The IMPLICATIONS of SPIRITUALISM as a RELIGION

You soon learn from the people in the spirit that their religious views on earth did not determine their spiritual status in that world.

All religions are founded on the fact that there is somethingspiritual in man and this is what he believes survives the covering of flesh. The old established religions have built systems of reward and punishment in the next world, based on the acceptance of certain creeds, dogmas and doctrines. Nearly every sect has taught in the past, and many still do today that acceptance of their particular brand of teaching was the only sure passport to heaven.

There is only one acid test regarding your spiritual status when you die.

Perhaps this is the way you have lived your daily life.

We as Spiritualists learn that all the actions we have performed, the words we have uttered and thoughts that have arisen in our minds are indelibly recorded on our spirit body. For that reason we are known, after death, for what we are.

Obviously the people who are really knowledgeable in these subjects are going to tell you what happens in the life beyond this one are individuals who live there and speak from personal experience, not necessarily theologians, who can only speculate and theorise.

Many a ‘dyed in the wool’ agnostic has reached a higher spiritual level than people who were most particular in their church attendance but ignored the ethical principles to their lives.

The truth about religion is that creeds do not matter. Whether you accept the usual creeds and dogmas of any religion, they have no relevance to the things that matter.

We take with us the character that we have moulded in our earthly lives. This determines our position hereafter. We cannot cheat. We cannot pretend. The sinner, to use a very clumsy word, cannot escape the consequences of his actions by uttering a magical formula on his deathbed and thus have all misdeeds absolved for him. He must make restitution for whatever wrong he has committed.

There is no progress for him until he has done so, and progression isopen to all.

It is a mockery of divine justice to believe that the saint and the sinner are on level terms from the moment they die, and the Masters tell us that it's simp;y not true. The essential fact that is stressed by all who have had any lengthy experience of spirit life is that we are personally responsible for the life that we live, [that is of course, if we are normal human beings. ]

Forgiveness does not release us from personal responsibility. The mere fact that the one whom we have wronged is willing to overlook our action does not alter the wrong we have done. A true balance can be struck only when we have made restitution.

The true Spiritualist is always conscious of an urge from the spirit side of life, which stresses that real religion consists of the way one’s daily life is led. You may call this morality and not religion. Spiritualism enables you to realise that in all ages, prophets and seers have been inspired by revelations coming from the spirit world.

But some of these revelations were best suited to the age in which they came.

The spiritualist does not turn his back on the inspiration of the past. He recognises that the same natural laws, which enable him to obtain any spiritual experience today, caused the ancients to receive it in their time. But the world has altered, even in the last 2,000 years. New conditions have arisen and science perhaps has been put on a throne to be worshipped as the latest ‘god’.

There are different problems and difficulties to be mastered i the time we are living in. It is foolish to argue, as some clergymen do, that God inspired ONLY the children of the year called 'one', and has nothing to say to His children of 2005. It is foolish to argue that God has a special preference for Palestine that He does not possess for any other country today. There are no land concessions in the spirit world!

Spiritualism proves that the fountain of inspiration still flows into the world, wherever it can find the necessary channels. It is not necessary, to live religiously in the past. You only have to do the math when counting all the spiritualist churches just in the UK, and so the mediums that serve them, to see this weight of evidence being given each week alone.

Every religion was founded around a medium, in whose presence psychic phenomena happened [perhaps wrongly called “miracles"] and they were inspired from the same sources that are still at work. Properly understood Spiritualism will be the means of unifying any opposing religions, proving that none of them is superior to the other.

Here in Spiritualism, is the nucleus of a brotherhood of man, a ‘One World’ that would give religion its rightful place in the outer world, enabling it to become a force to inspire humanity in its highest ideals. How foolish does the thought of a “holy war" become, viewed with this new understanding? And whether we accept this or not makes no real difference to our lives here or hereafter.

Spiritualism has no creed or dogmas, but most Spiritualists accept what are known as the Seven Principals.

These principals are a belief in a fatherhood of God, and the brotherhood of man. The communication of spirits and a ministry of angels. The continuous existence of the human soul, and personal responsibility, with compensation and retribution hereafter for all good or bad things done on earth. Lastly that eternal progress is open to every human soul.

These principals very aptly sum up the philosophy of Spiritualism. Sincere people could not quarrel with any of them. To a large extent, they would be accepted by most modern minds in the Church today.

Spiritualists recognise that every individual must work out his spiritual salvation and that, in the end, mankind must stand on his own feet. They know that we cannot transfer the burden of our responsibilities to somebody else’s shoulders. We get out of life just what we put into it – no more and no less. “Do as you would be done by."

We are here to equip ourselves for the next stage of life. Earth is the school of our experience. If we fail to learn our lessons here, we will have to learn them when we pass back to the spirit world. We take with us the character we have evolved. Nobody else can evolve it for us. We accomplish our own growth and evolution by the way we live our lives. Selfishness and greed obstruct the character. Charity and idealism help the spirit to grow.

These are natural laws. Man cannot cheat them. The more good we do, the better persons we are. The more we fail to help others, the worse we are.

This is no new teaching. It has been taught through the ages by Seers, Prophets, Saints and Mystics. Spiritualism most certainly proves it. The purpose of life is not to enrich us materially at the expense of others. If we do, in reality we are the poorest of all – poor in spirit and character.

Opportunities for service come to each one of us, regardless of our position in life. We can be kind to others no matter whether we are princes or paupers. Spiritualism is the declared enemy of materialism. It says that man survives death by a natural law of the universe. It provides mankind with a religion founded but on knowledge, not faith or fear.

Spiritualism demonstrates that God is the “Father" of all people. God is not a Christian, Jew, Roman Catholic, Protestant, Methodist or a Spiritualist. Nor does God have a nationality. Whether you are orthodox or agnostic, rich or poor, educated on illiterate, a cabinet minister or a road sweeper, dictator or peasant, you cannot alter the law of cause and effect as it operates in your life. That is the great message of Spiritualism.

Because you are a spirit you are alive today, and you survive death. And the spirit within you is the same spirit that animates every member of every nation, of every race and of every colour. Spiritually, the people of the world are one. Spiritualism reveals the spiritual oneness of all mankind. God has made us all members of one vast spiritual family. When that fact is understood and applied in human, national and international life, war will be driven from the face of the earth. Man will have learned not to kill his spiritual brother.

Properly understood, Spiritualism will become one of the greatest forces for good in the world. When its truths have spread far and wide, and the majority of people accept its teachings and regulate their lives accordingly, a new era will dawn for humanity…

Homework Preparation:  For next week’s discussion - How do you think the established church would view this lecture?

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