a person can learn to live in accordance with
Natural Law the more that person will find life to be agreeable--or at least
understandable. Put another way, living in a way that violates Natural
Law is certain to create difficulties in a person's life.
Living in accordance with Natural
Law is not a matter of doing "good" or "bad." Yes,
living in a way that is consistent with Natural Law would seem to have good
results for a person, but this goodness would be in the same context as the
goodness one derives from not violating a traffic law, and thereby, not being
given a traffic ticket.
Spiritualists seek to understand
Natural Law as a way of life. Spiritual Maturity can be defined as the
understanding of Natural Law and living in accordance with those
Principles. A spiritually mature person can be defined as a person who
has learned to live in accordance with Natural Law, rather than in conflict
with it.
Spiritualist will say that
understanding and living in accordance with Natural Law is an equivalent with
the idea of "obeying the will of God."
Mediumship
The history of Humankind includes
considerable reference to the ability of people to communicate
with spirits. As Humankind evolved toward our current civilization,
so has the nature of this communication and belief as to who we are
communicating with. There has been one constant throughout this long
history: that is, the part that the individual plays in this communication as
a medium between this world and the other side.
Mediumship
is fundamental in human behavior.
In Spiritualism, mediumship is
taught as an ability that can be learned and is practiced as a regular part of
a person's relationship with nature. Mediumship is not a mysterious gift
handed down by a god to a favored few. It is an ability that is inherent
in each of us. It can be learned just as an average person can train to
be an accomplished athlete.
As with any human ability
associated with consciousness, individuals experience mediumship in different
ways. It has been our experience that people who have not studied
mediumship, or who have not had personal experience with it, will not easily
recognize this ability within themselves. However, with some training,
it quickly becomes clear that the ability is there and in use as a natural
part of a person's life.
Meditation provides a good comparison for the
nature of mediumship.
Meditation is “the intentional directing of attention
to the clear aspect of one’s own inner nature.
In meditation, a person is asked to seek a state of relaxation in which
the body is more or less asleep while the person remains mentally alert.
The objective is to remove external stimuli so that the mind is free to focus
on internal, mental processes. Once so relaxed, the person is then asked
to clear the mind of thoughts about daily issues and to focus on not thinking
at all. This is no paradox, really. The objective is to achieve a
mental condition in which the person is ready to mentally listen to something
that may originate "behind" or "within" the normal mental
chatter. It is this "listening" that is important in
mediumship.
About Mediumship In general, any form of transference of information
from etheric to
physical reality involving a person living in the physical, is
considered mediumship. It is important to note that in Natural
Law, there is the Principle of Agreement. Simply stated, this
Principle holds that an object of reality must energetically agree
with the aspect of reality it will occupy. For instance, you
as Self exist in this physical aspect of reality by living in a
physical body. You are not your body. Perhaps it is more
correct to say that you are in a symbiotic relationship with your
body, for once the body dies, you as Self continue. Without
your physical body to help you "energetically agree" with
this physical aspect of reality, you cannot remain here.
Items of information are considered objects of
reality. And so, items of information cannot exist in the
physical without something to help them "energetically
agree" with the physical. So you can see that any form of
communication between our world and the spirit world must be
facilitated in some way by something in our world as a
transformer. Mediumship is that transformer. Thus, it is
through our mediumship that our spirit friends are able to impress
their thoughts and actions into the physical.
In mediumship,
"Listening" is more often referred to as sensing and may take the
form of mentally hearing, feeling or seeing subtle sensations, depending on
the individuals way of interfacing with the environment. From the web
site of the National Association of Spiritualist churches web site: "A medium is one whose
organism is sensitive to vibrations from the Spirit World and through whose
instrumentality, intelligences in that world are able to convey messages and
produce the phenomena of Spiritualism. The phenomena of Spiritualism
consists of: prophecy, clairvoyance, clairaudience, gift of tongues, laying
on of hands, healing, visions, trance, apports, revelations, raps,
levitation, automatic and independent writing and painting, photography,
materialization, psychometry, direct and independent voice, and any other
manifestation which proves the continuity of life."
Probably the most common form of mediumship is what has
historically been referred to as "intuition." When people
state that they have a hunch or that they have a feeling about something, they
are recognizing the operation of mediumship in their lives. Mediumship
is a native ability that is as common as thought, itself.
People may function as mediums without being aware of their
contribution to the Phenomena occurring around them. The poltergeist
phenomenon is a good example. Hauntings researchers are coming to the
conclusion that poltergeist are made possible when there is a young person in
the household. While they are not usually aware of their contribution,
these people appear to provide the psychic energy needed for a nonphysical
entity to cause changes in the physical world.
People may be strong physical mediums, yet when they are
witness to something phenomenal happening around them, perhaps direct voice or
levitation, they may not recognize that they have played an important
part. This ability to facilitate the occurrence of Phenomena is
sometimes referred to as "being a battery." In this regard, a
person organizing a development circle, who is aware of the concept of a human
battery, will often try to situate strong mediums so that they will help to
energetically balance the group.
An important modern day development in mediumship is spirit
communications via an electronic device. This is most commonly known as Electronic
Voice Phenomena (EVP); however, when images are involved, or two way
communication through a device such as a radio, it is know as Instrumental
Transcommunication (ITC). And yes, what is known about this
phenomenon tells us that it is correct to describe it as Technology Augmented
Mediumship (TAM). This phenomenon is known by many other names as well,
making it clear that this is a very young science. We will refer to the
phenomena as EVP on this web site. You should know that there are differing opinions as to
whether or not EVP is influenced by the mediumship ability of the person doing
the recording. Spiritualists who are familiar with mediumship will
recognize the similarities in how mediumistic phenomena occurs and how EVP
occurs. It is also noteworthy that some of the first EVP recordings were
made while researchers were attempting to make audio recordings of the direct
voice phenomenon produced by mediums.
For more information, please refer to the American Association
- Electron Voice Phenomena web site at
atransc.org
Healing One
of the forerunners of Modern Spiritualism, Harry Edwards, felt that there were
three purposes or goals behind the act of spiritual healing:
Spiritual
healing is a recognizable, approachable and understandable sign and proof
of Humankind's immortality. Spiritual healing provides the
reassurance that we are spirit now. We
are immortal now.
The
act of spiritual healing comes from what is good. It is received in goodness and accomplishes only that which is
good. It points out the true meaning behind the Brotherhood of
Humankind.
Spiritual
healing is beautiful because it heals. It frees the body from pain
and allows the spirit to expand and realize its own potential. Healing Postulates maintained by the NSAC:
Spiritual
healing is the direct result of law-governed forces.
To
make spiritual healing an effective health tool the healing force (energy)
requires direction that has intelligence behind it.
In
order to be successful, the guiding force, the Intelligence behind spiritual
healing, must be able to successfully ‘diagnose’ and ‘treat the
particular illness in question. So you can see that Infinite Intelligence is thought to be the
source of all healing, not the person who is functioning as a healer. Spiritual healing is thought of as two distinct forms: Spiritual healing is a conveyance of energy from a
spiritual source to the one in need. This is the more desirable form
of healing, in that the healer is functioning as a conduit for a
nonphysical intelligence to bring energy to the one in need. Magnetic healing is a transfer of the healer's personal
energy or vitality to the one in need. While this can be a powerful
form of healing, it is not normally the objective form taught in
Spiritualism. This form can deplete the healer's personal energy to
an undesirably low level. The energies thought to be involved in spiritual healing
assume many forms: There is a certain amount of healing potential in the
process of healing, itself. Properly done, the act of healing is a
very relaxing experience for both the one in need and the healer.
Like meditation, this can be very therapeutic. The human body is believed to posses a form of energy
often called Vitality, bio-energy (parapsychology), chi (Taoism) or
prana (Hinduism). This energy is said to be etheric energy that has
been differentiated by the Self to maintain the human body. Spiritual energy is a higher
form of energy thought to be made available to a person by a nonphysical
entity who directly accesses this energy from Infinite Intelligence. The human body is
thought to be surrounded by energy fields generated by the higher bodies
occupied by Self. This is seen as the auric field or the aura.
The first and most commonly recognized body is usually known as the
etheric body. The condition of the etheric body is thought to be a
precursor to the condition of the physical body. For instance a
negative attitude will appear to clairvoyants as a dark color in the
aura and the physical body is thought to eventually respond with a
relevant ailment. Close examination of other energetic healing modalities, such as
therapeutic touch, etheric healing, Reiki, and laying on of hands, will show
that all are based on more or less the same fundamental concepts.
Specifically, that it is possible to bring additional energy to the one in need
in support of healing. It remains the responsibility of the recipient to
accept this energy. It should also be recognized that the one in need may have
habitually violate some aspect of Natural Law, and until they come into
compliance with Natural Law, help from spiritual healing will be temporary at
best. Also, the one in need may very well be working to exit the body in
transition. In this case, successful energetic healing would eventually
facilitate this transition. Planes
of Existence It is believed that, as Self, a person enters into the
"lower" planes to experience Natural Law from the perspective offered
in the lower planes. Self's purpose is to gain an understanding about the
operation of Natural Law, and thereby, gain in spiritual maturity. In this
way, then, Self is thought to progress back toward Infinite Intelligence by
gaining lessons in spiritual maturity that are available on each plane. The concept of planes of existence is not the same as the
concept of parallel realities or parallel worlds. In the parallel
concepts, the physical universe is entirely or partially replicated but remain
physical. This replication is usually attributed to either the Uncertainty
Principle as described in Quantum Physics or to important decisions that result
in splits in the stream of time. One of the Principle of Natural Law recognized in Spiritualism
is the
Law of Continuity, which holds that there are no breaks between the physical and the
spiritual reality. There are differences, however. A phrase
commonly used in Spiritualism to describe the difference between the physical
aspect of reality and others is, "This
new state (of existence after physical death) has definite existence, but
is characterized by a different atmosphere and kind of awareness." Remembering that everything is energy, the energetic difference
between planes is probably a difference in many fundamental characteristics of
energy. It is common in discussions to refer to the difference as one of
differing vibration. Such a term is useful, as is "higher" or
"lower," but these terms should not be thought to be descriptive of
the difference in the character of the underlying energy. The difference
is more that of attitude and worldview. |
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