Life and the Afterlife Explained from the Other Side

Centre of Spirit Silver Birch quotations

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Spiritualist journalist Maurice Barbanell (1902-1981) was also the trance medium for the transcendental communicator known as 'Silver Birch.'  In this article are shared some excerpts of Silver Birch's channeled wisdom.  The source book is The Silver Birch Book of Questions & Answers (1998) compiled by Stan A. Ballard & Roger Green.  The passages are preceded by headings stating the topic of each quotation and/or the question associated with the response.  
 
The discourses of 'Silver Birch' show a simplicity that prompted Hannen Swaffer in his Foreword for Teachings of Silver Birch (1938) to recall that a minister instructed to present his most difficult theological questions "came away confounded.  Silver Birch had made difficult theology too simple for a theologian."  Commentary of Silver Birch is also included in several previous blog articles (1, 2, 3). 

 

Silver Birch is among the transcendental communicators to express that there are people living on Earth unable to develop a full spiritual understanding of life with some individuals equating success merely to wealth and material interests.  Silver Birch affirmed an eventual expansion of spiritual knowledge among the whole of mankind.  There is the quotation in Teachings of Silver Birch: "I, like many others, have come nearer to the vibrations of the earth to help to push forward that great new world which waits just round the corner . . . "; and in Philosophy of Silver Birch (1969) there is the declaration: "I would strive to manifest love, never to reproach with anger, and prove by precept and example that I was what I claimed to be—a messenger of the Great Spirit."

The following excerpts are in chronological order as presented in The Silver Birch Book of Questions & Answers.

  

God — the 'Great Spirit'

Q: How would you describe God?

A: It is impossible to give you a complete picture.  God is infinite.  All language, concepts and pictures must be finite.  The lesser cannot include the greater.  You can obtain some idea of what the Great Spirit is like by looking at the Universe.  See how it is regulated by natural law, where provision has been made for every facet of life, even though these manifestations are multitudinous in their variety.  Whether it be minutely small or majestically mighty all that lives, moves and breathes, all that exists, are controlled by natural law.

Nothing is outside the orbit of natural law.  The seasons follow one another, the earth rotates on its axis, the tide ebbs and flows.  Whatever seeds you plant, what will grow is contained within it; it will be true to its nature.  Law reigns supreme.  Every new discovery, whatever it may be, wherever it may be, is controlled by the same natural law.  Nothing is forgotten, nothing is overlooked, nothing is neglected.  What is the power responsible for it?  It is infinite.  It is not a magnified man, the Jehovah of the Old Testament.  It is not a deity who is full of vengeance and sends plagues because of displeasure.  It is not a capricious, wrathful deity.  History and evolution show that the world slowly moves forward, upward, revealing that the power behind it is beneficent.  So gradually you get this picture of infinite love and wisdom that rule all, that govern all, that direct all and are within all.  And that I call the Great Spirit.

Jesus — (the Nazarene)

Q:  Would it be possible by automatic writing or some other means to tell us what Jesus said?

A: I don't know.  The difficulty is that no one recorded the utterances of the Nazarene at the time and so memory would have to play its part.  His main teaching was the gospel of love.  "Love thy neighbour as thyself," "Do good to those who hurt you."  Love is the fulfilling of the law.  What else is required to help mankind?  Love is the highest expression of the spirit.  Love is what the Great Spirit has to offer.  Love is what we offer you.

The object of the Nazarene's mission was to demonstrate spiritual reality.  If the Nazarene were to appear in your world today and to repeat what he said 2,000 years ago, I doubt if anybody would listen.

Q: Are Christ and Cosmic Christ, two aspects of the same existence?

A: You are allowing names to bother you.  There is the man Jesus, whose surname was not Christ, and there is what is called the Christ power, the power of the spirit.  If you differentiate between the man and the power that animated Him you have the clearest picture of all.

Purpose of Creation

A: A continual expression is many and varied manifestations of the consciousness which is the Great Spirit.

Circumstances at Birth

A: The soul registers its own evolution.  People in your world judge always by material standards and not by the expression of the soul.  To all, whether born in low or high estate, comes opportunities for service, for the soul to find itself and to express its own divinity.  That is the only standard of judgement.  All things judged in your world by a material standard, seem to produce inequalities, but the true compensation is the compensation of the soul, which learns to express itself through all difficulties.

Evolution

Q: Is it not a fact that, as individuals progress, they tend to become merged into group personalities, losing their own identity in that of the group?

A: Not as far as I know.  What does happen is that, in order for certain work to be accomplished, those who are of one mind pool their knowledge and their resources, allowing one to act as their spokesman on behalf of the rest.  While that happens, they all sink their identity into one, but that is only temporary.

Spiritual Entities of Higher Spheres

Q: Those high spirits with whom you take counsel, do they sometimes come here?

A: No.  They are all links in a great chain.  As my medium is a link between you and me, and I am a link between you and those beyond me, so they are links between me and those who are beyond them.  So it stretches into the inner realms of spirit. much further than any eyes can reach.

Spiritual Revelation

Q: Is the spirit world planning a further revelation by sending another teacher like Jesus?

A: Different methods are being used to suit the different needs.  You must remember that your world has become more complex, more interdependent, and more channels of communication have had to be opened.  We have to meet with different temperaments and different habits, thoughts, ways and modes of life.  Our message has to be adapted to national environments and characteristics, to racial habits.  It has to be given in the language and the limitations of a variety of people.  But behind the focus of the power is the same driving force.

Fulfillment

A: If you can help just one soul to find itself, if you comfort only one mourner, if you heal only one sick person, then the whole of your earthly life has been justified.  How privileged you are to be aware of the tremendous power that is around and about you, that enfolds you, guards you, directs you and ensures that you will continue to unfold your latent divinity and the gifts which are your cherished possessions.

Divine Justice

A: Your world for too long has been deluded with the idea that the ones who call themselves religious possess a spiritual advantage over their fellows.  That is not axiomatic.  You are not the spiritual superior of your fellows because you believe in certain theological doctrines.  The only test which is applied is the test of daily life.  Your spiritual nature is exactly what you made it to be, and there are many materialists and atheists and rationalists and agnostics who are the spiritual superiors of thousands who think they are amongst the elect because they have bowed the knee in homage to the Great Spirit and accept certain doctrines.  The test is not what you believe, but what you have done, otherwise there would be a complete mockery of divine justice.

You cannot limit divine justice.  Being divine it will operate, just like nature, irrespective of what you wish, think or desire.  You cannot make comparisons between divine and human justice.  Human justice is fallible, makes mistakes, the innocent is sometimes guilty and the guilty is sometimes innocent.  Being human you must err, because you cannot be infallible.

The Reaction of Anti-Spiritualists Who Find Themselves in the 'Spirit World' after Earth life

 

A:  It is a complete overthrow of a lifetime of philosophy and they cannot understand it.  They think that there must be something wrong with the universe because it does not agree with their conceptions, which they had proved most logically and most scientifically.  And so the adjustments have to be made and there are long arguments and discussions.

Other Side: where is it?

 

A: It is the invisible and the inaudible side of the world in which you live.  You are as much now in the world of spirit as you ever will be.  You will not go there when you pass from your world, you are in the spirit world now.  You cannot register it unless you have developed the gifts of the spirit so that you can tune in to all its vibrations and frequencies, or whatever word you care to use.  It is not another world.  It is an integral part of the universe of which earth is but one aspect.

Reincarnation

Q: Does the soul know when it is about to reincarnate?

A: The soul knows, but cannot express itself through the mind.  The Soul, which is the Great Spirit, expresses itself through all eternity, gradually, step by step, and at any stage there is a vast portion still not expressed.

Spirit Guides/Guardian Angels

Q: Does every human being have a spirit guide?

A: From the moment of conception and even before that, there is attached to the incarnating soul someone who volunteers to act as his guardian.  "He has given His angels charge concerning thee, to keep thee in Thy ways" is a literal truth.  The guardian will maintain to the best of his or her ability the function assumed until the time comes for you to cross the border.  The task becomes easier when you are aware of the guardianship; it becomes difficult when you are unaware of it.  There is only one guide, but many helpers.  The guardian angel knows before he assumes his task what lies ahead of him and does not have a free choice in the matter either.  Not everyone can say I will be the guardian to this or that person.  Ours is a very organised world. 

Infant Prodigies

Q: Will you explain infant prodigies?

A: There are three kinds.  Some are incarnated souls with a memory of past experiences to help.  Others are mediums subject to spirit influence, albeit unconsciously, and therefore receptacles of much learning, wisdom, knowledge and truth from our world.  The others are geniuses who are advanced guards of evolution.


Sin in the Ascended Realm

Q: Is it possible to sin in the world of spirit?

A: Of course it is possible to sin in our world.  The sins of the spirit world are the sins of selfishness, but in our world they are speedily revealed.  They are known as soon as the thought is in the mind, and the effect is seen much more quickly than it is in your world of matter.  It registers on the one who commits the sin and makes him spiritually lower than he was before.  It is difficult to define more clearly in your language what these sins are, except that they are sins of selfishness.


Survival of the Strongest

Q: How can this be applied to human and spiritual matters?

A: Have you heard of symbiosis?  Isn't that a law of nature?  And isn't it a fundamental law that co-operation existing in nature enables nature to fulfill its purpose?

The tree absorbs the poisons in the atmosphere, purifies it, and enables you to be healthier. Is that strength, or is it not harmony and co-operation at work?


Spirit World

Q: Why are there variations in mediumistic description of the spirit world? 

A: You have to realise that we live in an infinity world and thus there must be an infinite variety of experiences for its dwellers.  Life in our world is graded spiritually and thus there are differences of experiences for all who are here.

Anyone communicating with you can transmit only what he or she has experienced at that time.  With progress, that soul will move to another plane of being which can cause him or her to revise an opinion previously held.

So it depends on the evolution of the communicator as to what pictures are being transmitted to your world.  You must remember that the closer the communicator is to your world, the more limited is the ability to express what is higher in the scale of spiritual values which he or she has yet to attain.

My advice is always the same.  Treat every communication from our world with reason.  If your commonsense says, "No, I cannot accept this," then reject it.  We are not infallible.  We have not attained perfection, because that requires eternity.  The process, as I have already said, is infinite.


Vegetarianism

Q: Shall we, after we pass on, be punished for having eaten animal food?

A: When you have reached that stage in your evolution when you know it is not right to eat the lesser creation of the Great Spirit, then you inflict on yourself a punishment for doing that which you know to be wrong.  If you have not reached that stage of evolution, then your soul is not yet aware that it is wrong and there will be no punishment.  Always there is a price to be paid for knowledge.  That price is responsibility.

Q: Would this be a happier world and would people become heathier if they were vegetarians?

A: I will answer the question by saying that in my view the answer must be "Yes."  From many points of view meat eating is deleterious.  These points of view include physical, mental and spiritual aspects.  Not only is the moral question involved, the health question is involved too.  From the spiritual point of view I would go so far as to contend that, with the evolution of the race, vegetarianism will become the increasing diet of larger numbers of people.


War

A: The Great Spirit, with infinite wisdom and love, has created earthly children and given them some free will.  The Great Spirit has also arranged the whole of their minds, spirits and bodies so that they can unfold the divinity that lies within them which, in full flower, can provide infallible signposts as to how individuals should live.  The Great Spirit could have created all the earthly children as marionettes, puppets, whose actions would be strictly regulated with no power of choice, no freedom.  But you cannot have free will without, at the same time, the responsibilities of your actions.  If you have the choice to do good, you also have the choice to do evil.  Good and evil are opposite sides of the same coin.  So are love and hate, light and dark, storm and peace.  This is a polarity.  Yours is the choice as to which it should be.  So you must come back to the motive and ask: "Why do people wage war?  What is it that they seek to share in common?  Or is it to gain domination over others?"  You must answer these questions.  It is your world.  You can make it a paradise or a hell because you have the means and the choice to do so.

Q: I cannot — a single person cannot — do that.

A: Your world is made up of an aggregate of single units.  The more single units are determined to abolish greed and rapacity and cruelty and despotism, the more they are likely to succeed as their numbers grow.  Your responsibility is your life, your actions, your words, your thoughts.  Nobody will ask you to pay the price or to receive the reward for what others have done.  That is the law.  There will be for a long time, outbreaks of war somewhere because man has not learned a simple truth.  All are part of one spiritual family.  Though you may destroy bodies you cannot destroy spirits.  We are not responsible for man's inhumanity to man.  This is cause and effect in operation.


Youth and Drugs

Q: In dealing with the question of young people on LSD who were becoming possessed of harmful entities, the guide said:

A: Unfortunately some of these drugs open a psychic centre that can reach out no higher than the lowest astral field surrounding your earth.  The beings who can invade them are like themselves, often drug addicts, or alcoholics seeking satisfaction because their unevolved state chains them.  They are not free.  The healing power is the catalyst.  This can help to clarify the whole complex situation created by physical, spiritual and astral conditions getting mixed up.

The Mediumship of Mr. Barbanell

Maurice Barbanell (1902-1981)

 

Maurice Barbanell was a Spiritualist editor/journalist as well as the trance medium (or 'channeler') for the communicator from the 'Other Side' who selected the pseudonym 'Silver Birch' as his name.  Philosophy of Silver Birch (1969) is one of many anthologies of 'Silver Birch' transcendental communication transcripts that have been published.  The book was edited by Stella Storm, who first worked with Maurice as editorial secretary and later as a reporter.  One of Sylvia's professional tasks was proofreading the monthly allotment of Silver Birch teachings for the Spiritualist journal Two Worlds.  Stella provided a firsthand account of Maurice's life and the home circle seances that made it possible for Silver Birch's perspectives to be shared concerning metaphysical aspects of life, spirituality and the afterlife.

Barbanell needs no preparation before going into trance.  I once suggested he should have a few minutes' rest or quiet meditation in his office before driving home.  He prefers to work till the last moment with no "withdrawal" from his busy normal life.  And the circle is always held on a Friday evening, the last day of his strenuous week.


He was the piper who called the tune, discussing the day's office events, chatting naturally on general and psychic subjects—usually our main topic because, though our life is spent with them, we still find them completely engrossing.  In fact, he was his normal gregarious self, with no indication of impending deep trance.

Only when he settles in his accustomed couch corner does he relax, preparing to change places with his spirit guardian.


Coming out of trance, Barbanell shows no sign of weariness.  After wiping his eyes and replacing his spectacles and watch, he has a drink of water.  In a few seconds he joins animatedly in general conversation with his friends and guests over a vegetarian buffet refreshment.  By common consent Silver Birch's talk is seldom discussed.

 

The circle continued to be called 'the Hannen Swaffer home circle' in honor of the late Spiritualist spokesman/journalist.  Stella described the first time she participated in the circle sittings held at the Barbanell residence.  She and her mother had begun investigating Spiritualism after the tragic passing of Stella's sister.

We sat, a round dozen, fanned circle-wise.  Casually chatting, I found it difficult to concentrate on my neighbour's conversation.  My eyes were fixed on the small, dapper man sitting in the right-hand corner of the sofa.  Under the hypnotic drone of many voices, I watched his transformation.  An articulate conversationalist, he became still, withdrawing from the desultory discussion.

Removing his thick, horn-rimmed spectacles and wrist watch, he lowered his head, rubbed his eyes and clasped his hands between his knees.  His chin rested on his chest as if he had dozed off.

In a few minutes the physical body I knew so well took on a new dimension.  With shoulders hunched, he slowly raised his head.  Although my companions seemed oblivious, quietly talking among themselves, they were obviously aware of our host's departure.  A sudden deferential silence descended as our guest of honour addressed us.

My down-to-earth chief, Maurice Barbanell, had temporarily left us.  Silver Birch, his well-loved guide, had "borrowed" his body and was in our midst.  In slow, slightly guttural tones, quite unlike his fast-talking medium, he greeted us affectionately and embarked on his customary opening invocation, couched in unsurpassed prose:

"Oh Great White Spirit, Thou who has created us in Thy divine image and endowed us with a portion of Thy divinity, we strive to draw close and strengthen the unity that exists between Thee and us and one another. . . ."

Silver Birch's invocation included the statements:

For too long we have seen through a glass darkly, misinterpreted Thee and Thy purpose, not understanding our place in Thy infinite scheme.  But now we know that we have the inestimable privilege of participating in the processes of eternal creation.

It is Thy love which has guided us all into this knowledge and given us a more comprehensive picture of Thee, of ourselves and of the wondrous universe in which we are placed.


This is the prayer of Thy Indian servant who seeks to serve.

In another part of the book, Silver Birch is quoted concerning the power of the spirit: "Let us recognise that we are the emissaries of the mightiest force in the universe, the Great Spirit of all Life."  Reincarnation and karma are among the evolutionary processes affirmed.

Stella commented: "The Silver Birch-Barbanell two-worlds partnership was, without doubt, the best-kept secret of the British psychic scene."  For many years circle visitors were asked to respect the anonymity of Silver Birch's medium.  Stella recalled how with the published teachings in the Spiritualist newspapers he edited, the medium was left unidentified as Maurice had decided to let Silver Birch's teachings stand or fall on their own merit.  There were rumors about him being the medium that went unconfirmed until he decided to release the information in an issue of Two Worlds.  Stella remembered her initial reaction to the rumors was to reject the suggestion because Maurice seemed an unlikely channel for a spirit guide: "A shrewd, working journalist, though his whole adult life has been geared to propagating Spiritualism, he seemed the antithesis of a medium . . . Silver Birch is an eloquent teacher; Barbanell a fighting rebel."

Stella reported that the six people who were regular sitters with the medium included Maurice's wife Sylvia and stenographer Frances Moore, "who for over thirty years has faithfully recorded the guide's utterances" while her husband Vernon Moore had been a missionary before becoming an executive of an international company.  Another circle member was healer George Jessup, along with Rene Jessup and Nettie Abrahams.

Preceding the church wedding of Frances and Vernon thirty years prior, Silver Birch had spoken about their wedding at a circle session.  Silver Birch's views on marriage are quoted by Stella.

. . . two lives that have pursued separate courses are now come together to begin a united life.


But I say to you there are no bonds unless you bind one another with love and affection.  There are no ties unless you wish to tie one another with love and affection.


Do not expect that you will escape occasional sadness and sorrow, difficulty, trial and test, for they are parts of your evolution.


You are richly blessed, for you have knowledge.

Stella quoted Silver Birch concerning the long association with his medium:

I guided him to his first meeting.  I led him to his first circle.  There, in the power provided, I made my first contact—so crude, so trivial, but from my point of view, so important—and uttered my first expression in the world of matter through another's organism.


When I undertook my mission I was told: "You will have to go into the world of matter and, when you have found your instrument, you will have to bring to him sympathetic souls who will aid you to deliver your message."


I would strive to manifest love, never to reproach with anger, and prove by precept and example that I was what I claimed to be—a messenger of the Great Spirit.

Here is some of Stella's further commentary.

The dearest wish of many Spiritualists is an invitation (they are extended by the guide) to attend this famous home circle.  In the past this was naturally sometimes prompted by curiosity about the medium's identity.  I must confess it was so in my case.

I have known the Barbanells for thirty years, but my first confrontation with Silver Birch was only seven years ago.  My husband and widowed mother were invited with me.  We were fascinated by the transformation.  My quicksilver chief became a gentle being, working on a much slower vibration.

 
Silver Birch assured them that the greatest spiritual knowledge may come to someone at a time of great sorrow: "The mind should be stimulated . . . Again and again go over the basis of your belief and see if it will stand the test.  When you find that it does, you are the better for it.  When you find that it does not, then change your outlook, for there is still more truth for you to acquire."

Silver Birch spoke about the progress of humanity.
 

There will come the Spring of dreams and the Summer of fulfillment.  It will come quickly or slowly as the children of the Great Spirit exercise their free will.


Wherever one man strives to uplift another, behind him there are a thousand spirits who try to make his victory a greater one.  No effort for good can ever be lost.  No desire to serve can ever be wasted.

Silver Birch told a widower and a couple whose son had passed: "There must be separation at one time or another in earthly life . . . She is never really far from your side.  She still regards it as her home and you as her husband . . . Laurence is always with you, because where love is he is . . . he is with you spiritually.  Those who are united spiritually will never be separated . . . He will always be with you."

Stella Storm stated about Philosophy of Silver Birch: "This book is my attempt at a definitive study, a composite portrait, of the beloved spirit sage, based on his perennial philosophy."

Here are some statements of Silver Birch from Philosophy of Silver Birch.

I did not want to come back to your world.  It has very little to attract once you have passed beyond its vibrations.  The realm or sphere which is my natural habitat has a radiance and translucence that you cannot understand . . .


I was told it would be difficult.  I had to learn the language, I had to find my friends and had to earn their love.  I had to find a means of ensuring that the mouthpiece I use should convey the fundamental truths of the spirit and reach as many as possible.  I was assured that all help would be given if I played my part.  And so it has all come to pass.


The spirit which breathed life into us has given us a common link, because throughout the whole world all the children of the Great Spirit are fundamentally united.  The spirit that enables them to live on earth and beyond is the same spirit that makes them a vast family with a common, divine parent.

It is this sublime truth we seek to express because it is greater than all physical differences, obstacles and barriers.  It transcends all colour, language and nationality.  It reveals that behind the surface of physical being, there is a common spiritual attribute that binds all people together with an unbreakable brotherhood and sisterhood.


They preach in some religions that you can be absolved from your responsibility, but it cannot be done.  None but the sinner can expiate the sin.  You cannot, by the recitation of any phrase, or any words which you describe as sacred, give absolution and eliminate the effect of a cause.


The achievement of perfection is an infinite process . . .


What is important is that man should become aware of his true self and of the access he can have to the source of all being.  He should know that the Great Spirit is not inaccessible, remote, far off, unreachable, but is within himself and that he has a spiritual armoury, a strength, a reserve, a potency on which he can call in times of difficulty and crisis.


If you have the gift of healing, you are a channel for this divine power which can stimulate, in the way that you charge a depleted battery, and enable the life force to flow again, rid itself of the impediments and blockages which have brought ill-health to the individual.


With love in your hearts to all, with malice towards none, and that includes all creatures, you can help the processes of infinite creation.  This is the great contribution that you can make in the vast evolutionary scheme of which your lives are part.


Just as the Great Spirit enabled a divine spark to become a flame, so you, by love, transfer that process to the animal who lives within the shelter of your affection.


There is a group-soul for those animals who have not attained the individual consciousness which man has attained.  Some animals have been enabled to attain their individual consciousness in a form similar to man through association with him helping to advance that individuality.


Myself, I am nothing, but when I represent, as I do, the mighty host of the spirit, then I can speak with certainty.  Then I am repeating what they tell me to say, and they are the beings of might and majesty, the great shining ones, the evolved, the truly high in spiritual stature who strive to guide the whole of humanity.


All will learn they have a part to play in the Great Spirit's truth and that the part enshrined in the heart of every other religion in no way contradicts that portion which is precious to them.


There is an infinity of wisdom which can become available only as you are mentally and spiritually equipped to receive it.

*          *          *

Milestone: This is blog article #400 of Metaphysical Articles: Interesting Articles, Links and Other Media.

Five Videos for People Who Don't Yet Know about Authentic 'Channeling'

During 2017 and several preceding years, 'channeling' has been the subject of a variety of articles at this blog with the most recent article published last week.  Nevertheless, I'm aware that there are some people who haven't yet begun exploring this topic.  Therefore, provided below are five links to videos selected for people who haven't yet taken the time to learn about extensively documented cases of authentic 'channeling.'   

 

 

'John of God' case: "Oprah Special John of God film"

 

 Francisco Cândido ('Chico') Xavier case: "Chico Xavier"

 

Rosemary Brown case; "Music from the Beyond - the Mediumship of Rosemary Brown"

 

Ray Brown/'Paul' case: "Trust Me I'm a Faith Healer (part 4 of 4)"

  

Paul Selig case: "Paul Selig Channeling The Guides - a New Realities Special"

Channeling 'Silver Birch' (In Comparison with Other Cases)

 

In 'his own obituary' that Maurice Barbanell wrote prior to his transition to the ascended realm in 1981, he reported about the beginning of his trance mediumship for the transcendental communicator known as 'Silver Birch.'  The article is included in Light From Silver Birch (1984) compiled by Pam Riva.  During Maurice's youth at a meeting of his social and literary club, a guest lecturer elicited the promise from him to seriously research the subject of Spiritualism.  Maurice began his research by going to observe a medium at a local 'home circle.'

The medium, a middle-aged woman, Mrs. Blaustein, was said to go into trance.  In that state, I was told, entities belonging to differing nationalities would control and speak through her.

This happened, but did not impress me.  So far as I could tell, there was no evidence which would satisfy me that these indeed were "dead" foreigners speaking through her lips.

Nevertheless in view of my promise I presented myself at the second sitting where a similar demonstration by her was given.  It seemed to me that at one stage of the proceedings I fell asleep, either through boredom or being tired.  When I awoke I apologised.  I was told to my surprise, "You have been a Red Indian."

It was my first mediumistic trance, but what happened was a complete blank to me.  Nevertheless the guide known as Silver Birch had broken formidable earth barriers and spoke a few words . . .

Maurice soon thereafter formed his own home circle.  After speaking about Spiritualism at public meetings with Hannen Swaffer during weekends for three years, their association found a new path when they with Arthur Findlay launched the weekly newspaper Psychic News in 1932.  It was decided to include Silver Birch's teachings in Psychic News without revealing the identity of the medium (the newspaper's editor).  When the transcendental communicator was asked to choose a name suitable for publication, 'Silver Birch' was selected.

The next morning, in my office, the mail included a postcard from Scotland with no name or address of the sender, but with a splendid photograph of Silver Birch trees on it.

The teachings of what was called, as it still is, Hannen Swaffer's home circle regularly appeared in Psychic News.  Curiosity was constantly aroused as to the medium's identity which for long was kept secret.

Swaff, however, brought so many visitors from among his famous friends that I felt the stage was reached when the mystery should be ended.  I wrote an article announcing that I was Silver Birch's medium.


In my working life I use words every day.  I have never yet written or dictated an article with which I was satisfied when I read it.  Inevitably I find, when looking at the typed material, that I can improve it by altering words, phrases and sentences.

No such problem arises with the guide's teachings.  These flow perfectly, requiring usually only commas, semi-colons or full stops.

Published in 1938, Teachings of Silver Birch is a compilation of Silver Birch transcripts edited by A. W. Austen.  Since then, there is a long list of books published that present transcripts of Silver Birch orations.  A chapter of Teachings of Silver Birch is entitled "Silver Birch's Own Story," wherein "Silver Birch tells in his own words of the long struggle he had before he was able to transmit his message."  The following passage is the beginning of this chapter.

When I was asked, many long years ago, whether I would return to the world of matter and find on earth a band who would work with me to deliver the message of the spirit, I said I would, as did many others, and my task was given me.

I was told that I would have to search and find an instrument and so attach myself to this instrument that I would be able to express through him the message that I was charged to deliver.  So I searched our records and found my medium.

I watched from the time that he was conceived, and from the moment that the spirit began to express itself—albeit as a little flicker—I brought my influence to bear and started there and then this association which has lasted all these years.

I helped to mould the spirit and the tiny little mind and throughout every phase of that life I watched his every experience, learned how to get a close association and I accustomed myself throughout the days of boyhood days to all the mental processes, to all the physical habits.  I studied my instrument from every aspect—mind, spirit and physical body.

And then I had to guide his footsteps towards an understanding of these spirit truths.

Silver Birch also explained:

Because of the work that others have done—the same work that we do—there is more light in your world of matter, there is more happiness, there is less sorrow, less tears.


We have inspired many to let their higher selves rise in their lives.  We have driven out many of the falsehoods of the past that have blinded men's eyes to justice and truth.


I am only the mouthpiece of those who sent me, and I seek no glory for myself and no reward.  I have no desire to aggrandize myself or my personality.  I rejoice to be a vehicle for expressing these truths, lost for many centuries and now restored to the world of matter, stamped with the seal of divine truth.

Readers familiar with transcendental communication sources are aware of the necessity at times for the use of metaphorical descriptions due to the limited knowledge of the audience.  As often seen in transcendental communication transcripts, the pronouns "I" and "we" are found to be alternately used. 

These excerpts are found to be similar in many ways with what has been stated in a comparable manner by contemporary manifesting entities speaking through their channelers, one example being the Ray Brown/'Paul' case.    The transcendental communicator known as Paul is quoted in the Ray Brown autobiography A Mere Grain of Sand (2004) concerning Earth life and the choice of Ray as channel:

I am often asked how Raymond was chosen to work with me.  We had to get the right person.  It is so involved, getting the right person to do the right job.


I looked at his brother first but decided he was not the one I wanted.  Then, I found out that his mother was carrying Raymond, so we chose him.  I needed someone who would not interfere with my views and my work.

Of course we had to wait, because training Raymond took many, many years.  We also had to have the right environment, so that we could start work.


I went back to Spirit and asked them to look for someone for Raymond, who would help to get him on the right pathway.  It was suggested that Gillian [now Ray's wife] would be the right person.


Gillian's guides already knew what they wanted for her.  She had her life with her previous husband, but it was gradually being steered towards meeting Raymond.  My contact with Gillian was with her Spirit guides who worked through her.  She was like a voice crying in the wilderness and was really asking for a change.  There was no better person for us to choose.  She is good in every respect of her work.  It was meant to be.

Paul is quoted answering the question "Why do people decide to reincarnate?"

Because they cannot shed their ties with the Earth plane.  Once you have dealt with your karma, the question is do you want to progress in Spirit?  If you decide to reincarnate then you do not reach Level 2. 

Here are some of the questions and answers about reincarnation from the Silver Birch transcripts presented in the 1938 Teachings —

Does the soul know when it is about to reincarnate?

The soul knows, but cannot express itself through the mind.  The soul, which is the Great Spirit, expresses itself through all eternity, gradually, step by step, and at any stage there is a vast portion still not expressed.

(concerning the question of coming back to the same nationality)

It will choose that country and that race which is necessary for its new unfoldment.

Does the same thing apply in matters of sex?

Yes.  It does not necessarily come back to the same sex that it had before.

(concerning being 'punished for our sins' and 'atonement')

It is not always a question of punishment, but of evolution, of a task to be learned, of another link to be forged in the chain of the soul's education and upliftment.


When you have an understanding of the Law you will marvel at its perfection, for it cannot be unevenly weighted on one side. 

In his memoir Power of the Spirit, Maurice Barbanell recalled a seance in his youth where difficulties in his life were discussed with 'Red Cloud' speaking through the entranced Estelle Roberts.  Red Cloud informed him that nothing would continue to go right until he redeemed a promise made in a past life that he would devote the major portion of his career to psychic activities.  Maurice also attended Direct Voice seances where Red Cloud's voice was heard and on one occasion even witnessed and touched the materialized form of Red Cloud.  The following excerpts of the transcendental communication of Red Cloud are from the Foreword of Red Cloud Speaks (Trance teachings through Estelle Roberts 1938).

From the four corners of the heavenly spheres there gathered together the Council of the higher worlds in space, and it was agreed that some of us should descend into the lower and heavier vibrations of earthly man.


My first thought upon contacting the earth was to find an instrument that would have sufficient strength of purpose to enable me to use her in the fulfillment of my mission.  This I have accomplished.


Remember, "To know God is to love your fellow men; to worship God is to serve them; to believe in God is to succour them; and to see God is to bring peace amongst the nations."

In comparison, the following are quotations from 'channeled entities' among two other of the best-known contemporary channeling cases.

'Lazaris' through Jach Pursel (from Lazaris Interviews Book 1 published in 1988):

As we say, we officially began communicating through Jach, the one we call the Channel, on October 3rd, 1974.  We had made contact with him much earlier in that year through his own meditative approaches — and indeed much to his surprise!  Our initial message to him (as he quite accurately reports it) was: "We will call you . . . not for you to call us."  Through that period of time we rather made the initial adjustments — and completed the final adjustments — such as to make possible our communication without creating any distress or harm to the physical, mental or psychological form of the one who is the Channel.

Prior to that timing (according to your particular schedules it would be during several of his previous lifetimes) we had made contact with the Channel to nudge, to gently nudge and suggest (much without his knowing) certain evolutionary developments in preparation for this timing of October, 1974.  During his current lifetime, in his childhood and early adolescence, again we were ever so gently, ever so subtly nudging.  For above all we did not want to create any distress.  We wanted only to create the opportunity for his growth, for our interaction, and for the growth and evolution for those with whom we would be speaking.


We also enjoy talking with people about their past lives.  We hesitate as we say the term, for it is a misnomer since all lifetimes are concurrent.  All lifetimes are simultaneous and are only labeled "past" for the convenience of categorizing them.

'John' through Kevin Ryerson (from Spirit Communication: The Soul's Path by Kevin Ryerson and Stephanie Harolde 1989):

The phenomenon that you call "spirit communication" is little more than a dialogue with entities identical to yourself.  As your progress, so in turn do the spirit guides and teachers about you progress.  Above all else, you promote one another's well-being.  They are usually members of your soul group, but in the discarnate state.


Perhaps you knew them in past lives, or when you were discarnate and they incarnate, for there have been lifetimes when you have been discarnate and have given guidance from the other side through the trance state.  That is, you have been spirit guides in your own past lives.  In this way, the relationship parallels your relationships upon this plane.


In trance channeling, that which you term a discarnate personality is able to utilize the physical body for communication from planes beyond the realms of its normal five sensory patterns.  Such communications are for the advancement of the collective consciousness of mankind as a whole.


Mediumship or channeling is but a term for the focusing of spirit through the individual above and beyond the range of his own conscious faculties.  Each of you has this faculty and your meditations shall bring it unto you.  It is your guides and teachers who communicate with you and have dialogue.  But remember to pray only unto God.  Acknowledge the Father who is in heaven so that he may send a messenger unto you for the ministry of the angels.  And if you perceive God as love, this is the master you will serve.

As longtime readers of this blog are aware, there are aspects of transcendental communication cases (including 1, 2, 3, 4) that may be misunderstood or confusing among people with only a superficial knowledge of the circumstances.  The following are some passages from Ramtha's The White Book (1999), one of the anthologies of transcendental communication transcripts documenting the contemporary case of 'Ramtha' channeled through JZ Knight.  Ramtha is quoted:

I have chosen to come back to you through the embodiment of a woman who was my beloved daughter in my times.  [35,000 years ago when 'Ramtha' became "the first conqueror this plane knew"]  When I was upon your plane, I married not any woman.  But on my march many entities gave me their children as a gift of appreciation. 


I came to my daughter [now] in the midst of her life at a time when such unexpected things do not occur.  Because she was prim and proper and innocent, and did not venture into extraordinary beliefs, I chose her for this service and taught her for a long time what I am teaching you.


I have chosen to speak to you in this fashion because you are all prone to worship the images of others and exalt them above yourselves.  So for those who come into my audience, I have no body to worship nor feet to kiss.  And my daughter will not allow you to do it to hers, for they are her feet, after all.


. . . what is being taught here is not to worship me but to wholly worship and love what you are and this wonderful essence that lies latent within you called God Almighty. 


The greater the heaven you create here within your own kingdom of thought and emotion, the greater the heaven you will experience when you leave this plane or, if you choose, when you return here. 


The plane that you are upon is the first plane, the plane of three-dimensional perception.  This is the plane where entities gain the understanding of God in the form called matter. 


The Gods entered into the limitations of matter out of the desire to experience their creativity through the bodily form. 


That marriage of a great immortal being with a mechanism of mass, oriented to the survival of its own structure, greatly altered your ego state of being.  That is when the tree of knowledge, the altered ego, was born.


When you refuse to venture in thought beyond the bounds of social consciousness, portions of your brain are literally closed to the higher frequencies of thought.


So you who are feeling unhappy, dull, morose, fearful, bitter, angry, jealous, hurried, unloved, unwanted, what thought frequencies are you allowing yourself to feel?  Social consciousness.  Where is joy, you ask?  Where is love?  Where is forever?  Where is God?  Only a thought away. 


. . . altered ego cuts God off by refusing to accept all the thought frequencies that God is so it can live safe and secure, out of harm's way.  That is why the altered ego is indeed what is termed the antichrist, because it denies that you are the son of God.

Among the voluminous and at times abstruse teachings presented in numerous books and recordings—including statements that may seem quite outrageous among the uninitiated—Ramtha's advice about the afterlife correlates with that of other prominent channelers.  Concerning a 'new age' for mankind, Ramtha is quoted in Ramtha Intensive: Soulmates (1987):

The "new age" is already here.  It is the age of consumption of knowledge — not the pursuit of, but the allowing of.  And in that age there is no room for limited beliefs. 

In one passage of Silver Birch Anthology (1955) edited by William Naylor, Silver Birch identified the essential spiritual lesson is of "the divine spark, the portion of the Great Spirit resident within all human life."  This metaphor is noticeable in many transcripts of transcendental communication (including 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).  
 
Declarations made many decades ago by Silver Birch about the 'power of the spirit' on Earth may be read in Teachings of Silver Birch.
 

The world must learn to perform its own salvation.  There is no ready-made plan.  There is no prepared, cut-and-dried system.  Your world has to learn that, behind what it regards as the manifestations of life, there is the eternal reality of the spirit, that the children of matter are not only worldly beings but spiritual beings expressing themselves through bodies of matter.
 
 
I tell you these things, so that you can understand part of the great Plan, the part that we who return from the world of spirit play in it, and the part that each of you must play in it before your earthly course is run.
 

This time, we are striving to be certain that the forces of materialism and selfishness shall not prevail, so that your world may learn to save itself from the evil which is ready to overtake it.  Only the application of these truths in their ramifications in your daily lives can avert the fearful catastrophe that looms in front of you.


There will come the Spring of dreams and the Summer of fulfilment.


I, like many others, have come nearer to the vibrations of the earth to help to push forward that great new world which waits just round the corner.

Other contemporary channelers include John of God, Ryuho Okawa and Paul Selig.  For more information about previous blog articles about this subject see "Channeling Cases - Articles and Videos Links Index".